ICC Note:

18,000 police and 500 military personnel have been added to the security force to maintain peace during Muslim protests scheduled for Friday. The last protest drew around 10,000 protesters calling for Jakarta’s governor, Ahok, to step down. Ahok is Indonesia’s first Chinese Christian governor who has enjoyed broad support for his aggressive policies. Controversy erupted in the already tenuous relationship between Ahok and more hardline Muslims when he said the Quran was being misused against him during a recent campaign speech. For more conservative Muslims, this statement was all they needed to prompt a demand for Ahok’s resignation. Indonesia has the largest Muslim population in the world, many of which feel they should only be governed by a Muslim leader. 

11/2/2016 Indonesia (The Guardian) – Security forces in the Indonesian capital Jakarta are on high alert in preparation for a Friday rally by hardline Islamist groups against the city’s non-Muslim governor.

Thousands of people are due to move into the capital to protest against Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, an ethnic Chinese and Christian nicknamed ‘Ahok’, who has governed the city since 2014.

They accuse him of blasphemy after he criticised his opponents for referencing a verse in the Koran that warns against allying with Christians and Jews.

In September, Ahok suggested those who used the passage against him were “lying”, leading to outrage from some hardliners who interpreted his comments as criticism of the Islamic holy text. He later apologised.

President Joko Widodo said on Monday that he had ordered the “state apparatus to be on alert” during the protests.

The main group behind the rally, the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) which formed in 1999, is known for violent demonstrations and attacks on minorities.

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