ICC Note:
Indonesia’s police have charged Rizieq Syihab with insulting the country’s ideology of Pancasila and the Founding President Sukarno. Rizieq is also under investigation for insulting Christianity after making inflammatory remarks about Christians in speeches recently. This case against Rizieq is significant because he leads the Islamic Defender’s Front (FPI), the organization responsible for organizing the protests against Governor Ahok. The FPI has insisted that Muslims should not be governed by a Christian and worked hard to depict a speech by governor Ahok as blasphemy. They are among a growing group of hardline Muslims that are exerting political pressure and threatening religious minorities in Indonesia.
2/2/2017 Indonesia (UCA News) – Police have charged the leader of Indonesia’s most notorious hard-line Islamist group with insulting the country’s near-sacred state ideology of Pancasila and its founding father President Sukarno.
Muhammad Rizieq Syihab, who leads the hard-line Islamic Defenders Front, was charged under the Indonesian criminal that deals with the desecration of state symbols and defamation of heroes, Yuri Yunus, head of the communication division of West Java Police said Jan. 30.
Syihab, who led protests against Jakarta’s Christian governor, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, last year could go to prison for at least four years if found guilty.
The charge follows a complaint filed with police by Sukmawati Soekarnoputri, one of Sukarno’s daughters, in October last year. It also comes as Indonesian authorities seek to rein in the influence of extremists.
…
[Full Story]