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JAKARTA – The Indonesian government has banned the hardline group the Front of Islamic Defenders (FPI), known for its raids on bars and hotels during the fasting month of Ramadan and attacks on entertainment venues.
Indonesian Chief Security Minister Mahfud MD said on Wednesday (December 30) that the controversial group has been officially outlawed with immediate effect.
The Political, Legal and Security Coordinating Minister said in a press conference broadcast live: “The government has banned the activities of the FPI and will stop all the activities of the FPI because it no longer has legal personality as a mass organization and as a regular organization.
“If an organization acts on behalf of FPI, it must be considered non-existent and rejected due to the lack of legitimacy as of today.”
The FPI automatically disbanded after its permit expired on June 20, 2019, but it has continued to engage in violent acts and other controversial activities.
In addition to so-called “sweeping operations” against bars, brothels and entertainment venues, FPI members have also carried out violent attacks against minorities such as Ahmadiyahs and Christians.
Although controversial, the group and its leader Rizieq Shihab are influential among conservative Muslims in Indonesia.
The recently appointed Deputy Minister for Law and Human Rights, Edward Omar Sharif Hiariej, asked the public on Wednesday not to get involved in any FPI activities and in the use of its attributes and symbols.
“The public … (is called) to report each of those activities and actions to law enforcement,” he said.
Edward, who is also a criminal law expert, noted that 35 members and former members of the FPI had been involved in terrorism, of which 29 were found guilty of committing the crime.
Apart from that, another 206 had carried out other criminal actions and 100 of them were sanctioned, he added.
A senior government official said this month that former members of the disbanded hardline Muslim group Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia (HTI) in West Java are being courted to join the FPI and attend army-like training for young recruits to convert. in paramilitary troops.
The HTI, which called for strict Islamic laws in Indonesia and wanted to unify all Muslims into one caliphate, was outlawed in mid-2017.
FPI leader Rizieq, 55, returned to Indonesia last month (November) after spending more than three years in Saudi Arabia in self-exile, with thousands of his supporters crowding Indonesia’s main airport in Tangerang, Banten province. , to welcome your return.
Earlier this month, the police killed six of his bodyguards while following Rizieq in a convoy of vehicles. Police said these men were illegally possessing firearms and tried to attack officers outside Jakarta on December 7.
Rizieq had left for Saudi Arabia in 2017 after authorities launched investigations into his insult to Indonesia’s secular state ideology, Pancasila, and violation of pornography laws, following an alleged torrid exchange with a supporter that included images nude photos of a woman circulating online.
Both investigations were dropped a year later.
The public has long called for the dissolution of the FPI through petitions, citing the division in society it has caused and religion-related violence, among other reasons.
A petition in May 2019 was signed by more than 400,000 people requesting the Interior Ministry not to extend the organization’s permit, which expired on June 20 last year.
The FPI was founded in 1998 after the fall of Indonesia’s 32-year dictatorship under Suharto.
In 2016, preacher Rizieq led a massive sectarian movement against then-Governor of Jakarta, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, popularly known as Ahok.
Ahok, a Chinese-Christian politician, lost in the 2017 gubernatorial election to Dr. Anies Baswedan, the current governor of Jakarta, and was later found guilty of blasphemy against Islam, resulting in a two-prison sentence.
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