Indonesian police detain radical Muslims over attack (1st Lead)

Jun 4, 2008, 4:14 GMT

Jakarta - Indonesian police arrested nearly 60 Muslim hardliners Wednesday for their alleged involvement in a violent attack over the weekend against a rally by interfaith supporters.

The arrest of at least 57 members of Muslim hardliner group Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) at the group's headquarters and at several houses nearby in central Jakarta occurred without resistance, witnesses said.

Among the rounded-up activists was the hardliners' chairman Habib Rizieq, and they were brought to the Jakarta city police headquarters for questioning. They shouted 'Allahu Akbar,' or 'God is Great,' as they arrived at the police headquarters.

However, Rizieq claimed to reporters that he went to the city police headquarters on his own and will accompany his members to make sure that the police follow the proper procedures.

Late Tuesday, Jakarta city police chief, Inspector General Adang Firman, urged FPI to surrender its members to police by midnight Tuesday, or face forced arrests.

After no response from the hardliner group, police deployed around 1,500 officers to and around the group's headquarters to capture and arrest those wanted in the attack.

During the search at the FPI's headquarters, police also seized various objects, including two knives, dozens of bamboo sticks and a number of pamphlets.

The FPI is known for its frequent vandalism, including attacks on bars and nightclubs in the country during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

Inspector General Abubakar Nataprawira, spokesman for the Indonesian national police, said the detainees would be questioned for their alleged involvement in Sunday's attack against interfaith supporters at a rally. Thirty people were injured..

'After then we can figure out how many of them are suspects,' Nataprawira told Elshinta private radio.

The violent attack triggered condemnation from community and religious leaders, including from two Indonesian largest Islamic organizations, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) and Muhammadiyah, calling for the perpetrators to 'be prosecuted.'

Rizieq told reporters earlier on Wednesday that his supporters did not resist arrest to show that he is committed to cooperation with the police as part of taking responsibility for the attack.

He said his supporters attacked Sunday's gathering - billed as the National Alliance for the Freedom of Faith and Religion - because it supported the 'deviant' Ahmadiyah minority sect.

Rizieq, who was jailed for seven months in 2004 for inciting vandalism at entertainment spots in the capital Jakarta, had vowed on Monday that his supporters would fight 'until our last drop of blood' to resist attempts to arrest them, unless the government banned the Ahmadiyah sect.

Attacks on followers of Ahmadiyah have been on the rise since a government commission declared in April the sect deviant and recommended the minority group be outlawed.

The Indonesian Ulema Council, the country's highest authority on Islam, has declared the Ahmadiyah sect 'heretical' for believing its founder, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, who died in 1908 in India, is the last prophet, not Mohammed, whom mainstream Muslims worldwide believe was God's final messenger.

Human rights activists and civil liberties groups argue that followers of Ahmadiyah are protected under Indonesia's constitution, which guarantees the right to religious freedom.

Indonesia is the world's most populous Islamic nation, nearly 88 per cent of its 225 million people are Muslims. The country has a long history of religious tolerance.