Indonesian police detain radical Muslims over attack (Roundup)

Jun 4, 2008, 8:03 GMT

Jakarta - Indonesian police arrested at least 59 Muslim hardliners Wednesday for their alleged involvement in a violent attack over the weekend against a rally by interfaith supporters.

Indonesia's national police spokesman, Inspector General Abubakar Nataprawira said that some 59 members of Muslim hardliner group Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), had been detained for questioning in connection with Sunday's violent attack.

'Fifty nine people, including Habib Rizieq Shihab, were taken to the Jakarta police headquarters for questioning,' Nataprawira said, referring to the hardliner group's chairman.

'They will be questioned before police figure out how many of them were involved in the incident in Monas on Sunday,' he said, adding that the Jakarta city police had 24-hours before they had to name suspects.

The police were also hunting down another radical activist who claimed responsibility in the attack and have listed him as a wanted person, Nataprawira said.

He added that at least 19 interfaith supporters were injured in the violent attack by FPI activists during a rally on Sunday at Jakarta's National Monument (Monas).

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

During the raid, backed by more than 1,500 officers, police seized various objects, including two knives, dozens of bamboo sticks and a number of pamphlets from the headquarters in central Jakarta.

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

He also said 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.

The FPI is known for its frequent vandalism, including attacks on bars and nightclubs in the country during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, as well as targeting the US embassy and the office of the Indonesia Playboy magazine in Jakarta.

The violent attacks on Sunday 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 insisted that 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.

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.

Public anger has also been directed towards the FPI, with the group's flags reportedly being burned and their signs toppled. The protesters are also demanding the FPI be banned.

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.