Indonesian cleric accused of inciting mass boycott of coronavirus restrictions

Leader of Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) Rizieq Shihab

Credit: Anadolu

Police arrested an Indonesian cleric on Sunday who is accused of inciting people to ignore Covid-19 restrictions by holding sermons with tens of thousands of his followers.

Rizieq Shihab, leader of the Islamic Defenders Front, which wants Islamic Shariah law to apply to Indonesia’s 230 million Muslims, turned himself in to a Jakarta police station after previously failing to answer to their summons for questioning.

His detention comes a week after six of his supporters were killed in a shootout with police. Monday’s incident raised fears that tensions could escalate between authorities and Islamist groups in Indonesia, the world’s biggest Muslim majority country.

Police said Mr Shihab held an event to commemorate the Prophet Muhammad’s birthday and the wedding of his daughter last month. He is accused of inciting people to flout health regulations amid the coronavirus outbreak and of obstructing law enforcement, Jakarta police spokesman Yusri Yunus told a news conference Friday.

If found guilty, Mr Shihab would face up to six years in prison, he said.

The gatherings in question took place less than a week after the cleric returned to Indonesia after a three-year self-exile in Saudi Arabia.

Since then, Mr Shihab has said he has plans for a “moral revolution”, raising fears for a government that is struggling to contain South-East Asia’s worst Covid outbreak and an economy that has fallen into its first recession in more than 20 years. Indonesia has reported more than 600,000 cases of the coronavirus, second in Asia only to India’s 9.8 million cases.

Mr Shihab is a controversial figure in Indonesia. He was jailed in 2008 for inciting violence, and left for Saudi Arabia in 2017 after police charged him with pornography and insulting the official state ideology. Both charges were later dropped. 

“With God’s permission, I can come to the Jakarta police for an investigation according to the laws and regulations,” Mr Shihab told reporters before being questioned by police on the latest accusations.