Indonesia: Christian-Muslim relations tested

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Muhammad Rizieq Shihab, hardline leader of Indonesia’s notorious Islamic Defenders Front, is no friend of Christians and Christianity. So when he returned on November 10 to the world’s most populous Muslim nation after a three year self-imposed exile in Saudi Arabia, there was a sense of foreboding among Indonesia’s 30 million Christians of what was to come.

Rizieq was nurtured on a diet of religious extremism with a Wahhabi flavour. He attended mainstream Indonesian schools before studying at the Islamic and Arabic College of Indonesia (LIPIA), an overseas campus of the Imam Muhammad ibn Saud Islamic University in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. This prepared him for further studies at King Saud University (1990-92), topped off by a year of study at the International Islamic University in Malaysia.

In August 1998, Rizieq established the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI). This organisation quickly embarked on its hardline ideological program of violent rioting and attacking opponents. Rizieq’s notoriety grew and in 2003 and 2008 he was jailed for inciting violence and disrupting public order. 

Rizieq gained international attention for leading the blasphemy campaign against Jakarta’s ethnic-Chinese Christian governor Basuki Tjahaha “Ahok” Purnama. FPI spearheaded three mass rallies in central Jakarta that attracted over one million Muslim fundamentalists screaming for Ahok to be jailed for blasphemy, for having suggested that the Qur’an did not prohibit Muslim communities being led by a Christian. That campaign led to Ahok’s incarceration for two years in 2017.

While Indonesian Christians were dismayed by the apparent injustice of the jailing of Ahok, many non-Christian Indonesians, including the nation’s leaders, were also increasingly concerned at the growing power of Rizieq and the FPI. A number of unconnected moves were taken to hold him to account.

With the blasphemy case against Ahok at its height, the Indonesian Catholic Students Association (PMKRI) obtained a filmed speech by Rizieq in which he was recorded declaring: “If God gave birth, then who would be the midwife?” The Student body contacted Jakarta Police and accused Rizieq of violating Article 156 section (a) of the Criminal Code on blasphemy, which carries a maximum penalty of five years imprisonment.

Separately, charges were laid against Rizieq on two other counts. First, authorities accused him of having shared images of nudity with a female supporter, thereby breaching the country’s laws on pornography. Second, he was accused of having insulted Indonesia’s state ideology, the Pancasila, which underpins the country’s political, social and judicial system.

Faced by these accusations, Rizieq departed on pilgrimage to Islam’s sacred sites in Saudi Arabia in April 2017, staying on in self-imposed exile. Further actions against him followed in Indonesia. In mid-2019 two petitions were circulated targeting Rizieq and his organisation. The first, which attracted hundreds of thousands of signatures from across the Indonesian religious spectrum, called for the government not to extend the organisational permit for the FPI. The second, gaining 85,000 signatures, called on the government to revoke Rizieq’s citizenship. Neither petition was successful. 

The COVID-19 crisis and other factors have caused a significant loss of support for Indonesian President Jokowi and his government during 2020. This fact, combined with the police dismissal of the charge relating to pornography, were factors in Rizieq’s decision to return to Indonesia in November. He was mobbed by tens of thousands of supporters on arrival at Jakarta’s international airport. Incumbent Jakarta Governor, Anies Baswedan, met with Rizieq at his home on the day of his arrival, reportedly to “catch up”.

But there have been less welcoming responses. Petrus Selestinus, the Catholic lawyer who reported Shihab to the police regarding blasphemy in 2016, has called for the case to be followed up. The Jakarta Public Order Agency handed a fine of  50 million rupiah (£2675) to Rizieq for ignoring COVID-19 health protocols when organizing a public event that attracted large crowds shortly after his arrival. The mass Muslim organisation, Nahdlatul Ulama, known for its moderate stance, declared in a public statement: “Fellow Muslims in this country, please don't get easily provoked by some groups who want to divide us and break up this Unitary Republic of Indonesia… Let's fight against this common enemy."

While Indonesian Christians have reason to be concerned at the statements and actions of Rizieq and his FPI, they can find solace and support from similar senses of caution among both authorities and responsible Muslim groups.


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