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By Mimi Hanaoka
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Monday, June 27, 2005 |
“Before Allah punishes us with a second tsunami here in Jakarta, let us ask the police to disperse this event.”
— Soleh Mahmud, head of Indonesia’s Islamic Defenders’ Front (FPI) party, speaking as members of his faction stormed into a club in Jakarta that was hosting a transvestite beauty pageant.
Such a disruption is not unusual for the FPI, which has several thousand members and has previously conducted raids on bars and other venues that it considers to be flagrantly flouting Islamic values as codified in Sharia law. Unsurprisingly, the FPI materialized during dire economic times, as a result of the 1997 financial crisis in Indonesia, and the group advocates the implementation of Islamic law in Indonesia.
—Mimi Hanaoka
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