Around 50 students from the UI’s various dakwah (preaching) organizations staged a protest in front of the Goethe Institute German cultural center on Jl. Sam Ratulangi, Central Jakarta, demanding an end to the 9th Q! Film Festival.

“The screenings of the movies have violated the rights of Indonesians, who are  Muslim in the majority, because the movies are loaded with violations of moral and religious values,” said protester Nur Fahmi, a student of UI’s School of Law, as quoted by tempointeraktif.com.

Nur said the screenings violated the 2008 Pornography Law and article 28 of the Constitution about tolerance and democracy.

The organizers of the festival, which runs from Sep. 24 to Oct. 3, went ahead with the event despite the protests, but canceled screenings at several locations, including the Cemara 6 gallery, the Japan Foundation and Kineforum in Central Jakarta and Apollo Bar in South Jakarta.

Festival co-founder and director John Badalu said in a text message to The Jakarta Post that the organizers had to cancel all screenings at Kineforum on Wednesday for security reasons, and because there were not enough volunteers to preside over the screenings.

The festival went ahead at several foreign cultural centers, including the CCF French cultural center, the Erasmus Huis Dutch cultural center and the Goethe Institute.

In its official statement published on its website www.q-munity.org, the Q-Munity Foundation for Equality in Indonesia, which organizes the film festival along with various organizations and cultural centers, said it intended to continue with the event as scheduled.

National Commission for Human Rights commissioner Nur Kholis said the festival organizers and the FPI had the same right to express their stance on any issue. “Unfortunately, there was suspicion that the protest by one party [the FPI] was intimidating the other [the organizers]. Since this problem relates to values there should be a long dialogue between the two parties to bridge their difference.

“The initiative should come from the government. Don’t let this conflict be drawn out because it concerns the freedom of expression,” Nur said.

A commissioner from the National Commission on Violence Against Women, Arimbi Heroepoetri, said  the police should not hesitate to take action against any group that resorted to violence.

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