Tangerang FPI to raid minimarkets for alcohol

TANGERANG: The Islam Defenders Front (FPI) in Tangerang says it plans to raid minimarkets selling alcoholic beverages.

“We have told the police about the plan. If the police don’t come along with us, we will do it on our own,” FPI Tangerang head Habib Muhammad bin Toha Assegaff said on Wednesday as quoted by tempo.co.

“The stores are accessible to anyone, including children. They should not provide any alcoholic drinks,” he said.

According to Assegaff, the open sale of alcohol has contributed to the recent rapes in Greater Jakarta. “Alcoholic beverages are closely related with adultery,” he said.

The hard-line Muslim group previously criticized a 1997 presidential decree regulating alcohol sales, which said that beverages containing less than 5 percent alcohol could be sold without a license.

Members of the FPI and Islamic People’s Forum (FUI) further rioted in front of the Home Ministry after it issued a regulation recommending that regional administrations annul local bylaws banning the consumption and distribution of alcoholic drinks.