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No anti-Ahok rally on Friday, but mass prayer: Jokowi
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President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo said on Tuesday there would be no demonstration on Friday, only a mass prayer. (the jakarta post/Wienda Parwitasari)
P
resident Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has said he considers a planned rally at Jakarta’s National Monument (Monas) park on Friday to be a mass prayer rather than a demonstration against Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama.
“Who said it’s a demo? They will only be praying together before and after Friday prayer,” Jokowi said at Monas, Central Jakarta, on Tuesday, as reported by kompas.com.
Referring to a meeting between National Police chief Gen. Tito Karnavian and a representative of the group organizing the event, he said a mass prayer, not a demonstration, had been agreed on. “The commitment [made at the meeting] was to hold a mass prayer, not a demonstration.”
On Monday, Tito met the leader of the National Movement to Safeguard the Indonesian Ulema Council’s Fatwa (GNPF-MUI), Rizieq Shihab, and they agreed to limit the event to Monas.
Rizieq, who is also the leader of the hard-line Islam Defenders Front (FPI), earlier insisted that the group would conduct a Friday prayer along Jl. MH. Thamrin and Jl. Sudirman.
(Read also:Police give go-ahead for large-scale rally on Dec. 2)
The group has demanded police detain Ahok for what it claims were blasphemous statements the governor, a Christian of Chinese descent, made during a speech in September.
Up to 600,000 people are predicted to join the mass prayer at Monas.
On Nov. 4, tens of thousands of people staged a rally in front of the Presidential Palace, demanding police name Ahok a suspect of blasphemy. Soon after the rally, police named Ahok a suspect of blasphemy. (jun)
