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Island focus: Balikpapan rejects FPI and GNPF-MUI

Hundreds of people from the Alliance of Islamic Youths in Balikpapan, East Kalimantan, on Monday demanded that the authorities forbid the establishment of controversial hard-line groups in the city

The Jakarta Post
Balikpapan
Wed, January 11, 2017

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Island focus: Balikpapan rejects FPI and GNPF-MUI

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undreds of people from the Alliance of Islamic Youths in Balikpapan, East Kalimantan, on Monday demanded that the authorities forbid the establishment of controversial hard-line groups in the city.

The alliance rejects the establishment of the Islam Defenders Front (FPI) and the National Movement to Safeguard the Indonesian Ulema Council’s Fatwa (GNPF-MUI).

Among members of the alliance were the youth wing of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), GP Ansor; Ansor’s civilian security guards (Banser); the Indonesian Islamic Students Movement (PMII); and the Movement of Kalimantan Native Youth (GEPAK).

“We heard they wanted to announce the declaration of their establishment in Balikpapan. We warned the authorities not to permit the establishment of the FPI in Balikpapan,” said GP Ansor deputy chairman Wamustofa Hamzah.

Wamustofa underlined that although the law protected everyone’s right to unite and form an organization, the organization had to respect other people’s rights.

“We don’t mean to judge, but we see that in other areas, the presence of the FPI has had negative impacts on society.”

He warned that the FPI’s actions, which tend to force its own objectives for the sake of its groups, could threaten the country’s unity.

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