T

he first questioning session of Islam Defenders Front (FPI) leader Rizieq Shihab over hate speech allegations brought parts of the city’s downtown to a halt on Monday as hundreds of FPI members staged a rally to “oversee” the questioning at the Jakarta Police headquarters.

The protesters, who called on the police “not to criminalize an ulema like Rizieq”, started to pack the busy Jl. Sudirman in South Jakarta at around 10 a.m. They had gathered since dawn at the Al Azhar Mosque, and started to walk all the way to the headquarters at 9 a.m. after performing Dhuha morning prayers at the mosque.

The crowd in front of the headquarters forced police officers to close the slow lane of Jl. Sudirman, forcing motorcyclists into the fast lane normally reserved for four-wheel vehicles.

Rizieq arrived at the headquarters at around 11 a.m. and immediately rushed to the police’s special crimes directorate, where his questioning took place.

The leader of the hard-line group was questioned regarding a speech that went viral on social media, in which he allegedly claimed the latest design of the country’s banknotes contained the logo of the defunct Indonesian Communism Party (PKI). Communism is banned in Indonesia.

In the three-minute video, Rizieq showed his congregation a number of the country’s newest banknotes and pointed out a symbol on the banknotes that he claimed resembled the communist hammer and sickle symbol.

“[By seeing the symbol] I wonder whether this country is a communist country or a Pancasila [the national ideology] state,” Rizieq said in the video.

After the questioning, the firebrand preacher said he had brought samples of all the newly issued bills, ranging fromRp 1,000 (7 US cents) to Rp 100,000 bills, and claimed to investigators that all of them contained the PKI logo.

“I told investigators I did not make up the claim [that the notes contained the hammer and sickle logo]. I gave them all the bills so we can prove it.”

Jakarta Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Raden Prabowo Argo Yuwono told reporters that the police had yet to charge the FPI leader, and his status was still that of a witness. He faces hate speech charges as stipulated in the 2016 Electronic Information and Transactions (ITE) Law, he said.

Rizieq was reported on Jan. 8 by the Young Intellectuals Anti-Slander Network (Jimaf), who said the FPI leader’s statement amounted to hate speech because it was a baseless claim that could incite unrest.

Bank Indonesia (BI) Governor Agus Martowardojo previously rebutted Rizieq’s claim, saying that the symbol in question was actually the central bank’s logo printed using an anti-counterfeit method.

Separately in Manado, North Sulawesi, hundreds of students incorporated in the North Sulawesi Muslim Students Forum staged a rally at the regional office of the Religious Affairs Ministry demanding the dissolution of radical community organizations in the country, including the FPI.

— Evangline Aruperes contributed to this story from Manado.