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Do not join rally, MUI tells Bogor residents
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A police officer guards a Transjakarta bus as protesters gather on both sides of the busway during an anti-communist rally on Friday. (kompas.com/Andri Donnal Putera)
T
he Bogor chapter of the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) has urged residents in the regency to refrain from joining the Friday rally in Jakarta, a senior cleric has said.
The chairman of MUI's Bogor chapter, Ahmad Mukri Adji, said that the council, along with the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) and the Muhammadiyah, the two largest Islamic organizations in the country, preferred that residents conduct mass prayers in mosques rather than join the rally.
"It's better to hold istighosah [mass prayers] and dzikir [chants] at our nearest mosques," the cleric said after meeting with the West Java Police chief at the Bogor Police headquarters on Thursday.
"We, Islamic organizations in Bogor, have agreed to not go to Jakarta," he said as quoted by tribunnews.com.
The 299 rally, named after the date of the protest on Sept. 29, was held in front of the House of Representatives complex in Jakarta. Its participants claimed there was a revival of communism and the disbanded Indonesia Communist Party (PKI). Concerns related to the issue resulted in a mob attack on an office of the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI) last week.
Meanwhile, West Java Police chief Insp. Gen. Agung Budi Maryoto said that clerics in the province had urged residents to pray in their respective areas, instead of joining the rally in the capital. (fac)
