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Surakarta still tolerant city despite disputes over non-halal food festival, mayor claims
Surakarta Mayor Gibran Rakabuming Raka has dismissed concerns that the city and the people are growing more restrictive toward religious freedom following a dispute surrounding the hosting of a festival of Chinese food last week.
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Building inroads: Surakarta Mayor Gibran Rakabuming Raka, the eldest son of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, arrives on Feb. 23, 2024 for a meeting at the South Jakarta home of then-presumptive president Prabowo Subianto, with whom he bid for the vice presidency in the 2024 general election. (Antara/Hafidz Mubarak A.)
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he mayor of Surakarta, Central Java, Gibran Rakabuming Raka has dismissed concerns that the city and the people are growing more restrictive toward religious freedom following a dispute surrounding the hosting of a festival of Chinese food last week.
The five-day festival, in which pork dishes, which are haram in Islam, were served, was supposed to start on Wednesday but the organizers reportedly were forced to postpone it following complaints from a group of Muslims calling themselves the Surakarta City Syariah Council (DSKS).
The event at the Paragon shopping mall resumed with restrictions a day later after the organizers consulted with the city administration, but the enforced delay has since sparked concerns about religious intolerance in Surakarta. The festival lasted until Sunday.
Gibran said the dispute should be treated as a one-off incident that did not represent how the city respected religious freedom.
“I’d say everything is good in terms of how [religious tolerance] is implemented in daily life,” he said on Monday, as quoted from Antara.
Surakarta is listed as one of the most tolerant cities in the country in an annual study into more than 90 cities by human rights advocacy group Setara Institute. Its ranking however slipped six spots from fourth in 2022 to 10th in 2023.
Gibran on Monday also said all sides, including the DSKS, had been “cooperative toward” the rest of the food festival following its reopening.
