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Govt’s move to ban HTI responded to coldly in Surakarta
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Against Pancasila: Female members of a hard-line Islamic organization, Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia (HTI), stage a rally to promote the establishment of an Islamic caliphate in Malang, East Java. (Kompas.com/File)
T
he Surakarta branch of the mass Islamic organization, Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia (HTI), claims it does not take the government’s move to ban the group seriously, saying it is no more than just talk. Moreover, it says the HTI is a legal organization that has been registered at the Law and Human Rights Ministry.
“We’re not worried about that. Just calm down. The HTI is a legal organization and Hizbut Tahrir has never violated the law,” the spokesperson of the Women's Wing of HTI Surakarta, Darma Sri Wahyu, said on Tuesday.
She said Hizbut Tahrir had never held any illegal activities. Nevertheless, HTI Surakarta would fully follow any decision the organization’s central executive board made to respond to the planned ban.
“Let’s wait and see. What is clear is that HTI Surakarta is ready follow all the central executive board’s decisions and policies,” said Darma.
(Read also: HTI ban against the law: Experts)
The Surakarta administration also has not yet made any decision over the government’s plan to dissolve the HTI. Surakarta National and Political Unity Office (Kesbangpol) acting chairman Said Romadhon stated the administration had not yet received any notification from the Law and Human Rights Ministry on the disbandment of the Islamic mass organization.
The HTI has faced a considerable amount of rejection in Surakarta. On April 15, hundreds of members of GP Ansor, the youth wing of Indonesia’s largest Islamic organization Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), held a long march in Karanganyar to reject the HTI.
The Ansor members later held a call-to-readiness ceremony to show their loyalty to the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia and convey their rejection of the HTI, which aims to establish an Islamic caliphate. (ebf)
