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Calls mount for disbandment as FPI's permit ends next month
Online petition calling for the government not to extend the permit of FPI has been mounting, reaching 180,000 petitioners.
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A group of people, including members of the Islam Defenders Front (FPI), protest in front of a vocational school building in Batam, Riau Islands, on Friday, Nov. 16, 2018. They demanded the school, which is located in a housing complex, be removed following rumors that it was a Christian school. (The Jakarta Post/Fadli)
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s the permit for hard-line group Islam Defenders Front (FPI) is due to expire next month, calls have been mounting for the disbandment of the group, which has a track record of religious-related violence.
FPI's five-year permit as a mass organization will end on June 20.
The government requires all organizations to register and extend their permits with the Home Ministry, as stipulated in Law no. 16/2017 on mass organizations, to control them.
However, an online petition urging the Home Ministry not to extend the FPI's permit has garnered widespread support from the public, with more than 180,000 petitioners since it was created on May 6.
The petition, created by Ira Bisyir on change.org, refers to the FPI as "an organization that spreads radicalism and supports violence just like Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia (HTI)".
The HTI is a Muslim group disbanded by the government in 2017 for contravening the Pancasila state ideology and the principle of the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia.
Calls for the FPI’s disbandment have grown over the years, with many accusing the group of acting above the law with its constant raids, violent tendencies and anti-Pancasila sentiments.
