At the height of the attacks against former Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama for his alleged blasphemy, Islamic hardliner groups like the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) formed an umbrella organization called the National Movement to Safeguard the Indonesian Ulema Council’s Fatwa (GNPF-MUI) to justify their politicized protest on the grounds that they had to ‘defend’ a fatwa issued by MUI declaring Ahok had committed blasphemy.
As the country’s highest Islamic clerical authority, MUI holds a great deal of influence over Muslims in Indonesia, and the head of MUI, Ma’ruf Amin, is one of the most venerated holy men in the country.
But somehow we doubt that fugitive FPI leader Rizieq Shihab, who once stood as one of the heads of GNPF-MUI, will ‘safeguard’ Ma’ruf’s latest request.
Rizieq is still in Saudi Arabia, where he has been hiding since late May after he was named a suspect in a high-profile, highly embarrassing pornography case by the Jakarta Police. Through his lawyers, he has given numerous conflicting messages about whether he will return to Indonesia anytime in the near future.
Speaking about Rizieq’s pornography case today, Ma’ruf said that the FPI leader should return to Indonesia so the case can be resolved soon before it becomes a divisive issue amongst the public.
“It’s a legal process. If there is an ongoing legal process then he should follow it. Hopefully, the issue can then be resolved,” Ma’ruf said at his home in Koja, North Jakarta as quoted by Kompas.
Rizieq was named a criminal suspect by the Jakarta Police over leaked documents purporting to describe an adulterous relationship between the hardline cleric and a woman named Firza Husein, documents that the police declared criminal under the statutes of the country’s repressive pornography law, a law that, ironically enough, Rizieq himself was instrumental in getting passed.
