Jakarta Governor-Elect Anies Baswedan asks alt-right Islamic Defenders Front to ‘defend diversity’ at FPI anniversary event

Even though he was heavily criticized in some circles for courting their vote during the election, Jakarta Governor-elect Anies Baswedan spoke once before the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), the alt-right* Islamist group that supported Anies in defeating former governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama.

Anies addressed the group during their 19th-anniversary celebration at Kamal Muara Stadium in Penjaringan, North Jakarta. He told the members of the group — which called for the ouster of Ahok long before his infamous blasphemy case on the grounds that an ethnic Chinese should not be allowed in charge of the Muslim-majority capital of Indonesia and also argued that it is a sin for Muslims to vote for non-Muslim political candidates — to help maintain diversity in Indonesia.

“I assure all of what I have said before, that in the future the FPI must prove itself to be one of the organizations that defends Indonesia’s diversity,” Anies said as quoted by Tempo.

The governor-elect noted that FPI had a “negative stigma” attached to it due to incidences of violence and intolerance in the past, including the group’s attack on the National Alliance for Freedom of Religion and Belief at the National Monument (Monas) in 2008.

But Anies said that negative stigma can be removed if FPI does its national duty of upholding Pancasila, Indonesia’s national ideology which promotes “Unity in Diversity”, which they could support by striving to attain “social justice for all the people of Indonesia”.

The governor-elect was blasted by critics for speaking before the FPI alongside the group’s founder and spiritual leader, Rizieq Shihab, during the election but defended it by arguing “I interact with all residents of Jakarta”. (He probably thinks there are many fine people in FPI, too).

Rizieq, of course, was unable to attend the FPI anniversary event as he is still in Saudi Arabia. He originally traveled to the Middle East after being named a suspect in a scandalous pornography case in order to avoid questioning, however Indonesian police announced last week that they had covertly traveled to Saudi Arabia in order to question the fugitive suspect (curiously, “as a witness”) and his lawyer says Rizieq now expects to head home soon with the charges against him dismissed.

*Although the term alt-right is generally associated with various racist, neo-Nazi, white nationalist and white supremacist groups in the United States, we use it here generically to refer to a far right organization that embraces non-mainstream ideologies and tactics to achieve their goals. Although the Associated Press has chosen not to use alt-right as a descriptor anymore given its potential to be used as a euphemism to disguise racist aims, we use it here so that people might consider the underlying similarities between these groups. 


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