Indonesian Muslims called yesterday for the death of a Dutch politician for making a film that alleges Islam is an inspiration for violence.
The demands came at a protest outside the Dutch embassy in Jakarta.
"Islam is a holy religion," Shodiq Ramadan told about 50 protesters who shouted in agreement. "Those who have insulted it deserve to be sentenced to death."
PHOTO: AP
Anti-immigration politician Geert Wilders released the film over the Internet last week.
The film has been condemned as racist and misleading by governments around the world.
Indonesia is the world's most populous Muslim nation, but hardline interpretations of the faith generally do not attract much support. The government condemned the film soon after its release last week.
Indonesia's president urged the mainly Muslim nation not to resort to violence in protests against the Dutch lawmaker, as fresh rallies erupted outside the Dutch embassy yesterday.
More than 70 activists massed outside the Dutch embassy in Jakarta amid heavy security on a third day of protests against the film, made by far-right Dutch lawmaker.
The protesters carried posters calling for Wilders to be punished. One showed an image of him bearing fangs and with a gun at either side of his head, alongside the slogan "Death to the insulter of Islam."
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono late on Monday urged Indonesians not to resort to violence in venting their anger about the film, which was released on the Internet last Thursday.
He also barred Wilders from entering Indonesia and said screenings of the 17-minute film Fitna would be banned in the former Dutch colony.
The film features imagery of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York and the 2004 Madrid bombings combined with quotes from the Koran, Islam's holy book.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called the film "offensively anti-Islamic."
Around 60 members of the Muslim group Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia, along with a dozen members of the youth group Movement for the Defense of Islam (GPI), protested outside the embassy yesterday.
Seven protesters were invited inside to meet Dutch diplomats to convey their concerns about the film.
The GPI issued a statement calling on Muslims to boycott Dutch products to "defend the purity of Islam."
Dutch Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen sought on Monday to temper anger over the film in the Muslim world, saying that hurt feelings need not lead to violence.
Yesterday's demonstrations in Jakarta came after about 50 members of a more militant Islamic group, the Front for the Defenders of Islam, protested at the embassy on Monday.
A French-Algerian man went on trial in France on Monday for burning to death his wife in 2021, a case that shocked the public and sparked heavy criticism of police for failing to take adequate measures to protect her. Mounir Boutaa, now 48, stalked his Algerian-born wife Chahinez Daoud following their separation, and even bought a van he parked outside her house near Bordeaux in southwestern France, which he used to watch her without being detected. On May 4, 2021, he attacked her in the street, shot her in both legs, poured gasoline on her and set her on fire. A neighbor hearing
DEATH CONSTANTLY LOOMING: Decades of detention took a major toll on Iwao Hakamada’s mental health, his lawyers describing him as ‘living in a world of fantasy’ A Japanese man wrongly convicted of murder who was the world’s longest-serving death row inmate has been awarded US$1.44 million in compensation, an official said yesterday. The payout represents ￥12,500 (US$83) for each day of the more than four decades that Iwao Hakamada spent in detention, most of it on death row when each day could have been his last. It is a record for compensation of this kind, Japanese media said. The former boxer, now 89, was exonerated last year of a 1966 quadruple murder after a tireless campaign by his sister and others. The case sparked scrutiny of the justice system in
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
RSS