The peaceful rally reflected Muslims strong support to ulemas, the coordinator of APIs West Java chapter, Asep Syaripudin, said.
"The rally also reiterated the fact that Muslims in West Java accept the state ideology Pancasila and the 1945 Constitution as the foundational principles of the state. All those who gathered here have one goal, to show their consistent support to defend Islam and ulemas," he added.
He noted that certain attempts were being made to criminalize ulemas through politically-motivated legal cases and these must stop because such moves can tarnish ulemas integrity.
"This rally was meant to assert our demand to put an end to any efforts to criminalize ulemas," he stressed.
The West Java people who joined the rally respect the ulemas and accept Pancasila as a state foundation.
"We strongly oppose and denounce any irresponsible party which tries to dissolve the Islamic mass organization. We do want Muslims to have disunity in the ranks," he underlined.
Before staging the rally, the demonstrators performed the Subuh dawn prayer at Pusdai Mosque here.(*)
Editor: Heru Purwanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2017
