Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Islam Defenders Front (FPI) activists staged a rally here Tuesday to demand the banning of the Ahmadiyah religious sect`s teachings in Indonesia.

FPI Chairman Habib Salim Alatas said thousands of his organization`s members had flocked to the Hotel Indonesia roundabout in Central Jakarta to back up their calls for banning the deviant sect.

Habib said the rally had nothing to do with politicization but was purely meant to show the Indonesian Muslim community`s aspiration over the Ahmadiyah problem.

In solving this problem, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was asked to issue a decree banning Ahmadiyah, he said.

"At the moment, we have got the inter-ministerial decree but we insist that a presidential decree of the Ahmadiyah sect be also available," he said.

Besides that, he also called on Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo to issue regulations about the dissolution of Ahmadiyah sect`s activities in the province`s areas.

"We do support East Java governor`s decision about the Ahmadiyah ban," he said.

In securing the capital city`s situation during the FPI rally, Jakarta Metropolitan Police`s spokesman Ajunct Senior Commissioner Baharuddin Djafar said at least 1,500 policemen were deployed.

The calls for banning Ahmadiyah have continuously been echoed by various elements of the Muslim society members.

On February 18, a number of Islamic organizations and the Indonesian Council of Ulemas (MUI) in Banten had also asked the government to ban the Ahmadiyah sect in the province soon.

"Before the Cikeusik incident on February 6, the MUI had actually urged the provincial government to ban all the activities of the Ahmadiyah sect," MUI-Banten chapter`s chairman KH Aminudin Ibrahim said.

MUI, Nahdlatul Ulama, Muhammadiyah, and Religious Followers` Harmony Forum (FKUB) in Banten Province had agreed to again call on the provincial government to ban all activities of the Ahmadiyah, he said.

The ban could be imposed through a Banten governor`s or provincial government regulation, Ibrahim said.

A series of attacks on Ahmadiyah religious sect followers and their properties have occurred in some parts of Indonesia over the past two years.

The latest incident happened in Umbulan village Cikeusik subdistrict, Pandeglang district, Banten province, on February 6, killing three people.

In response to the latest incident, Former Vice President Jusuf Kalla said the cases of sectarian violence could be handled if firm law enforcement was implemented to the perpetrators.

"Don`t let the perpetrators be untouched by the law. If it is so, there will be a feeling that if we kill or destroy properties in a mass, we think that the law cannot do anything," he said.(*)

Editor: Aditia Maruli Radja
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