Indonesia arrests Muslim preacher on charges including blasphemy and hate speech

A Muslim preacher in Indonesia was arrested on blasphemy and hate speech charges post his controversial Islamic boarding school incited protests after women were given permission to preach and pray beside men, the police released a statement saying on Wednesday.

The Al-Zaytun boarding school, located in West Java, which is the Muslim-majority nation's most populous province, has faced severe backlash from conservative groups that have condemned it for practising a version of Islam which is very different from the teachings of the Quran and incompatible with the holy book.

Indonesia's Islamic Clerical Council said some of Al-Zaytun's practices were a "wrong interpretation of the Quran". Earlier, in the month of June, it said it was probing the school for "misguided religious practices".

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The head of the school, Panji Gumilang, aged 77, was detained early on Wednesday after being interrogated, national police spokesman Ahmad Ramadhan told reporters.

"Investigators took legal action... and he is detained in the criminal investigation agency's detention facility for 20 days," he said.

As per the charges, Gumilang faces five-year imprisonment for blasphemy, six for spreading hate speech and 10 on the charge of spreading fake news and deliberately causing chaos in public.

The school scintillated unrest in conservative circles and demonstrations outside its compound when social media footage in late April showed women praying in the same row as men.

Generally, women are expected to pray behind men in traditional Islamic prayer.

Another practice of the school that ignited controversy was allowing the women to give a sermon in Friday prayers. This task is typically reserved for men in traditional Islamic teaching.

School accused of ties to Darul Islam

The school, which opened in the year 1999, is home to approximately 5,000 students and is also accused of ties to Darul Islam, a group that fought for an Islamic state in Indonesia in the 1950s and 1960s and survived a military defeat.

Previously, thousands of demonstrators have gathered outside the school several times since the month of June to call for its closure.

Andreas Harsono of Human Rights Watch said the Al-Zaytun case was the latest example of discrimination against minority views.

"If a Muslim cleric is accused of committing blasphemy against Islam for promoting women's rights, something must be terribly wrong with both Indonesia's blasphemy law and the mainstream (clerical) groups," he said.

(With inputs from agencies)

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