Indonesia: Radical Islamic organization FPI under government scrutiny

On 19 July 2019, the Jakarta Post reported that the Ministry of the Interior is in the process of checking if the radical "Islamic Defenders Front" (Front Pembela Islam, FPI) deserves to continue being registered as a "mass organization" (Ormas), which gives them several financial and administrative benefits. Their previous permit expired on 20 June 2019. Thomas Muller, persecution analyst at World Watch Research, comments: "The FPI has a track record for causing divisions along religious lines and is probably best known for its role in organizing mass protests (for instance in November 2016) against the governor of Jakarta at the time, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, a Christian of Chinese ethnicity. The Christian community will be watching carefully to see how the government deals with the FPI"s application for an extension to their permit as this may give an indication of how it intends to deal with other radical Islamic groups active in the country. As the Jakarta Post noted (19 July 2019), an online petition against the extension received 485,000 signatures in just over two months."