Habib Rizieq, spiritual leader of the hardline Islamic Defenders Front, speaks to the media after giving testimony in an investigation over blasphemy allegations against Jakarta Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, nicknamed “Ahok”, at police headquarters in Jakarta, Indonesia November 23, 2016. REUTERS/Iqro Rinaldi

Source: Reuters

As the ranks of protesters thickened in central Jakarta on Dec. 2, turning into Indonesia’s biggest mass demonstration since the end of authoritarian rule in 1998, President Joko Widodo grappled with a dilemma: should he join the rally or stay away?

Recounting what happened behind the scenes that day, two senior officials told Reuters Widodo chose to ignore warnings from security chiefs and went into the crowd, appearing alongside the firebrand leader of a hardline Islamic group.

His move was widely applauded for cooling tensions that had been building for weeks over remarks by Jakarta’s ethnic-Chinese Christian governor that were deemed to be insulting to the Koran.

But critics worry Widodo’s decision may have conferred some legitimacy on a hardline strain of political Islam emerging in the world’s biggest Muslim-majority country, where politics is secular and the majority of believers are moderate, putting social stability at risk.

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