As Idul-Fitri, or the end of the holy month of Ramadan, approaches on Sunday, police in Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation, are on the lookout for confrontations sparked by groups defying the government’s ban on prayers in mosques, a think-tank that studies security issues has said.
The Institute of Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC) released a report on Tuesday pointing to how some mosques across the archipelago, which is home to 270 million people, had continued to hold tarawih or prayer sessions despite warnings from the central government for people to stay home.
In Pare-Pare, South Sulawesi – the province with the highest number of Covid-19 patients outside Java – people climbed over the locked gate of a mosque so they could hold tarawih prayers on the first day of Ramadan, during which Muslims fast from dusk to dawn.
Muslim men attend prayers at a mosque in Aceh, despite coronavirus concerns. Photo: AP
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Separately, a video that went viral on social media last month showed hundreds of people in Banjar regency in South Kalimantan breaking a gate to enter a mosque.
On Tuesday, Indonesia’s Coordinating Legal, Political and Human Rights Minister Mahfud MD said all mass religious activities, including congregational prayers, were banned for the time being as part of the government’s coronavirus social distancing regulations.
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“The government strongly asks that [the public] does not violate these provisions,” Mahfud was quoted as saying by The Jakarta Post after a Cabinet meeting.
