The Jakarta Globe, July 20, 2013.
The hardline Islamic Defenders Front (FPI)has been reported to police for raiding a hotel in Mojokerto, East Java, on Saturday last week.
“[FPI] suddenly came to the hotel on motorcycles and pick-up trucks, some of them broke into the hotel through the east gate,” Sun Palace Hotel employee Andi Faul Mastikan said as quoted by Beritajatim. “They asked the [hotel] manager to take off the stickers on alcoholic drinks.”
Andi claimed the activists had told him that “working in a hotel means buying a ticket to hell.”
Trowulan police chief Comr. I Putu Mataram confirmed the incident had been reported to police and promised to investigate the matter.
It is understood that there was a police presence outside the hotel, but that the FPI were able to circumvent officers.
“We have to get in, it’s an immoral place. Don’t stand against God’s will,” one of the protesters shouted at the police during the rally last week as quoted by Detik.
After leaving Sun Palace Hotel, the FPI then raided several cafes and night clubs in the area, forcing some to close for business.
“The conduct of the FPI for sweeping the hotel should be rejected,” Andi said. “I reported them to the police for them to be punished. This is a country based on law, they should not take the justice to their own hands.”
Andi said that no regulation issued by Mojokerto government prohibited the sale of alcohol.
“They conduct the raid in the name of religion, but this is not an Islamic nation,” Andi said. “This country has its own law.”
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za 20 jul 2013 - 20:23