Indonesian members of LPI (Laskar Pembela Islam) or Islamic Defender Squad hold a banner that reads "Hello Regent and police, Pamekasan is a religious city, not a prostitution city, please follow up (prostitution matter) before we execute it" during a rally in Pamekasan on Jan 22. A hard-line Islamist group crashed a child's birthday party as it rampaged through a community on Madura Island while on the hunt for clandestine brothels, police said on Jan. 22. (Photo by ROY/AFP)
Members of a hard-line Muslim group clashed with villagers on Jan. 19 after crashing a child's birthday party while rampaging through a village looking raid secret brothels, police said.
Several people, including women and children, were injured in the violence on Madura Island in East Java.
It started when dozens of members of the hard-line Islamic Defenders Front rampaged through a community storming houses they thought were being used for prostitution.
Local police chief, Teguh Wibowo, said they were armed with batons and raided several homes before targeting a house where a children's birthday party was being held.
"They tried to enter the house and grabbed some women who had taken their children to the party," he told ucanews.com on Jan. 22.
He said the group had taken it upon themselves to fight what they thought was crime by trying to act as policemen.
Instead they went door-to-door and were in a frenzied state by the time they stumbled upon the party.
"Children were scared and cried hysterically," he said.
Villagers fought back by attacking the group's vehicles and motorcycles and the ensuing violence leaving five people injured, he added.
"We are still conducting an investigation. Most importantly, the situation now has calmed down," he said.
Abd Aziz Muhammad Syahid, who led the raid, said they were trying to put Islamic teaching into practise.
He said the group had asked police to curb prostitution, but were ignored.
"We wanted to uphold Sharia law. Prostitution is clearly contrary to Islamic edicts," he said.
The group later claimed several of its members were seriously injured in the attack.
The Islamic Defenders Front is known for conducting what it calls "morality" patrols looking for people violating Sharia law.
It also known for playing a key role in the downfall of former Christian Jakarta governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, jailed for blasphemy after losing the city election last year.
According to Bonar Tigor Naipospos, deputy director of the Jakarta-based Setara Institute for Democracy and Peace the group uses religion "to claim to represent the aspirations of the Muslim majority in performing organizational actions to further its own self interests."
Savic Alieha from Nahdlatul Ulama, the country's largest Islamic organization, also criticized the group's "morality" sweeps.
"Islamic law has a principle like modern positive law, in that not everyone has the authority to impose it," he said.
"If you are not a traffic cop, for example, you should not try to catch anyone who violates a red light," he added.