Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF) in a letter to JokoWidodo, President of Indonesia expressed serious concern over the threats to netizens by the members of Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) for posting their opinion against Rizieq Shihab, the grand mufti of FPI.
PPF Secretary General Owais Aslam Ali in his letter condemns the intimidations, violence and terror to discourage or target netizens those write critically and urge your government to look into this matter seriously and provide an environment where freedom of opinion thrives.
According to Alliance of Independent Journalists (AIJ), members of FPI had come to personal residences of social media users accused of publishing derogatory remarks against Shihab and by forcing them to made public apology under threat of criminal lawsuit.
On May 21, dozens of FPI members had come to residence of IndrieSorayya, 38, a business woman from Tangerang, Banten, to protest a Facebook post where she had allegedly offended Shihab. Similar form of intimidation has also been perpetrated against FieraLovita, 40, a female doctor in Solok, West Sumatra.
According to a network of supporter’s freedom of expression in Southeast Asia, their tracking had revealed that at least 48 individuals across Indonesia who are currently under threat of being hunted down, terrorized, and silenced by these patterns of violence.
