As a result somewhere in the region of an estimated 100,000 Muslims have spent the last week on the streets calling for him to be executed for mocking/twisting the Quran.
There was a 1 day demo with a supposed 100,000 people a few weeks ago, although such figures need to be taken with a pinch of salt. It was pretty sizable though.
There was a 'mass prayer' last Friday, no permits were issued for a demonstration.
There certainly haven't been 100,000 folk on the streets for a week though.
Who doctored the video? Was it for a political reason? Or some rando?
Was a PR/communications lecturer called Buni Yani, who is currently facing trial for it.
Whatever his motives for uploading it, it has certainly been seized upon by political actors. This is where the 'fun' starts.
The is an upcoming mayoral election in Jakarta which Ahok was favourite to win. Ahok has a lot of enemies from his time in office as he is an anti-corruption reformist and has trodden on a lot of toes.
One of the rival candidates in the son of the former president SBY, who has longstanding feud with President Jokowi's political patron former President Megawati (daughter of Indonesia's 1st president).
Protests in Indonesia are not always as they seem with entire villages often rent-a-mobs paid $5 and a packed lunch and bussed in for the day. A lot of folk are not going to take a day off work and pay for themselves to go on a protest in Jakarta, it has to be worth their while. West Java is a good recruiting ground for both poor people and very conservative Muslims.
You also have political parties involved and O
organisasi kemasyarakatan (Ormas) which translates a citizens organisations but are groups organised around political/religious/ethnic lines and are often really large scale gangs with political connections who frequently engage in violence to protect lucrative sidelines in 'security', debt collection, protection, etc.
Examples of these would be the FPI (Islamic defenders front), FBR (Betawi Brotherhood Forum) and FORKABI (Children of Betawi Communication Forum). Betawi people are 'original' Jakartans.
Between political parties, people with deep pockets and major ormas you can mobilise a very large amount of people. So how many of the people demonstrating were 'concerned citizens' and how many were politically/financially motivated is very difficult to establish.
It is also true though that Chinese Indonesians are sort of the equivalent of Jews in terms of prejudice against them and the reasons for this. So there are people prejudiced against him for both his religion and ethnicity.
And it is true that some people think he committed blasphemy.
And the Indonesian President appeared alongside the firebrand ******** leading this hate march so basically he's throwing an elected official to the wolves because he's not Muslim.
The President is actually a friend of his. Ahok was his deputy when he was mayor of Jakarta, the job he held prior to becoming president. His attendance is open to multiple interpretations.
It's political theater, the event was technically a mass prayer, not a protest.
Also several protest leaders have been arrested for treason, and there has been talk of a crackdown on ormas (although this is frequently said and very little happens).
What will happen next in the Machiavellian world of Indonesian politics is not yet known. Power plays and counter plays. It's not always prudent to take things at face value though.
