Pope Francis, the head of the Catholic Church, arrived in Indonesia on Tuesday, the first stop on a four-nation tour to Southeast Asia and Papua New Guinea – which will be his longest foreign trip since he became pontiff in 2013.
Two major religious observances coincided in Indonesia on Wednesday as Nyepi, a Balinese Hindu festival, shut down most activity on Bali island for 24 hours, and Muslims prepared to begin the Ramadan month of fasting and prayer.
Indonesia’s parliament passed a broad new criminal code on Tuesday that punishes sex outside marriage and cohabitation between unwed partners, in what critics called a threat to civil liberties in Southeast Asia’s most populous country.
Indonesian police in the past several days have arrested five members of a little-known group espousing an Islamic caliphate – a concept that goes against the Muslim-majority country’s state ideology – including its leader and the main propagandist, who was arrested Monday
Two experts told BenarNews last week – citing security sources whom they declined to identify – that the trio and one other Uyghur convict had been deported to China, where authorities are believed to have held close to 2 million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in internment camps, which the United States and several other nations have sharply criticized.
The President’s decision aims to prevent, in a nation hosting 230 million Muslims (about 90% out of a population of 260 million inhabitants), at least thirty million Indonesians travelling across the country, in order to curb the spread of Covid-19, which has already registered over 7,400 cases and caused 630 victims in Indonesia. The government had previously issued a “travel ban” related only to employees of public bodies and state-owned enterprises, while Indonesian Muslims had been advised against (but not prohibited) from traveling. The absolute ban comes into force today Friday 24 April and penalties will be applied starting from 7 May