Jakarta – Thousands of Muslims marched on the presidential palace in central Jakarta yesterday to protest against a move by the government to lift a ban on communism. The protesters also burned an Israeli flag and accused the Jewish state of being an "enemy of all Muslims".

About 2,000 protesters, chanting "Allahu Akbar" and dressed in traditional white robes, were blocked from entering President Abdurrahman Wahid's palace by hundreds of police. The protesters said they were opposed to communist teachings because they promoted atheism.

"The communists are our enemy," read one of the banners being carried by the demonstrators. The demonstrators later marched through the capital, burning red communist flags and blocking traffic on the city's main avenue. No incidents were reported.

On Thursday, about 1,000 Islamic boarding school students rallied in the West Java capital of Bandung, in protest against Mr Abdurrahman's proposal. In the West Sumatra capital of Padang, several hundred students from an Islamic teaching institute staged a similar rally on Thursday.

Mr Abdurrahman wants the ban revoked in the interest of democracy saying it violated basic human rights. The leaders of several Islamic parties joined in a loose "Axis" alliance have been in the forefront of protests against the proposal.

The ban on communist organisations and teachings was imposed following an abortive coup allegedly instigated by the Indonesian Communist Party in Sept 1965. An estimated 500,000 members of the party, then the world's third-largest with about 20 million followers, were slaughtered in the aftermath of the coup.