Jerry Norton and Dean Yates, Jakarta – The cabinet of the world's most populous Muslim nation was discussing the US attack on Iraq on Thursday, Indonesia's chief security minister told reporters.
Indonesian Muslim leaders immediately condemned the start of US-led strikes on Iraq, labelling them an attack on humanity and warning of big protests.
Asked on his way into the cabinet meeting for a reaction to news the United States had started the attack, security minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said: "We will discuss that now." He did not elaborate, but Foreign Ministry spokesman Marty Natalegawa told Reuters an official response was being drafted and would be made public after the meeting.
Indonesia, generally an ally of the United States, has consistently opposed any attack against Iraq. Political and religious leaders sounded warnings that a strike could spark a widespread, possibly violent backlash.
"This is not an attack on Islam but an attack on humanity," Syafii Maarif, head of the 30-million-strong moderate Muhammadiyah Muslim group, said on Thursday.
He said members of his organisation would probably begin street protests on Thursday but insisted they would be peaceful. He also called on other Muslim groups not to resort to violence.
The Justice Party, a conservative Muslim political party, said it expected to have 30,000 demonstrators outside the US embassy in Jakarta later on Thursday to protest against the war.
A local radio report said police in the Central Java capital of Semarang clashed with around 50 students after they burned an effigy of George Bush and a makeshift coffin. Several students were slightly injured, the report said.
Some militant groups have said they would try to occupy US facilities and US-affiliated businesses.
Although most Indonesian Muslims are moderates, opposition to a war in Iraq is widespread. Some 85 percent of the 210 million people in Indonesia, the world's fourth most populous country, adhere to Islam.
Azyumardi Azra, president of the State Islamic University in Jakarta, Indonesia's most prestigious centre for Islamic studies, said the United States appeared to think it had the right to decide what to do with the world. "I think this really is an unjust war, it will be a tragedy for humanity," Azra said.
Police have said they were anticipating protests and have pledged to boost security at foreign embassies and other Western interests, especially those of the United States and Britain.
[With additional reporting by Achmad Sukarsono and Muklis Ali.]