Bogor – Hardline Indonesian Islamic groups are considering launching a no-confidence motion against President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono over US President George W. Bush's visit next week.
"We see that the people reject the visit, but the government is arrogantly going ahead with the plan to receive Bush," Secretary General of the Islamic Society Forum (FUI) Muhammad al-Khaththath, told AFP Tuesday.
FUI groups several hardline Islamic groups, including the Indonesian Mujahedin Council, chaired by firebrand cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, and the Front for the Defenders of Islam, known for its raids on nightclubs.
"Yudhoyono was elected by the people and if he ignores the wish of the people, then it is only appropriate that he gets a vote of no confidence," he added.
He said if the government did not change its mind over the visit, which has prompted daily protests across the country, the FUI would initiate a no-confidence vote by seeking the signatures of as many Muslim leaders as possible.
"The essence is that Bush and his regime have their hands bloodied and the conclusion is that most Indonesians do not want his visit," Khaththath said.
He said the main Muslim leaders in the country had already said they were opposed to the Bush visit and would not deign to meet him.
He cited the leaders of Indonesia's two largest Islamic mainstream organisations, the Nahdlatul Ulama and the Muhammadiyah, as well as leaders of the Indonesian Council of Ulemas (MUI), the highest authority on Islam in the country.
"We also see the daily protests everywhere demanding that Indonesian cancels the invitation to Bush," Khaththath said.
As he spoke, hundreds protested at the Kujang Memorial in nearby Bogor, a resort town where Yudhoyono will meet and entertain Bush for a few hours Monday.
The protesters included about 500 veiled Muslim women from the popular Islamic Prosperous Justice Party, many protesting Bush's visit by carrying black paper flowers and posters depicting the US head of state as a devil.
The women, many of them carrying children, held aloft placards which read "We are offering our condolences for Bush's visit, the one with the venomous mouth and the cold-blooded killer."
Students from two organisations – one Christian and the other Muslim – were also among the protesters.
In Semarang, Central Java, about 100 Muslim students also protested the visit in front of their university, the ElShinta radio reported.
In Southeast Sulawesi province, dozens of students also staged a rally outside the town's parliamentary building and urged funds spent for the preparation of Bush's visit be allocated to the poor.
"The government should better concentrate on improving the public and regions that still need assistance rather than spending billions of rupiah" for Bush, a protest leader who identified himself as Hadrin was quoted by the state Antara news agency as saying.
More than 90 percent of Indonesia's 220 million people follow Islam.