Hundreds of Bali-bound members of the hard-line Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) found themselves stuck in Banyuwangi, East Java, on Saturday as female police officers – backed by nearly a 1,000 members of the National Police's Mobile Brigade (Brimob) – blockaded the entrance to the port.
The Islamist group planned to take a ferry to Bali to protest the Hindu-majority island's hosting of the controversial Miss World beauty pageant. The organization claimed the pageant, which was moved to Bali amid protests, ran counter to conservative Muslim values.
The decision to move the Miss World pageant from Bogor to Bali was seen as the latest sign of hard-line groups growing influence in Indonesia. The FPI held protests across Java on Sept. 7 to urge the government to cancel the event outright.
Miss World's organizers instead agreed to scrap the bikini contest and move the event to Bali, where foreign tourists flock to the beach in similarly skimpy bathing suits and Islamists hold little sway. But the compromise did little to appease the FPI, an organization emboldened by a successful campaign against US pop star Lady Gaga.
"Bali is part of Indonesia, and Indonesia is a Muslim-majority country," East Java FPI chair Haidar bin al-Hamid told the Indonesian newspaper Tempo.
Photos of the contestants in bikinis were still being spread online, Haidar said, accusing the event of running afoul Indonesia's strict, but sporadically enforced, anti-pornography laws. The group would mobilize 1,000 members to protest the pageant in Bali, he previously said.
Less than 200 people showed up on Saturday. Those who did arrive at the port were welcomed by nearly a thousand members of the Brimob and the East Java Police. The Islamists reportedly attempted to enter the port, but police refused to break ranks.
East Java Police declined to grant the group a protest permit. When Haidar complained, police spokesman Sr. Comr. Awi Setiyono told him to file a report with the National Police.
The hard-liners then cancelled their plans and reconvened at the Banyuwangi train station for lunch, according to reports on Kompas.com. Afterwards they piled into two buses and 17 cars and headed back home.
In Jember, East Java, Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia held a rally in front of the Jember Legislative Council.
"HTI strictly rejects and condemns Miss World because the beauty contest is against Islamic culture and against Indonesian culture," Abdul Rahman, coordinator of the rally, said as quoted by the state-run Antara News Agency.
Abdul accused Miss World of damaging women's dignity by exploiting their bodies. The pageant, he said, was against Islamic teachings. "As predominantly Muslim country Indonesia has an important role in the Islamic world," he said. "Holding it here will influence the perceptions of other Muslim countries."
In Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara, a local spokesman for the FPI said 5,000 hard-liners were preparing to board boats to Bali, according to reports in Tempo.
Police in Bali were unfazed on Saturday. The Miss World event will remain under heavily police protection, Bali Police chief Insp. Gen. Arif Wachyunadi said. "If all the Miss World activities are conducted in Bali, we will secure all of it," he told the Indonesian news portal Merdeka.com.