BANDUNG: Three Indonesian housewives have been arrested over an online video that claimed President Joko Widodo would ban prayer and make gay marriage legal in the Muslim majority country if re-elected, police said Monday.
Widodo has fended off accusations over his Muslim credentials for years, claims that have been revived ahead of April presidential elections.
Indonesia has also been battling a wave of fake news and misinformation campaigns online in the lead up to the polls.
The video, shared thousands of times online, showed two women in hijab headscarves telling an old man that Widodo would end the call to prayer, which is performed five times a day by many in the world’s most populous Muslim country.
He would also force women to remove their hijab in public and legalize gay marriage, which is widely opposed in Indonesia, the video suggested.
Widodo, first elected in 2014, is a practicing Muslim and has never publicly pushed for any of the measures mentioned in the video.
Three women “linked” to the video were arrested by East Java provincial police on Sunday over claims they were spreading misinformation.
But police did not elaborate on their role.
“This is a preventive measure because this (video) could potentially trigger anxiety and conflict in our society,” local police spokesman Trunoyudho Wisnu Andiko told a press conference Monday.
If convicted, the trio could face up to six years in prison for spreading hate speech and violating a sweeping electronic information law.
Indonesian housewives arrested over anti-Widodo online video
Indonesian housewives arrested over anti-Widodo online video
- President Joko Widodo has fended off accusations over his Muslim credentials for years
- Indonesia has also been battling a wave of fake news and misinformation campaigns online in the lead up to the polls
North Korea says it respects Iran’s choice of new supreme leader: KCNA
- North Korea, a longstanding US adversary, has previously condemned the US-Israeli attack on Iran an “illegal act of aggression”
- Defying US President Donald Trump’s desire to have a say in who runs Iran, the Islamic republic on Sunday named Mojtaba Khamenei to replace his father, longtime ruler Ali Khamenei, who died in an Israeli airstrike on February 28
SEOUL: North Korea respects Iran’s choice of new supreme leader, state media reported Wednesday, as it accused the United States and Israel of destroying regional peace.
“With regard to the recent official announcement that Iran’s Assembly of Experts elected the new leader of the Islamic Revolution, we respect the rights and choice of the Iranian people to elect their supreme leader,” an unnamed Foreign Ministry spokesperson was quoted as saying by state news agency KCNA.
Defying US President Donald Trump’s desire to have a say in who runs Iran, the Islamic republic on Sunday named Mojtaba Khamenei to replace his father, longtime ruler Ali Khamenei, who died in an Israeli airstrike on February 28.
North Korea, a longstanding US adversary, has previously condemned the US-Israeli attack on Iran an “illegal act of aggression.”
On Wednesday, the North Korean spokesperson reiterated that position, saying that the United States and Israel “are destroying the regional peace and security foundations and escalating instability worldwide.”
“Any rhetorical threats and military action, which violate the political system and territorial integrity of the relevant country, interfere in its internal affairs and openly advocate the attempt to overthrow its social system, deserve worldwide criticism and rejection as they can never be tolerated,” the spokesperson added.
In recent months, the Trump administration has mounted a push to revive high-level talks with Pyongyang, eyeing a potential summit between the US president and the North’s Kim Jong Un this year.
After largely ignoring those overtures for months, Kim recently said that the two nations could “get along” if Washington accepted Pyongyang’s nuclear status.
