© AFP Photo/Adek Berry
The vice president was invited to deliver a lecture on moderate Islam — something the protesters found unfit to be given by him.
19 Mei 2017 11:30
A protestwelcomed Vice President Jusuf Kalla at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies in Oxford, Britain, onThursday. Kalla was scheduled to give alecture titled 'Moderate Islam: Indonesia's Experience' when the protest occurred.
Reported by Oxford Mail, Thursday, the protest was organized by Mariella Djorghi, an Indonesian living in London. She filed an official letter to Oxford University Vice-Chancellor Louise Richardson to inform him about the protest. Mariella said that Jusuf Kalla was not fit to discuss'Moderate Islam'.
The peaceful protest was planned to highlight an 'ongoing persecution of minorities' in Indonesia who are suffering under the rise of Islamic radicalism. Mariella and other fellow protesters believed that Jusuf Kalla is the figure behind the Basuki 'Ahok' Tjahaja Purnama's removal, Chinese-Christian non-activeJakarta Governor who recently was sentenced to two years in prison for blasphemy against Islam. Kalla was also saidto favor the well-known Islamist Anies Baswedan in the latest Jakarta gubernatorial.
Views outside of Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies, on Jusuf Kalla's visit to speak about Indonesia's 'middle-path Islam'. pic.twitter.com/MdIhGvd5fV
Inda. (@indaimanda) May 18, 2017
The protest also gained the support from the British Pakistani Christian Association, in which they had filed a petition.
"I join Mariella and other humanitarians in expressing deep concern for the bias support that the Vice President gave to an Islamist candidate for the Jakarta governorship for which he was widely criticized," said the association leader Wilson Chowdhry.
Chowdhry and the association helped Mariella to get permission for the demonstration as well as setting up and circulating petition, calling for a change in Indonesia.
