The Al-Zaytun boarding school in West Java, Indonesia's most populous province with a Muslim majority, has come under fire from conservative groups that have accused it of adhering to a version of Islam that is incompatible with the Qur'an, and a Muslim preacher has been arrested on charges including blasphemy and hate speech, police said Wednesday.
The school sparked uproar in conservative circles and protests outside its compound when social media footage in late April showed women praying in the same row as men.
Women are typically expected to pray behind men in traditional Islamic prayer. Another practice of the school that sparked controversy was allowing women to give a sermon in Friday prayers, a task usually reserved for men in traditional Islamic teaching.
School head Panji Gumilang, 77, was detained early on Wednesday after questioning, national police spokesman Ahmad Ramadhan told reporters.
“Investigators took legal action... and he is detained in the criminal investigation agency’s detention facility for 20 days,” he said.
Gumilang faces five years in prison for blasphemy, six for spreading hate speech and 10 on the charge of spreading fake news and intentionally causing chaos in public, according to the charges.
The school sparked uproar in conservative circles and protests outside its compound when social media footage in late April showed women praying in the same row as men.
Women are typically expected to pray behind men in traditional Islamic prayer. Another practice of the school that sparked controversy was allowing women to give a sermon in Friday prayers, a task usually reserved for men in traditional Islamic teaching.
School head Panji Gumilang, 77, was detained early on Wednesday after questioning, national police spokesman Ahmad Ramadhan told reporters.
“Investigators took legal action... and he is detained in the criminal investigation agency’s detention facility for 20 days,” he said.
Gumilang faces five years in prison for blasphemy, six for spreading hate speech and 10 on the charge of spreading fake news and intentionally causing chaos in public, according to the charges.
