REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- The Indonesian Muslim Youth Movement (GHPII) has demanded that the Czech Republic offer an apology to the Indonesian people for a recent police raid on the Islamic Foundation building in Prague where 10 Indonesians stayed.
"The government of the Czech Republic must apologize to the Indonesian nation and Muslims all over the world," chief of GHPII's international relations section Hamaydi RS Harahap stated during a press conference here on Wednesday.
GHPII strongly condemned the raid, which hurt Muslims worldwide, he explained.
The Czech police had violated human rights by forcing themselves into entering a mosque and arresting 10 Indonesian citizens including diplomats and students, he stressed.
"We saw that (the Czech police) overreacted in Friday's incident. They appeared to be paranoid about Islam. As a matter of fact, Islam is a dakwah (propagation) religion and is not terrorism," he reiterated.
Hamaydi noted that the GHPII gave the Czech government 24 hours to offer an apology and take stern measures on those held responsible for the incident.
"If they do nothing, we will stage a rally at the Czech Republic's embassy in Jakarta on Friday (May 2)," he declared.
The Prague police force raided a mosque inside the Islamic Foundation building last Friday (April 26).
The raid was allegedly conducted due to a suspicion that the foundation had printed a book containing controversial and radical issues. The raid occurred before the Friday prayers, when there were several people from different nations inside the mosque (10 among them were Indonesians: 9 diplomats and one student).
The Indonesian embassy in Prague has planned to write a protest note to the Czech Republic's government over the incident.
"We are planning to send a note protesting the raid on Monday. We also want an explanation from the police force regarding the raid," acting social and cultural affairs officer of the embassy Wahono Yulianto, who was in the mosque inside the building at the time of the raid, he pointed out on Monday.
"The police officers wore complete armors and face masks. They came right before we started the Friday prayers. One of the police officers put his gun on my head," Wahono confirmed.
According to him, the police officers told the people inside the mosque to put their hands up and not do anything. "After 40 minutes, one of the police officers asked whether some of us in the mosque hold held a diplomatic passport. Then six Indonesians with diplomatic passports were released 1.5 hours later, while the rest were released after two hours," Wahono added.
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