Jakarta. The leader of a Muslim students association has filed a report against Rizieq Shihab, the leader of the Islamic Defender's Front, or FPI, and a Twitter user for allegedly spreading hate speech.

The report, citing violations against racial, religious or ethnic groups, was filed to the Jakarta Police on Tuesday (27/12).

“Today, the Student Peace Institute, one of the institutions that is campaigning for peace and tolerance, visited Jakarta Police to report Rizieq Shihab for allegedly spreading hate among the public, which has the potential of destroying religious harmony in Indonesia,” Doddy Abdallah, executive director of the Student Peace Institute, said.

“The evidence is a video of Rizieq’s sermon discussing Christmas. So, what Rizieq elaborated was about other religion’s teachings. We have brought a copy of the video on a flashdisk we submitted to the police, also screenshots of the initial [Twitter] account that has made it viral,” he said.

The claim differs to an earlier one submitted by the Indonesian Catholic Students Association, he said.

“We come as Muslim students, as we are studying in one of Jakarta’s Islamic universities,” he said, adding that they do not want Rizieq to be considered a fair representation of Islam.

“It is totally inappropriate in our perspective, to claim he is an ulema [Islamic scholar] with Muslim clothing and mentioning words that offend other religion’s teachings,” Doddy said.

“We are focusing on hate speech. There, he clearly mocked other religion’s teachings … It has the potential to destroy Indonesia’s diversity."

The police report claims the FPI leader has violated Article 156 of the Criminal Law as well as the Law on Electronic Information and Transactions.