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ABC News
ABC News
Politics
By Indonesia correspondent Samantha Hawley

Indonesia disbands hardline Islamist group Hizbut Tahrir

Hizbut Tahrir's Indonesian spokesman Ismail Yusanto has condemned the ban.

Hardline group Hizbut Tahrir (HTI) has had its legal status in Indonesia revoked.

It comes less than a week after the equivalent of a presidential decree was issued to ban groups that do not support the nation's ideologies.

HTI was involved in mass protests against Jakarta's now jailed Christian governor Busuki Tjahaja Purnama, also known as a Ahok.

But unlike the Islamic Defenders Front, that was also involved in the protests, HTI is not known for violence.

HTI previously lashed out at the decree, known as a "Perppu" and described President Joko Widodo as a "dictator".

HTI supports a global caliphate governed by sharia law and is challenging the Perpuu in the Constitutional Court.

The group is legal in Australia.

"We'll study this kind of law and after that we will maybe make a new strategy so that we can continue our activity," HTI's Indonesian spokesman Ismail Yusanto told the ABC last week.

The Indonesian Government says the power to ban mass groups that do not support Pancasila, the nation's founding ideologies that promote pluralism, is meant for maintaining unity and oneness.

But even Human Rights Groups have condemned the move as a step backwards for democracy.

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