JAKARTA - Undeterred by the arrest of hardline protest leaders, tens of thousands of Muslims marched in Indonesia's capital on Friday, calling for the jailing of the city's minority Christian governor.
Following Friday prayers, the protesters were marching from Istiqlal Mosque in central Jakarta to the nearby presidential palace, which was under heavy police guard.
Protests against Governor Basuki "Ahok'' Tjahaja Purnama have snowballed since September when he was accused of blaspheming the Quran and subsequently charged. His trial is still underway.
The turnout for Friday's protest was relatively small compared with the hundreds of thousands who answered the call of hardline Islamic groups to flood central Jakarta for demonstrations in November, December and February.
Earlier Friday, Indonesian police said they had arrested Muhammad Al Khaththath, the leader of the Muslim Peoples Forum umbrella group, and several other activists for suspected treason.
"We are not cowed by the arrest of our leaders,'' said a protester who identified himself as Wahyudi. "We'll keep fighting for the dignity of Islam. There's no room for kafir to lead in this nation.''
The blasphemy case and the ease with which hard-liners attracted huge numbers of people to protest Ahok have undermined Indonesia's reputation for practicing a moderate form of Islam and shaken the secular government as well as mainstream Muslim groups.
Blasphemy is a criminal offense in Indonesia, punishable by up to five years in prison.
Ahok will compete in a runoff election for governor next week against a former cabinet minister backed by conservative Muslim clerics.
Jakarta police spokesman Argo Yuwono said Al Khaththath and the other activists were arrested in the early hours of Friday. Local media said one of those men was the deputy coordinator for Friday's protest.
Effendi Lubis, who travelled from Bogor in West Java for the demonstration, said Muslims would continue protesting until Ahok is in prison.
He said he was also protesting to "defend our Islamic leaders who were arrested and treated unfairly.''