Indonesian capital braces for big blasphemy protest

Fearing violence, police have deployed 16,000 officers along with 2,000 soldiers to Jakarta's streets.

Jakarta

: Thousands of devout Muslims are converging on the center of the Indonesian capital to demand the arrest of its governor for alleged blasphemy.

Fearing violence, police have deployed 16,000 officers along with 2,000 soldiers and the same number of city public order officers to Jakarta's streets, where embassies closed, shops shuttered and normally traffic-clogged streets are nearly empty of cars.

Demonstrators gathered at Istiqlal Mosque and nearby locations for the protest expected to begin in the early afternoon following Friday prayers.

The accusation of blasphemy against Jakarta Gov. Basuki \"Ahok\" Tjahaja Purnama, an ethnic Chinese and minority Christian who is an ally of the country's president, has galvanized his political opponents in the Muslim-majority nation of 250 million, and given a notorious group of hard-liners a national stage.