http://www.mumbaimirror.com/nmirror/mmpaper.asp?sectid=5&articleid=4122006211921094122006211823687

MUMBAI, Thursday, April 13, 2006

Protesters stone Playboy office in Indonesia

Protesters outside the playboy office on Wednesday

Jakarta: Muslim activists demanding that Playboy stop publishing an Indonesian edition of the magazine stoned the company’s editorial offices on Wednesday and clashed with police officers guarding the building, witnesses said.

No one was injured in the melee involving around 150 members of the Islamic Defenders Front, a small hardline group with a history of vandalizing bars and nightclubs, as well as Western embassies.

The protesters smashed several windows and the door and gate at the magazine’s officers in south Jakarta, witnesses said. Several were seen scuffling with police officers guarding the building.

Playboy’s first-ever edition in a Muslim country went on sale last Friday. It features no nudity, and its photos of female undergarments are less risque than in other magazines already for sale in the country.

But politicians and preachers eager to prove their Islamic credentials lined up to condemn the publication, with most of them saying that the name of the magazine itself was grounds for the government to ban it.