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The Bekasi municipal authorities, apparently bowing to pressure from hard-line Muslim groups, have ordered the destruction of an imposing steel statue of three women in a private residential development.

The 17-meter-tall statue, “Tiga Mojang” (“Three Girls”), by leading sculptor Nyoman Nuarta, depicts three Sundanese women in traditional attire. It is also known as the welcome statue of Bekasi’s Harapan Indah residential complex.

“Bekasi Mayor Mochtar Mohammad has officially [told] the residential complex’s developer, PT Hasanah Damai Putra, to destroy the statue within 21 days,” Bekasi Police Chief Sr. Comr. Imam Haryanto told the Jakarta Globe on Tuesday. He said the decision was reached in a meeting of the municipal administration, local ulemas and the property developer on Monday.

On Friday, about 1,000 members from 60 hard-line Islamic organizations protested for hours at the site of the statue, and spray-painted it and covered it with white cloth. The protesters, from the Islamic Defenders Front, (FPI), the Bekasi Front Against Apostates, the Islamic Missionary Council (DDI) and the Islamic Ummah Forum, claimed that the statue incorrectly represented the communities in Bekasi.

The protest followed attacks in Bekasi this month on a Catholic school and the forced closure of a church a month earlier.

“This was done to avoid conflict among the people of Bekasi and so that security and some peace can be restored,” Imam said.

Murhali Barda, head of FPI Bekasi, said the mayor was wrong if he thought the people were only protesting the statue itself.

“That is not the main reason. The statue is illegal because it has no permit. In any case, the people of Bekasi completely reject that statue. It portrays the form of living beings, and that is forbidden,” Murhali said.

Islam prohibits picturing human beings as this could be seen as an attempt at copying God, and thus an act of transgression.

But a Bekasi administration spokesman, Endang Suharyadi, said: “The statue does not possess an IMB [permit to be built]. It must come down. If after the time limit developers do not demolish it, the administration will. There has been no move so far from the developers to get a permit for this.

“Yes, I agree, there has been pressure from local communities to bring it down. [But] in fact, one of the requirements for a permit to be issued is to secure approval from locals that the structure can be built.”

Sociologist Ganda Upaya, from the University of Indonesia, said the incident showed that these groups were trying to force their brand of values. “That is why in a pluralistic society like ours, respecting differences has to be taught and reminded over and over again,” he said.

The artist, Nuarta, has several public works on show in Jakarta, including the grandiose statue of Arjuna’s chariot at the southwest entrance to the National Monument park.