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The National Police chief as well as the Ministers for Religious Affairs and Communication and Information Technology on Monday quickly moved to quash public worries that authorities were planning to monitor mosques and sermons during Ramadan as part of its fight against the spread of extremism.

“I wish to clarify that I never have and will never order my officers to conduct surveillance on sermon activities,” National Police Chief Bambang Hendarso Danuri said at a press conference convened with the two ministers. “Under our 1945 Constitution, sermons can be given freely.”

He said that his spokesman, Nanan Soekarna, had been inaccurately quoted by the media as having aired such a plan.

“My spokesman also never meant [to say] that the police will spy on sermons,” Bambang said, adding, “I don’t want it to become a polemic and be used by third parties to muddy the situation.”

He said that monitoring sermons fell under the jurisdiction of the Religious Affairs Ministry.

“We only provide backup if needed, not more. Its beyond our duty to spy on sermons. The police will not return to what happened under the old regime,” he said, referring to the decades of iron-fist rule under President Suharto, when the monitoring of sermons and mosque activities were common.

Religious Affairs Minister Maftuh Basyuni said that he was surprised when he heard that the police would be monitoring sermons. “Sermons are our domain, but if we find that there are ‘naughty’ preachers, then we will ask police help. I ask journalists not to complicate this matter,” he said.

Communication and Information Technology Minister Muhammad Nuh said that this kind of polemic appeared because information gets distorted.

“This polemic happened because there was an incomplete information [quoted by the media], which then gets analyzed and interpreted as if the government was likely to spy on sermons,” Nuh said.

National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Nanan Soekarna has been in hot water since he indicated on Friday that police may be planning special surveillance of religious sermons during Ramadan to prevent hard-line Islamist groups from using the fasting month to spread radical views.

During Ramadan, Muslims usually attend nightly prayers, which are always accompanied by sermons.

Nanan’s indication came following the July 17 twin suicide bombings at two upscale Jakarta hotels that left seven dead.

The Indonesian Council of Ulema (MUI), which holds the country’s highest authority on Islamic affairs, and other groups have said that they were considering filing an official protest with the National Police over the plan, but no such protest has been made so far.

Religious leaders are warning that the National Police’s plan to monitor sermons during Ramadan to prevent the spread of extremism will offend and anger Muslims, who account for more than 88 percent of this nation of an estimated 230 million people.

They added that such monitoring could be viewed as a step backward and a return to the tactics employed during the Suharto regime.

The plan could also further increase tensions between security forces and the public after some local airports recently began conducting extra security checks of passengers wearing Muslim robes and veils. MUI chairman Suhal Mahfudh has criticized the plan as counterproductive.