Pop star Lady Gaga has been refused a permit to perform in the Indonesian capital next month over security concerns, police said, after Islamic groups voiced strong objections to her “vulgar” style. Three Islamic groups have expressed their opposition to the concert on June 3, demanding it be stopped, national police spokesman Saud Usman Nasution said. Indonesia, a secular state, has the world’s largest population of Muslims as well as significant minorities of Christians, Buddhists and Hindus. “She’s a vulgar singer who wears revealing clothes when she sings and she stated she is the envoy of the devil’s child and that she will spread satanic teaching,” said the groups’ representatives. “This is dangerous.” There was no immediate reaction from Lady Gaga, who has the world’s biggest following on Twitter, but her fans, known as “little monsters”, took to social media in their thousands. Fans set up a new Twitter hashtag called #IndonesiaSavesGaga to try to get the police decision overturned. But another little monster, DanielZiv, wrote: “It’s not a matter of #IndonesiaSavesGaga, it’s more like whether Gaga can save Indonesia.” Big Daddy Productions, the promoters, have already sold more than 50,000 tickets and declined to confirm whether the show, part of Lady Gaga’s ‘Born This Way Ball’ world tour, had been officially cancelled. Lady Gaga has faced opposition elsewhere on the Asia leg of her tour. But she has not toned down her performances. In Seoul, Hong Kong and Tokyo, she rode on to the stage on a mechanical horse, wearing a black bodysuit and an enormous black metal headpiece. Gaga will perform in Taipei on Thursday and Friday, and will then head to Manila, Bangkok and Singapore. She was due to play in Jakarta after that, before flying south to New Zealand and Australia. In the past, performers such as Beyonce and the Pussycat Dolls have been allowed to perform in Indonesia provided they dressed more conservatively.
