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The Miss World beauty pageant has kicked off amid tight security on the Indonesian resort island of Bali after days of Muslim hardline protests that forced the venue for the beauty pageant to be moved.
Hundreds of police, some armed with rifles have been deployed at hotels and venues linked to the pageant.
Thousands of Islamic hardliners have taken to the streets across the country during the past week, denouncing the show as "smut and pornography'' and burning effigies of the organisers.
But the anger has not been limited to radicals, with criticism also coming from the country's most prominent Muslim clerical body, rights groups, and a government minister.
Organisers pledged months ago there would be no bikini round during this year's pageant in a bid to avoid causing offence but it wasn’t enough to stop street protests, and on Saturday the government bowed to the mounting pressure by deciding to move the final, on September 28, from the capital Jakarta to Bali as radicals threatened to stop the event.
Announcing the change of venue, coordinating minister for people's welfare, Agung Laksono, said the government had "listened to what the people wanted''.
Arief Suditomo, a member of the local organizing committee said “there is the potential that we will be seen as a country which always bows to pressure from a noisy Muslim minority group,''
The organisers said they were "disappointed'' by the decision.
Last year, pop sensation Lady Gaga axed a concert after a series of protests, where radicals dubbed her "the devil'', threatened to burn down the venue and criticised her for wearing only "a bra and panties''.
