Islamic convenience store chain 212 Mart had opened 192 branches since its May 2017 establishment, Ahmad Juwaini, the executive director of the 212 Islamic Cooperative that founded the chain store, said on Tuesday in Jakarta.

“Of 192 stores, 108 are in Greater Jakarta. The rest are in other regions,” Ahmad said as quoted by kompas.com. He added that, due to the cooperative's adherence to the sharia principles of Islamic finance, 212 Mart did not have individual partners.

“We do not work with individual partners. One cooperative has to have at least 100 members,” Ahmad said, and that partner cooperatives of 212 Mart must be actively involved in the daily management of its stores, including purchasing goods from cooperatives.

“Every store also must reserve 20 percent of its shelf space for products made by small and medium enterprises [SMEs],” he said.

In January, the cooperatives started distributing profit among its members, whereas it had previously generated revenue from membership fees, said Ahmad.

The country has been seeing growth in Islamic convenience stores that tap into Muslim consumers’ demand for halal products and aspirations for a “Muslim economy”.

The “212” brand name refers to the 2016 protests on Dec. 2 (2/12), when hundreds of thousands of people held a rally in Jakarta to demand the removal of then-Jakarta governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama, a Chinese-Indonesian of the Christian faith, on allegations of a blasphemous reference he made to a Quranic passage. Ahok was convicted the following year for blasphemy against Islam. (rfa/bbn)