In a sign of its growing prominence, the Council of Ulemas in Indonesia has moved its headquarters from the basement of a major mosque here into an expensive new office tower in the heart of the capital.

The council was established in 1975 by Suharto, the country’s leader for three decades, as a quasi-governmental body of Muslim scholars, partly as a tool to keep politically minded Islamic organizations in check.

But in the decade since the dictator’s fall, the group – whose leaders have increasingly espoused a radical form of Islam – has worked to establish itself as an assertive political force.