Dismay After Indonesian Atheist Charged With Blasphemy
Camelia Pasandaran | January 20, 2012
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492622Ah. What a pity. The editor wisely removed my link in order to keep the newspaper's operating licence. The police, the MUI and FPI will just have to search on facebook and Google to see how flagrantly and unrepentantly I (and many, many others) have been breaching Article 156(a) of the Criminal Code, Presidential Decree 1/PNPS/1965 and Article 29 of the Constitution because unjust laws are no laws at all and we have no duty to obey them. It is time they were consigned to the dustbin. Many people fought and died to make this country free. They disobeyed the unjust laws of the colonial authorities. They had a moral duty to do so. The lives of our fathers and grandfathers of the present generation of Indonesians have been squandered because we have created an oppressive state out of the ashes of the previous oppressive state. If our parents and grandparents refused to be slaves, so should we.
Ah. What a pity. The editor wisely removed my link in order to keep the newspaper's operating licence. The police, the MUI and FPI will just have to search on facebook and Google to see how flagrantly and unrepentantly I (and many, many others) have been breaching Article 156(a) of the Criminal Code, Presidential Decree 1/PNPS/1965 and Article 29 of the Constitution because unjust laws are no laws at all and we have no duty to obey them. It is time they were consigned to the dustbin. Many people fought and died to make this country free. They disobeyed the unjust laws of the colonial authorities. They had a moral duty to do so. The lives of our fathers and grandfathers of the present generation of Indonesians have been squandered because we have created an oppressive state out of the ashes of the previous oppressive state. If our parents and grandparents refused to be slaves, so should we.
I think it is time to come out in the open. We cannot be cowed into anonymity and silence any longer. Come on then, fill the jails with us blasphemers, deviants and apostates. Then you will no longer be able to claim that this country is a beacon of democracy and secular government. I am proud to be an infidel. I am easily traced. Come on then, arrest me!
[link edited]
This case is slipping into obscurity already and we will probably never hear what eventualy happens to him unless readers keep this story hot.
The big advantage of atheists : they do not kill in the name oh Allah!
Police on Friday confirmed that they had charged a man with blasphemy after he was reported by the Indonesia Council of Ulema.
Dharmasraya Police Chief Sr. Comr. Chairul Aziz told the Jakarta Globe on Friday that the district branch of the council, known as MUI, and other Islamic organizations believed Alexander, 31, had defiled Islam by using passages from the Koran to denounce the existence of God.
Alexander, a civil servant, is facing five years in jail for writing “God does not exist” on a Facebook page he moderated called “Ateis Minang” (“Minang Atheists”).
Chairul said the issue was that Alexander had used the Koran to highlight his atheist views.
“So it meets the criteria of tainting religion, in this case Islam.”
Blasphemy, which carries a five-year sentence, is defined under the Criminal Code as publicly expressing feelings or doing something that spreads hatred, abuse or taints certain religions in Indonesia in a way that could cause someone to disbelieve religion.”
National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) chairman Ifdhal Kasim urged the police to remain neutral and not be forced to act by the majority.
“They should protect freedom of expression, instead of listening too much to the majority,” Ifdhal told the Globe. “Police should remain neutral instead of upholding the law subjectively.”
He also lashed out at MUI, saying the body was not even a state institution.
“If everyone does whatever MUI says, the law will be absurd.”
A member of a 600-strong atheist organization in Jakarta, meanwhile, said the case was a clear breach of human rights.
He would not be identified because of fears for his safety.
“If MUI thinks that there’s an imaginary friend up there, it doesn’t mean people should believe it,” he said. “Why is it that we cannot criticize religion? This is against freedom of expression and human rights.”
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