An Indonesian court sentenced a Buddhist woman to 18 months in prison for blasphemy on Tuesday, after she was accused of insulting Islam for complaining that neighbourhood mosque was too loud.

Meiliana, a 44-year old ethnic Chinese Buddhist had complained the Muslim call to prayer, repeated five times a day, was being played too loudly at the mosque near her house in North Sumatra.

Indonesia has the world’s largest population of Muslims and sizable Buddhist, Christian and other religious minorities. Recent years have seen a rise in conservative and hardline interpretations of Islam, prompting fears that the secular nation’s long-standing reputation for tolerance and diversity was being eroded.

“She had said something that insulted religion, in this case Islam,” said Jamaluddin, spokesman of the Medan district court, adding the defendant had “showed remorse and apologised”.

Political activists have said the country’s stringent blasphemy laws are being used to bully minorities and violate religious freedoms.

Last year, the former ethnic Chinese governor of Jakarta was tried and jailed for blasphemy after several Muslim groups accused him of insulting Islam when he said his political rivals were using the Koran to deceive voters.

The ruling was widely condemned and believed to be politically motivated. Basuki Tjahaja Purnama also lost his re-election bid because of the accusations.

There are hundreds of thousands of mosques across the vast archipelago and most use loudspeakers to play the ‘azan’ or call to prayer, which lasts a few minutes. But many also play lengthy versions of prayers or sermons lasting over 30 minutes, which has been deemed unnecessary by the Indonesian Mosque Council.

Vice President Jusuf Kalla, who is also a member of the Council, formed a team in 2015 to review mosques’ use of loudspeakers and regulate their use and volume. He has previously called on mosques to use their public address systems “wisely”.

Kalla’s spokesman did not respond to requests for comment on Meiliana’s conviction.

Meiliana’s lawyer, Ranto Sibarani, said they would appeal the verdict, according to The Jakarta Post.

]]> 7821 https://www.faith-matters.org/christian-georgia-proposes-a-blasphemy-law/ Wed, 10 Feb 2016 02:01:00 +0000 https://religiousreader.org/?p=1585 Georgia with its devoutly Orthodox Christian set of communities, is proposing a ‘blasphemy bill’ that will make religious caricaturing and comedic lampooning of faith, punishable in law. The bill, which has been approved at committee stage, has led to critics suggesting that it will cause a chilling effect on those critics of the official church line and more importantly, on dissent regarding religion. Some have suggested that even theatre, art and plays which explored faith could fall of the blasphemy bill. The proposed bill attaches fines to those who target “insults to religious feelings” with a 100 lari fine ($120) attached to any comment deemed to fall foul of the law. This would double if there was a repeat of the incident and desecration of a religious icon would lead to a fine of 1000 laris. Given that the average salary in the country is about 800 laris, the new bill seems to hit those in the pocket willing to take a dissenting line to faith and belief. This bill comes on the back of opposition to the opening of mosques and madrassas in the west of Georgia where groups have been active in lobbying against Muslim institutions.

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The Supreme Court of Pakistan recently suspended the execution of Asia Bibi – the Christian mother-of-five convicted on alleged blasphemy charges that reportedly started over a glass of water.

It sounds positive, as historically Pakistani courts seemed to be under enormous pressure whenever it came to blasphemy related cases. One of the judges of the same court, Justice Arif Iqbal Bhatti, was assassinated in 1997 after he acquitted two Christians, Salamat Masih and Rehmat Masih, in a blasphemy case because of insufficient evidence. According to various reports, 1274 people have been charged with blasphemy between 1986 and 2010 – 51 accused have been murdered before finishing their respective trials. With that in mind, it is possible to see how the above potentially influenced the decision to uphold Asia Bibi’s death penalty conviction last year (without any credible evidence).

The above numbers signify a horrific picture for the fate of anyone accused of breaching blasphemy laws in Pakistan. Whatever the courts decide about the case, the religious fanatics rarely allow them to survive. Not only are the accused at risk; but their supporters and lawyers are targets and killers are sometimes glorified. Under these circumstances, no one should think that Asia Bibi will be out of danger following this development.

An interesting trend to observe is the silence of religious and political leaders. Not a single statement of support came from any political party in Pakistan or from ‘self-claimed’ moderate religious leaders. Although some 171,268 Pakistanis have signed a petition demanding justice for Asia Bibi on the ‘Call For Mercy’ website; but unfortunately no large solidarity protests took place in the country. So far, the extremist elements in the society have been successful in creating an environment of fear to shut down debate on the controversial blasphemy laws which have affected lives of hundreds of Pakistanis – predominantly of poor backgrounds and belonging to minority faith groups.

High profile murders in recent years have silenced more rational voices in the blasphemy debate. In 2011, Governor Salman Taseer, was killed by his own bodyguard, Taseer supported Bibi’s case.

Federal Minister for Minority Affairs, Shahbaz Bhatti, was next in line to be brutally murdered in Islamabad, after demanding procedural changes to blasphemy laws. Pakistan’s ex-ambassador to United States, Sherry Rehman, was lucky to survive; although an FIR was registered against her in 2013 as she demand changes in the laws in order to protect the innocent people.

Those accused of blasphemy include teenagers, elderly people and even those with mental health issues. But there is an absence of mercy for the accused regardless of guilt or innocence.

This sends out a chilling message to the wider society and makes it easier to harass and target poor citizens who have no resources to defend themselves.

The environment created by the atrocities of religious fanatics and by the cowardly silence of wider society has made it immensely difficult to initiate debate on the flaws of blasphemy laws and protecting the innocent victims.

This is alarming situation has put people at great risk – especially for the minority communities targeted because of their faith (as in the case of Asia Bibi). The contemporary environment of fear is allowing the radicals to perpetuate their extremist narratives and to shut down any dialogue to reform blasphemy laws.

Pakistan is a democratic country created to safeguard the religious freedoms of Muslim minorities of India. The history of Islam is full of examples of forgiveness, mercy and protection of society’s vulnerable. But the culture of fear and violence created by religious fanatics is not in line with the religious and the cultural values of Pakistan.

It is the first and foremost responsibility of Pakistan’s government to work with the religious leaders and civil society actors on raising awareness about the issues concerning blasphemy laws. The state and society cannot surrender to a handful of hate-filled fanatics, devoid of the peaceful teachings of Islam. Promoting and protecting rights of the vulnerable in society is the legacy of Islam and part of the founding principles of Pakistan. Reclaiming those values from extremists is challenging but it is a cause worth fighting for.

Rehman Anwer (@rehmananwer) is an interfaith and peace activist currently working for Faith Matters and Tell MAMA.

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