Human rights groups pilloried Indonesia’s constitutional court yesterday after it upheld a 1965 blasphemy law, ruling in favor of orthodox religions over basic freedoms.
The court on Monday rejected a petition by moderate Muslims, religious minorities, democracy advocates and rights groups against the law, in a case seen as a major test of the mainly Muslim country’s pluralism.
By a margin of eight to one, the judges ruled that the law was imperfect but did not contravene the Constitution of the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country, which guarantees freedoms of belief and expression.
The law carries a maximum punishment of five years for beliefs that deviate from the orthodox versions of six sanctioned faiths: Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Catholicism, Protestantism and Confucianism.
The US Commission on International Religious Freedom, a non-partisan body that advises the US government, said the ruling may embolden religious extremists and foster sectarian strife.
“Hopefully, the Indonesian government will recognize that overturning the blasphemy decree advances its fight against terrorism and extremism, and enhances its reputation for religious tolerance and pluralism,” commission chairman Leonard Leo said.
The law — which effectively outlaws blasphemy as well as heresy — was used in 2008 to force followers of the Islamic Ahmadiyah sect to go underground and is often cited by minorities as a source of discrimination and intimidation.
Islamic extremists packed the court throughout the hearings, heckled witnesses for the petitioners and allegedly assaulted their lawyers on the last day. They greeted the ruling with shouts of “Allahu Akbar” (God is great).
About 500 police were deployed around the court because of concerns that a ruling against the law would trigger violence by militants from the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), a vigilante group.
Several of the judges said they agreed with the testimony of Indonesian Religious Affairs Minister Suryadharma Ali and Indonesian Justice and Human Rights Minister Patrialis Akbar that the law was needed to protect minorities from violence.
FPI official Sobri Lubis also claimed the law was vital to maintain religious harmony in the vast archipelago of 234 million people, 90 percent of whom are Muslims.
“We’re very happy with the verdict ... This will bring peace of mind to the people,” he said.
US-based Human Rights Watch (HRW), however, said the ruling “dealt a severe blow to religious freedom” in the world’s third-largest democracy, which US President Barack Obama is scheduled to visit in June.
“Indonesia’s laws should protect those who peacefully express religious views and punish those who threaten to use violence against others, not the other way around,” HRW deputy Asia director Elaine Pearson said. “If the government wants to prevent violence, it should send a message by punishing violent behavior.”
US law professor Cole Durham, who testified via videolink on behalf of the petitioners, said the decision “represents a missed opportunity” to reconcile the law with Indonesia’s international treaty obligations on human rights and bring the country into line with the trend in other democratic countries.
“This legislation empowers those in dominant religions to persecute and discriminate against those holding divergent views, and this in turn will exacerbate religious tensions in society,” he said.
Moderate Muslim academic Ulil Abshar Abdallah said the court did not seem to understand the Constitution.
“Our Constitution clearly guarantees freedom of expression. The law will become a time bomb in the future as it will muzzle minority groups that are different from the six mainstream religions,” he said.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but