INDONESIA - Religious leaders disagree over blasphemy law

Published Date: February 8, 2010

Religious leaders disagree over blasphemy law thumbnail

Siti Musdah Mulia

JAKARTA (UCAN) –- Religious leaders disagree over whether Indonesia’s 1965 anti-blasphemy law should be changed following an initial judicial review held last week by the Constitutional Court.

The court began a review of the law on Feb. 4 after seven NGOs and several individuals, including late former president Abdurrahman Wahid and Siti Musdah Mulia who directs the Indonesian Conference on Religion and Peace (ICRP), challenged the law last year.

“We observed that some articles of the law were misused by certain groups in order to commit violent acts against other groups,” Mulia told UCA News Feb. 6. She cited attacks on church buildings as well as followers of the Ahmadiyah Islamic sect.

The law introduced by president Soekarno applies to balsphemy against any religion recognized in Indonesia – Islam, Buddhism, Catholicism, Protestantism (considered diferent religions), Confucianism and Hinduism. Offenders can be jailed.

“We let people express themselves freely, but they should do it responsibly,” Mulia said.

The 1945 Constitution stipulates that the state guarantees each and every citizen the freedom of religion and of worship.

Father Antonius Benny Susetyo, executive secretary of the Catholic bishops’ ecumenical and interreligious affairs commission, welcomed the judicial review. “The [anti-blasphemy] law is against the 1945 Constitution,” he told UCA News.

According to the diocesan priest, the law is discriminatory and does not guarantee freedom of religion. He also suggested that the national government would soon revise the law.

However, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) and Muhammadiyah, , the country’s first and second largest Islamic organizations respectively, as well as the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) oppose the judicial review.

Amidan, who heads MUI, said he rejects any review or abolition of the law unless a similar law is promulgated. “We cannot agree with the law’s abolition, because it will create horizontal conflicts,” he told UCA News.

IJ08758/1588 February 8, 2010 33 EM-lines (299 words)

INDONESIA – Church attacks increase in SBY’s first 100 days
Hundreds Of Religious-freedom Violations Occurred In 2008, Report Says

Rate this article