Indonesia: Rights Advocates Call for Amendment/Revocation of Blasphemy Law Against Islam

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – Rights advocates are calling for Indonesia’s blasphemy laws to be amended or revoked, as the number of Islamic fatwas and arrests for blasphemy against Islam have increased at an alarming rate, Morning Star News (MSN) reports.

The Setara Institute rights group has reported that Indonesia saw the number of criminal blasphemy cases rise from 10 in 2021 to 19 last year, MSN said.

Accordingly, Setara has called on Indonesian police “to stop or at least implement a moratorium on the use of religious blasphemy articles” and has petitioned the government to take action against blasphemy laws that “are problematic legal provisions, with criminal elements that are vague and do not provide legal certainty,” MSN reports.

Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch has recorded 150 blasphemy convictions since Indonesia’s blasphemy law was enacted in 1965, with most of them occurring during the presidency of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono from 2004 to 2014, MSN said.

“In addition to the blasphemy law, in 2008, the government enacted the electronic transmission law that sets a punishment of up to six years in prison for those who post blasphemous content via the internet against any of the country’s official religions – Islam, Protestantism, Catholicism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Confucianism,” MSN noted in its report.

Although minority faith groups are protected under Indonesia’s constitution, the south-east Asian Muslim-majority country ranks 33rd on the US Open Doors World Watch List 2023 of the top 50 countries where Christians are persecuted.

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