A JUDICIAL review of Indonesia’s blasphemy law turned ugly yesterday when two members of two hard-line Islamic groups roughed up two lawyers acting for groups who want the law scrapped.
According to this report, several members of the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) and the Islamic Defenders Army (Laskar Pembela Islam) grabbed the lawyers and tried to persuade them to withdraw from the hearing.
Nurkholis Hidayat, a member of the legal team, said:
The mob kicked my legs while talking me into doing what they wanted.
His colleague, Uli Parulian Sihombing, received similar treatment.
Several people immediately produced cameras and mobile phones to take pictures of the bully-boy tactics. This ignited further rage among the hard-liners. They crowded around three men who were seen taking pictures and yelled at them:
Erase the pictures!
Culture expert Taufiq Ismail testifying during a hearing on the blasphemy law at the Constitutional Court on Wednesday. (JG Photo/SafirMakki)
One of the three, a member of the Indonesian Communion of Churches (PGI), captured several pictures and video clips of the incident. He said:
I was subjected to several slaps, kicks and punches to the stomach when a huge crowd chased me up the ramp leading to the first floor, where one of them tried to strangle me.
Earlier, Indonesia’s Minister of Religious Affairs Suryadharma Ali, warned of social breakdown if the law was to be abolished:
People, figures, could establish new religions, declare new prophets, new angels.
Suryadharma depicted a gloomy picture of conditions if the law was annulled. He said Islam and the Koran could be interpreted at will.
Maintaining religious harmony is essential, and maintaining harmony within the same religion is already difficult nowadays. The law should be secured. Freedom doesn’t have to be absolute. There must still be rules.
Indonesia recognises only six religions: Islam, Protestantism, Catholicism, Buddhism, Hinduism and Confucianism. Others are officially banned. It also prohibits alternative interpretations of recognised religions, including Islam.
In 2008, the government used the law to formally ban Ahmadiyah, a minority Islamic sect, because members held that its founder, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, was the last prophet of Islam, a claim that contradicts mainstream Muslim beliefs.
The Constitutional Court is currently reviewing the law following a demand for a review filed by human rights groups and the late former President Aburrahman “Gus Dur” Wahid.
Culture expert Taufiq Ismail testifying during a hearing on the (JG Photo/Safir Blasphemy Law at the Constitutional Court on Wednesday. Makki)
Note: Blasphemy and grumpy Muslims are not Indonesia’s only problems. It is also experiencing an upsurge of hemorrhoids, which an expert has blamed on “Western-style” toilets.
The Freethinker was founded in 1881 by GW Foote, an outspoken critic of religion. After the publication of 
March 25th, 2010 at 5:31 am
Indonesia is often presented as the best hope for a democratic secular majority Moslem nation, despite increasingly frequent reports of Islamization and the oppression of non-Moslems.Wishful thinking?
March 25th, 2010 at 6:29 am
I have been reluctant to tell you, but I am an Imam, and in my most recent meeting with Allah, he revealed to me the his one true prophet is Richard Dawkins. And he told me that rather than jihad, he has changed his policy to common sense. Then he groped my crotch and asked me if I ever considered catholic priesthood. Since I failed to achieve wood, and failed to spuz, I fear I failed the test. I guess I’m forever cursed to be a scientist.
NeoWolfe
March 25th, 2010 at 7:50 am
Actually, they are right about the rrhoids. Bum-grapes are common in the west and this has been shown to be a result of sitting on the pot.
March 25th, 2010 at 9:04 am
“People… could establish new religions, declare new prophets, new angels.” What – as Mohammed did?
March 25th, 2010 at 9:06 am
If squatting to poop is awkward you can help prevent sigmunds by raising your legs on a footstool during evacuation which relaxes the bowel.
Unfortunately the cure for islamic idiocy is not so easy.
March 25th, 2010 at 9:09 am
ROFL at this too: “Maintaining religious harmony is essential.” Glad to see so much evidence of that heavenly harmony here!
March 25th, 2010 at 9:12 am
I keep pissing myself these days, but I’m not blaming it on the onset of old age, it’s all the fault of this eastern claptrap that we are constantly bombarded with. (Wonder whether I can sue?)
March 25th, 2010 at 9:15 am
“……..Islam and the Koran could be interpreted at will.” Er… isn’t this what most muzzies do already; just like all the credulous who cherry pick bits of their books to suit themselves.
Very funny the muzzies have found something else to blame the West. Could a touch of the chalfonts have anything to do with their diet and daft eating rules.
March 25th, 2010 at 9:35 am
You’re right Angela. You can read the KKK’ran, and even memorize it, but, when it comes to practising your faith, you have to go to an imam to find out what it really teaches, and they seem entirely unable to agree about quite fundamental matters!
March 25th, 2010 at 10:11 am
Oh Noes! Not new angels!!! Then we’re all fucked…
March 25th, 2010 at 9:26 pm
Indonesian food is great Angela K! Can’t be their diet.
I know all about that since I am Dutch.
The Indonesians used to be such wonderful liberal people.
Very friendly folks.
It is only the fucking Koran that brings all this shit about.
60 Years ago Indonesian women ran around half naked.
Look at them now. I could cry.
March 26th, 2010 at 3:48 am
Quote: “I was subjected to several slaps, kicks and punches to the stomach when a huge crowd chased me up the ramp leading to the first floor, where one of them tried to strangle me.”
Foreigners!