AN Â Indonesian court yesterday ordered a local branch of the Paris-based Buddha Bar chain to close after convicting the licence holder of blasphemy.
Taking a leaf from Islam's book, furious Buddhists protest against 'blasphemy'
According to this report, it also ordered licensee PT Nireta Vista Creative, the official Jakarta tourism agency and Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo to pay damages of one billion rupiah (110,000 dollars) to the plaintiffs for distress.
The fools who took offence at the Buddha-themed establishment in Jakarta were a group called the Anti-Buddha Bar Forum. Said their lawyer Sunardjo Sumargono;
The licence holder was found guilty of blasphemy and of using Buddhist symbols and ornaments at an inappropriate place. We’re very pleased with the court’s decision. It’s a blessing for Buddhists. Justice has been served.
Central Jakarta district court spokesman Sugeng Riyono confirmed that judges ordered the bar to close:
As an unlawful act had been committed.
The court also found that the city authorities had failed to consider Buddhists’ religious sensitivities when they approved the licence.
The plush lounge bar and restaurant is the France-based chain’s first franchise in Asia, but it sparked protests almost from the moment it opened in late 2008 in an upmarket area of central Jakarta.
Its trademark Oriental styling – including a large sitting Buddha figure which dominates the bar area — infuriated mainly Muslim Indonesia’s Buddhist minority, who organised protests and a legal challenge.
The owners changed the name to “Buddhabar” but that failed to satisfy the Buddhists.
Muslims make up roughly 90 percent of Indonesia’s 240 million people, but the constitution also recognises the country’s Christian, Hindu, Buddhist and Confucian minorities.
The owners of the bar reportedly vowed to appeal the court’s decision, which could have implications for other hotels, bars and restaurants that feature decorative statues of Buddha.
The Freethinker was founded in 1881 by GW Foote, an outspoken critic of religion. After the publication of 
September 2nd, 2010 at 10:38 am
So mindless offense! screaming is no longer a muslim prerogative? Do they take offense?
September 2nd, 2010 at 11:21 am
Even if “blasphemy” were a proper crime, how would this qualify? Gautama Buddha never made any claim to being divine – that was one of the main tenets of his teaching!
September 2nd, 2010 at 11:31 am
See what happens when a nice friendly philosophy gets turned into a religion! When moderate forms a religion is allowed without poking at it as ridiculous they eventually get full of themselves then breed a bunch of trouble making arrogant self righteous fundies.
Buddha is a state of being not some 2-bit g0d. A few stiff ones is as good a way of changing your state of being as any!!!
Wonder what would happen if someone hung L.Ron Hubbard’s picture in a bar called Hubbard’s Cupboard?? We get a dozen Co$ members picking the place and screaming blasphemy???
Blasphemy laws are really pathetically stupid!!
September 2nd, 2010 at 12:11 pm
Sooner or later, there’s going to be a major brouhaha when somebody of one religion uses these laws to sue the houses of worship of another religion, on the basis that their own religion insists that the others are false and therefore preaching them is blasphemy. (I find it easiest to imagine Christians and Muslims in that role, but it could be any of them.)
As for Buddhism not being a religion: wrong. It’s a worldview incorporating unprovable supernatural elements, whether or not you believe in the gods that some versions tack on. There’s nothing in the word “religion” that says you need to have a god to have one, just as there’s nothing in the word “smug” that says you need to be a fundamentalist Christian to be that way.
September 2nd, 2010 at 2:17 pm
Barriejohn: It is, indeed, technically impossible to commit blasphemy against Buddha. As the man himself is supposed to have said, “if you meet the Buddha, kill the Buddha.” This is all about non-attachment to things, blah blah blah. For this reason, some ancient sages used to say Buddhists shouldn’t worry about people trashing Buddha statues and so on. (Easier said than done, because Islamic destruction of some beautiful Buddhist sites really upsets me, a non-believer, on a deep aesthetic level.)
The Vicar: indeed, Buddhism is a religion. It isn’t a theistic one, that’s all – at least, not in its original form. In the Chinese form, problems with translation into Mandarin and the absolute rigid literalism of the two Chinese characters used to represent Buddha meant that it had to become theistic. (The characters mean ‘not man’ – but to classify Buddha in a satisfactory ‘category’ that means he has to be a god.) Daoism is the other religion I can think of that doesn’t have any deities, and I think it’s technically possible to be a Hindu who doesn’t believe in gods.
In East Asian restaurants in the UK there is often a gigantic Buddha statue on the bar or near the till. Is that ‘blasphemy’ in the eyes of these prats, too?
September 2nd, 2010 at 2:37 pm
Sam Harris was right when he pointed out Buddhism is not as murderous as some religions, and in that most objective of metrics it is less objectionable religion. But Buddhism has problem of superstition, nonsense and theocracy. One place to start: The Shadow of the Dalai Lama.
The American term for getting a wind up over nothing is ‘butthurt.’ Many Muslims live in a constant state of butthurt, and perhaps these few Buddhists wanted to try some butthurt on for size.
September 2nd, 2010 at 6:15 pm
Garlic.
I enjoyed your post. I think the saying is “If you meet the Bhuddha on the road, kill him.” I understand that what they meant was that if anyone tells you they know what to believe and they have the truth ignore them. Apply your mind; think for yourself. The problem with Bhuddhism seems to be that they have so many divisions and so many ways that confusion is inevitable. Zen seems a better version of Bhuddhism and closer to The Tao.