AN Indonesian court yesterday sentenced a 64-year-old American to five months in jail for blasphemy for pulling the plug on a mosque’s loudspeaker during a prayer reading.
Gregory Luke pictured in police custody
The August 22 incident, according to this report, occurred during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and resulted in retired Californian engineer Gregory Lloyd Luke, 64, needing a police escort from his home on Lombok island as a mob tore it to pieces around him.
Chief judge Suhartoyo told a court in Praya, Lombok:
He was found guilty of committing blasphemy, carrying out an act of violence and hampering people in Kute village from doing their religious activities.
Luke had previously denied pulling the plug, but in a brief comment Wednesday said he was “satisfied” with the judges’ ruling.
The verdict was two months lighter than the jail term sought by prosecutors a day earlier. The Indonesian criminal code stipulates that an act of blasphemy carries a maximum five-year jail term.
Setting out mitigating circumstances, the judge said:
The defendant has never committed a crime before, acted politely during the trial and expressed regret for his act. He also participated in promoting tourism here.
Luke, who runs a guesthouse for tourists on the islands, will get his freedom back in mid-February 2011.
Wearing a sarong, polo shirt and black Muslim hat, he said outside the courtroom that he accepted the ruling.
Luke has previously denied pulling the plug on the loudspeakers used to broadcast the call to prayer – a feature on most mosques in Indonesia.
In comments to local media, he has said he went to the mosque to ask for the volume to be turned down and was set upon by a group of local youths, who pushed him to the ground and pelted him with rocks.
A mob then chased him to his home and ransacked it as police looked on, apparently unable to intervene, he said. No one has been charged with any offence related to the mob attack on his house.
According to this report, judge Suhartoyo said another factor in Luke’s favour was the fact that he was himself a Muslim and had claimed it was never his intention to blaspheme Islam.
Hat tip: BarrieJohn
The Freethinker was founded in 1881 by GW Foote, an outspoken critic of religion. After the publication of 
December 16th, 2010 at 10:42 am
so a fake non-crime means prison, but there’s no penalty for assaulting a guy and looting his house?
December 16th, 2010 at 11:08 am
He chose to buy into the religion and live where it’s enforced maniacally. I’m having trouble working up much sympathy.
December 16th, 2010 at 11:16 am
So the message to would be investors is ‘don’t come here to for example, run a guest house that brings money and jobs to the local economy because Allah will provide for us.’
December 16th, 2010 at 12:21 pm
with that hat the silly bastard looks like he should be in a shriners parade, not pissing off the locals in some sub-tropical 7th century hell-hole
December 16th, 2010 at 12:32 pm
He is lucky not to get the death sentence as he might have done in Pakistan.
December 16th, 2010 at 1:26 pm
I wonder what the nature of the threats were which were made to prevent him from causing a fuss. Probably torture and death (all legal in Death Cult countries)
December 16th, 2010 at 2:57 pm
My immediate thoughts as well, Newspaniard. Victims of the whims of Tudor kings always had to give a little speech before departing this scene saying how wicked and deserving of punishment they had been, and how just and holy the monarch was, otherwise they knew what would happen to their families and loved ones. Those quotes meant nothing to me.
December 17th, 2010 at 1:34 pm
Reminds me of the time Dad sneaked into a mosque in the u.a.e and swapped the call to pray for a tape of the rolling stones, “I can’t get no satisfaction” lol
December 17th, 2010 at 2:09 pm
@hissing sid. Stoned to death was he, your dad, Sid?
December 17th, 2010 at 2:38 pm
The remark about Henry VIII etc is spot-on. Poor bloke set the controls of his time machine to the wrong era in the history of civilization.
December 18th, 2010 at 2:01 am
Okay, Bjohn,
I challenge you to litigate that this is not your ultimate hypocrisy. Your best defense would probably be too forensicly examine your past posts where you much clearly exposed your prejudice.
Your argument seems to be that one muslim can unplug another muslim. For the sake of expedience, let’s stipulate. But, can one freethinker unplug another. Harrass, intimidate, or censor another freethinker because they don’t share the same view of the universe? Do humanists and agnostics deserve to be treated as blasphemers because they disagree with your purist rhedoric, should they be burned at the stake for “magical thinking”?
Stating frankly, people like you are the biggest anchor on the freethinker movement. You deliberately humiliate people who have legitimate scientific arguments. It’s not a debate or exchange of thought, it’s a messiah despensing wisdom. (the pope comes to mind). So now I’m the Satan fucking up your kingdom. An oriental castle with rice paper walls.
Reread your own article, then look in the mirror Bgod.
NeoWolfe
December 18th, 2010 at 9:16 am
@barriejohn, you are reminded of the rules about feeding trolls.
@NeoWolfe, SLAAAAAP!!
December 18th, 2010 at 10:24 am
You’ve just done that very thing, Newspaniard!
December 18th, 2010 at 10:31 am
Ho Hum.
December 19th, 2010 at 1:05 pm
To: Sailor1031
“sailor1031
December 16th, 2010 at 12:21 pm
with that hat the silly bastard looks like he should be in a shriners parade, not pissing off the locals in some sub-tropical 7th century hell-hole. ”
No Sir, Lombok is anything but a hell hole in spite of the fanatical muslim population.
True, they turn you nuts with their damned (sic) ubiquitous loudspeakers, propped on top of a bamboo pole and fed by batteries in the remotest hamlets without a mosque. I am hardly a supporter of any religion and I prefer to call them “tradition”, which they are. Tolerance of weird and sometimes annoying local customs is the price to pay when visiting or establishing oneself in foreign lands.
Why not get yourself state-of-the-art earplugs and go and visit Lombok and all it has to offer, apart from loudspeakers: you will be impressed, and yes, the average locals are very friendly even towards us, infidels.
To return to the crux of the matter, the convicted “blasphemer” was simply victim of “loudspeaker rage” as one succumbs to “road rage” in Non-7th century hell holes elsewhere in the West.
As for the funny cap, I myself find it far less ridiculous than the ugly American basaball cap. A matter of taste, I suppose…
December 19th, 2010 at 5:08 pm
I sympathise with your views, Anakapuana. People have been convicted of interfering with church bells in this country for similar reasons. It is the idea that this “noise rage” should be termed “blasphemous” which is so offensive.