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Indonesia: Tearful Jakarta governor denies insulting Quran as thousands of Muslims call for his imprisonment

Dec 14, 2016 9:32 am By Robert Spencer

“The governor has apologised for his controversial remarks, which angered Muslims across Indonesia and drew hundreds of thousands to the streets of Jakarta in protests larger than any seen in many years.”

Notice that we never, ever see Muslims protesting in comparable numbers against the supposed “hijacking” of their religion by Islamic jihad terrorists. The mobs only ever seem to come out in force against “blasphemy” such as that supposedly committed by Ahok, or Muhammad cartoons, or statements of the Pope that are deemed offensive to Muslims.

Ahok’s “blasphemy” is just as ridiculous as murdering over a cartoon. He noted that some Muslims were invoking Qur’an 5:51 — “O you who have believed, do not take the Jews and the Christians as allies” — in order to exhort Muslims not to vote for him. A video circulated of him saying: “Ladies and gentlemen, you can’t vote for me because you’re being lied to by Al Maidah verse 51 and so on.” But the video had been maliciously edited: he didn’t really say that the Qur’an was lying to Muslims, but that certain people were lying to Muslim voters by invoking a passage of the Qur’an: “So don’t believe people – deep down ladies and gentlemen, you can’t vote for me because [these people] are lying to you using Al Maidah verse 51 and so on.”

Nonetheless, Ahok is in an impossible position. Even if he is acquitted, the mobs are already playing judge, jury and executioner, and he will be in danger of being murdered at any time and any place.

And remember: in the West, political and media elites encourage this sort of mob rage by treating Muhammad cartoons and other supposed acts of “blasphemy” as beyond the pale, and excoriating those who stand up for the freedom of speech.

“Tearful Jakarta governor denies insulting Quran in blasphemy trial,” Channel News Asia, December 13, 2016:

JAKARTA: Jakarta’s Christian governor choked back tears on Tuesday (Dec 13) as he gave an impassioned defence against charges of blasphemy, telling an Indonesian court he never intended to offend his Muslim countrymen.

Basuki Tjahaja Purnama – the first Christian to govern the capital in more than 50 years – is standing trial accused of insulting the Quran, an offence that carries a five-year jail term.

The governor has apologised for his controversial remarks, which angered Muslims across Indonesia and drew hundreds of thousands to the streets of Jakarta in protests larger than any seen in many years….

Facing court for the first time, the governor gave an emotionally charged defence against the charges, pausing several times to compose himself as he maintained his innocence.

“I know I have to respect the holy verses of the Koran. I do not understand how I can be said to have offended Islam,” Purnama said, occasionally dabbing his eyes with a handkerchief.

Purnama, better known by his nickname Ahok, ignited a firestorm of criticism in September when he quoted the Islamic holy text while campaigning ahead of elections for the Jakarta governorship.

The governor accused his opponents of using a Quranic verse in order to trick people into voting against him….

Critics say the controversy is as much about politics as religion, as the governor’s foes whip up anger to reduce his support ahead of the hotly contested poll.

He had long been the favourite to win the election owing to the popularity of his no-nonsense style and determination to clean up Jakarta, a crowded, polluted metropolis of 10 million.

But the scandal has eroded his chances of victory, with his opponents gaining ground since Purnama was named a suspect for blasphemy in November.

Prosecutor Ali Mukartono said the governor had “spoken a lie” and insulted Muslims, adding Indonesia’s top clerical council had declared his remarks blasphemous.

But Purnama said close Muslim family friends had played a enormous mentorship role in his life, and the allegations he had offended their religion hurt him deeply.

“I am very sad. This accusation is the same as saying I have offended my adoptive parents and siblings, whom I love and they love me back,” he said, his voice cracking.

He also listed the many services he had provided for his Islamic constituents, including the construction of mosques, support for religious schools and donation of sacrificial cows on sacred days.

A small band of his supporters kept vigil outside the court as a larger congregation of hardline Islamists chanted and held signs depicting Purnama in prison garb behind bars.

The courtroom was surrounded by police, with the proceedings being broadcast live on national television.

Outside the courthouse, dozens of protesters chanted and waved signs depicting Purnama behind bars in prison garb….

Police guarded the vicinity in heavy numbers, vowing to ensure there was no repeat of the violence seen at some protests against the governor.

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Filed Under: blasphemy, Featured, Indonesia Tagged With: Ahok, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama


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Comments

  1. Don McKellar says

    Dec 14, 2016 at 9:39 am

    Now how is the much different than the kangaroo court in the Netherlands who prosecuted Geert Wilders? The have dropped their country’s legal system down to the level of Indonesia.

    • eduardo odraude says

      Dec 14, 2016 at 12:15 pm

      Interesting how political correctness in Holland seems to merge rather seamlessly with the kangaroo law that is Sharia.

  2. Angemon says

    Dec 14, 2016 at 9:43 am

    The governor has apologised for his controversial remarks, which angered Muslims across Indonesia and drew hundreds of thousands to the streets of Jakarta in protests larger than any seen in many years

    Remind me again exactly how many Indonesians are ISIS supporters?…

  3. Stephanie says

    Dec 14, 2016 at 9:47 am

    ‘ @BMI_Bund (Interior ‘Minister’) calls Qur’an critics 9:12,61-6‘… cry-babies http://quran.com/10/4 , indignants 24:2 & splitters 98:6-7…’
    https://twitter.com/schnellmann_org/status/808990366435311616

  4. Stephanie says

    Dec 14, 2016 at 9:52 am

    quran.com/5/73 ‘blasphemie’ is ‘DISbelieve’ http://corpus.quran.com/translation.jsp?chapter=10&verse=70 … is ‘corruption’ quran.com/16/88, 7:103 ➡️ get ‘crucified’ 5:33 of prima donna allah

    https://twitter.com/schnellmann_org/status/808649307398242304

  5. Mac-101 says

    Dec 14, 2016 at 9:57 am

    Good old moderate Islam, where Obama spent his formative years! If THEY remove TRUMP expect to live under Sharia in a few more years under the benevolence of the Satanic NWO!

  6. Stephanie says

    Dec 14, 2016 at 10:11 am

    OT

    Fake news @BMI_Bund‘…abuse of a religion’ quran.com/2/216 http://quran.com/4/76 quran.com/8/39
    quran.com/9/29-33, 111

    https://twitter.com/schnellmann_org/status/809052223674187776

  7. Benedict says

    Dec 14, 2016 at 10:11 am

    It’s the Quran presented as an infallible revelation from Allah that is an insult to humanity:

    “The Koran claims for itself that it is ‘mubeen,’ or ‘clear,’ but if you look at it, you will notice that every fifth sentence or so simply doesn’t make sense. Many Muslims—and Orientalists—will tell you otherwise, of course, but the fact is that a fifth of the Koranic text is just incomprehensible. This is what has caused the traditional anxiety regarding translation. If the Koran is not comprehensible—if it can’t even be understood in Arabic—then it’s not translatable. People fear that. And since the Koran claims repeatedly to be clear but obviously is not—as even speakers of Arabic will tell
    you—there is a contradiction. Something else must be going on.[1]”

    Gerd Rüdiger Puin (born 1940) is a German scholar on Qur’anic historical orthography, the study and scholarly interpretation of ancient manuscripts. He is also a specialist in Arabic paleography. He was a lecturer of Arabic at Saarland University, in Saarbrücken Germany.

    • Arthur Simon says

      Dec 25, 2016 at 3:47 pm

      True. One of the surahs mentions that Allah, by allowing Mohammed to recite the words of the Koran, says that the “Way has been made plain”. Yet there are over 8 major schools of thought, not counting Yazids, Sufis, and others who are killing each other about what the Koran says and what it means.

      The way is made plain, my hind leg!

  8. Stephanie says

    Dec 14, 2016 at 10:21 am

    OT

    Subway ‘kicker’ identified, but not arrested – probably moved to Bulgaria

    http://translate.google.com.br/translate?hl=pt-BR&sl=de&tl=en&u=http://www.rbb-online.de/panorama/beitrag/2016/12/u-bahn-schubser-berlin-flucht-bulgarien.html

  9. john spielman says

    Dec 14, 2016 at 10:28 am

    all this governor’s tears cannot save him, he might as well fight the good fight and be killed as a martyr for the truth; allah IS Satan and muhmmed was a demon possessed amass murderer thief liar and pedophile pervert

  10. Charles says

    Dec 14, 2016 at 10:47 am

    Wow! It looks like that whole country has been over run by Brain Dead arse-wipes!
    But wait! Muslims are NOT ALLOWED to even use something to wipe their Arse!
    Gosh! It is so confusing.
    Standing jn a crowded elevater must be horrific! Nice place to visit?

  11. themightygoose says

    Dec 14, 2016 at 11:24 am

    Our leaders love Islam, It puts at their disposal an angry crowd that can easily be whipped up to silence or dispose of any opposition. Sharia law gives them unimaginable power. if you have enough money you are always above the law anyway.
    The elite is pining for the godlike power of the Saudis or Iranian ayatollahs .having people to blow themselves up is the ultimate expression of power for them.

  12. Jon Sobieski says

    Dec 14, 2016 at 11:34 am

    Purnama’s circus is islam in a nutshell and why the US will halt all muslim immigration to the US. The circus can stay in Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, etc, but it will not be touring the US.

    • eduardo odraude says

      Dec 14, 2016 at 12:13 pm

      I hope you’re right, but I won’t believe it till I see it.

  13. eduardo odraude says

    Dec 14, 2016 at 12:12 pm

    Remember all the people who used to point to Indonesia as the most populous Muslim nation and the one that proved democracy was compatible with Islam? What BS.

  14. Cretius says

    Dec 14, 2016 at 12:59 pm

    Wahhabism, financed by the Saudis, has moved into Indonesia in recent decades. You can bet those ultra-conservative zealots are behind the current unrest.

  15. Mirren10 says

    Dec 14, 2016 at 2:04 pm

    ”Jakarta’s Christian governor choked back tears on Tuesday (Dec 13) as he gave an impassioned defence against charges of blasphemy, telling an Indonesian court he never intended to offend his Muslim countrymen.”

    You need to grovel a bit more, sweetie. That just isn’t good enough.

    ”Basuki Tjahaja Purnama – **the first Christian to govern the capital in more than 50 years** ( my emphasis: Mirren) – is standing trial accused of insulting the Quran, an offence that carries a five-year jail term.”

    Does anyone else think that might just be salient ? The first **Christian** governor ?

    ”But the video had been maliciously edited:” See above.

    ” he didn’t really say that the Qur’an was lying to Muslims”

    A pity, since that is in fact the truth.

    ”but that certain people were lying to Muslim voters by invoking a passage of the Qur’an: “So don’t believe people – deep down ladies and gentlemen, you can’t vote for me because [these people] are lying to you using Al Maidah verse 51 and so on.”

    They’re **muslims**, Ahok, you can’t expect them to reason.

    “I know I have to respect the holy verses of the Koran. I do not understand how I can be said to have offended Islam,” Purnama said, occasionally dabbing his eyes with a handkerchief”

    Well, you’ve got the right dhimmi perspective; yep, you *have* to respect the koran, and God forbid you ‘offend’ islam …

    ”Critics say the controversy is as much about politics as religion …”

    islam *is* about politics. World power, to be precise.

    ”This accusation is the same as saying I have offended my adoptive parents and siblings, whom I love and they love me back,”

    No, mate, they don’t. The ummah trumps all. Have you only just discovered that ?

    ”He also listed the many services he had provided for his Islamic constituents, including the construction of mosques, support for religious schools and donation of sacrificial cows on sacred days.”

    Waste of time. mohammedans don’t feel gratitude; they *expect* dhimmis like you to provide them with whatever they want.

    ”Police guarded the vicinity in heavy numbers, vowing to ensure there was no repeat of the violence seen at some protests against the governor.”

    Good luck with that. As Robert notes, this poor man is a trussed goose, whichever way the verdict goes.

    I do hope he finally realises that he has been nurturing poisonous snakes in his bosom. That’s what mohammedans are, and have always been. No amount of grovelling and tears, and appeals to their ‘better nature’ (of which they have none) will change that. Attempts to get along with them, or deliberate and conscious appeasement, are a hiding to nothing.

    • Cretius says

      Dec 14, 2016 at 2:27 pm

      Islam is a fascist totalitarian political system that includes a religion of holy war, bigotry, intolerance, sexism and barbaric cultural practises. Mohammedans are their own worst enemies. They even kill each other! No one has to lie about Islam. Simply bear witness to the intolerance, bigotry and hatred expressed in Islamic teachings and spread by imams online and in the mosque. Mohammedans demand respect and rights that they deny to everyone else. This makes them unfit immigrants/refugees to modern western democracies.

      Allowing such a poisonous political system/religion in is tantamount to committing national suicide.

    • PRCS says

      Dec 14, 2016 at 11:58 pm

      “I know I have to respect the holy verses of the Koran. I do not understand how I can be said to have offended Islam,” Purnama said, occasionally dabbing his eyes with a handkerchief”

      Indonesia has five “official” religions.

      According to a Muslim woman I tweet with there, it is “permitted” to convert from one religion to another, but is is “probably” illegal to declare oneself an atheist.

      The mayor’s groveling and court appearance are, I believe:

      (1) to appease one of those religion’s followers and

      (2) Indonesian law likely prohibits criticizing other religions (read, the one religion of the five which forbids that)

      A human rights travesty, either way.

  16. Jack Diamond says

    Dec 14, 2016 at 2:26 pm

    Purnama best pack his bags.

    The Pact of Umar forbid dhimmis teaching their children the Qur’an. Muslims did not want kaffirs reading the Qur’an, for obvious reasons. Christians reciting verses from the Qur’an is considered slander and blasphemy because it’s intent can only be to harm Islam and because they “defile” the word of allah by uttering it. Something like that. These things incite Muslims to rage and riot and murder. Not the so-called perverting of Islam by the so-called extremists. Not the deaths of infidels at their hands. That must not truly insult Islam, therefore, and it does not truly anger them. A Christian, however, reciting from the Qur’an does.

    Lahore, Pakistan–‘You Cannot Quote From the Qur’an’ (May 24, 2012)
    “A CLERIC in Sialkot district disrupted a Saturday mass, abused the pastor and is now threatening to register a blasphemy FIR against him for drawing upon verses from the Quran during his sermon.

    Pastor Messiah George* had been invited by Data Zedka village Christians to give a sermon at the local church.

    According to Arif Hameed*, a school teacher who arranged the pastor’s visit, Qari Muhammad Fazal* disrupted the mass around 11 pm, abusing the pastor and threatening to kill him. Fazal had objections to the pastor reading Quranic verses during his sermon. “He [Fazal] tried to get through to the pastor but we were able to help him escape,” said Hameed.

    Fazal, when contacted, told The Express Tribune that Pastor George had “tried to justify the Christian point of view by giving Quranic references.” He said his “blood stared boiling” when he heard the pastor quoting from the Quran. “Yes, I abused them. I would have killed the pastor right there and then but I could not arrange for a weapon,” he said.

    He said he had given an application to the police, asking that they file a blasphemy FIR against the pastor and the parish.”
    (*names changed to protect their identities)

    http://tribune.com.pk/story/383313/face-off-you-cannot-quote-from-the-quran/
    ——————
    “I would have killed the pastor right there and then” said the cleric.

  17. Guest says

    Dec 14, 2016 at 2:55 pm

    You can’t even breathe without insulting some Mudlims

    • Cretius says

      Dec 18, 2016 at 1:24 pm

      Bottom line. EVERYTHING not Muslim is an offence to a Muslim. There can be NO accommodation with Islam.

  18. mortimer says

    Dec 14, 2016 at 9:12 pm

    Governor Ahok is now on a hit list. Eventually, some Muslim vigilante will try or succeed to kill him. He should leave the country to spare his life.

    What Westerners do not know is that Islam DOES NOT FORGIVE VERBAL COUNTERJIHAD even though Islam WILL forgive an enemy soldier following orders.

    ANYONE WHO CRITICIZES ISLAM SHOULD BE KILLED unless they are insane according to Sharia law.

    • Baucent says

      Dec 15, 2016 at 3:22 am

      I wonder if Obama would let him in as a religious refugee? In Pakistan when a politician suggested the countries blasphemy laws should be reviewed, he was murdered.

  19. Troybeam says

    Dec 15, 2016 at 12:11 am

    Best jihad against jihad: Know Islam’s books and speak against Islam using their words from their books, Islam cannot hide from their own books and truth, that will end all Islamphobia attacks.

  20. Baucent says

    Dec 15, 2016 at 3:18 am

    It reminds me of the blasphemy trials in Pakistan where innocent people are accused of insulting the prophet or the Koran and are lucky if they reach a court alive. You would think liberals would be howling against this sort of clear injustice in the name of the “honor of Islam”, but no they are all strangely silent.

  21. Lesley says

    Dec 15, 2016 at 3:31 am

    It is ridiculous that “offense” of any demographic’s sensibilities is punishable, in any way; ridiculous, backwards rubbish!

  22. FYI says

    Dec 15, 2016 at 5:08 am

    What exactly constititutes an insult to islam?That is such a nebulous area.
    A fart in a mosque?
    A cup of coffee accidently spilt on a copy of their holy book?
    The sight of a woman’s ankle when a gust of wind momentarily raises her burqa ?
    Misspelling the name muhammed as mahamooooot?
    Leaving the lights on in a madrasah?
    And what penalty would you specify?Death?But that’s murder isn’t it? …which of course is prohibited by GOD in His Sixth Commandment(.. try telling muslims that..) but actively encouraged by “allah” and that self-appointed prophet of death ,mahomet(who obviously missed the part about having to obey GOD’s comandments).

    How about the INSULT TO GOD by all the murders,tortures,rapes and wickedness carried out by members of the ROPist(Religion of Peace death cult)on behalf of their commandment-breaking “allah”?

    Not a word of protest.

    Take a look at GOD’S commandments given to Moses for ALL mankind.
    The koran/”allah”/mahomet are in violation of pretty much all of them especially the infamous “slay the unbeliever”K2:191 which is a command to violate the Sixth Commandment:to commit murder and do evil and thereby sin against GOD…

  23. Carole Kotkiewicz says

    Dec 15, 2016 at 7:32 am

    The thought police are at it again!

  24. Religion of PISS says

    Dec 15, 2016 at 8:51 am

    Quran 5:51 “O you who have believed, do not take the Jews and the Christians as allies”

    Everyone with sane mind undoubtedly agrees this verse is racist to the core, and the Indonesian non-muslim governor most probably would go to jail ONLY because of ‘softly’ disagreeing with this racist verse.

    Indonesia claims to be moderate and secular and besides that Indonesia factually is the largest muslim country in the world … cautious warning folks !!! this means Majority of this so-called Moderate Muslims do believe non-muslims should not be be taken as allies nor leaders which we could also conclude the majority of ‘Moderate’ American Muslim also hold the very same belief, they are just waiting patiently seeking every opportunity to replace the US government and its constitution with Shariah Law based Islamic government through peace (if possible) or through violence.

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