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“Moderate” Indonesia gives “messiah” five years in prison for “blasphemy”

Mar 10, 2017 12:40 pm By Robert Spencer

“The verdict is another indicator of rising discrimination against religious minorities in Indonesia,” as Sharia gains more influence. Islamic apologists in the West constantly claim that Sharia is so multiform and diverse as to defy characterization, yet everywhere it’s implemented it looks essentially the same.

“Indonesia’s Sentencing of ‘Son of God’ Adds to Alarm Over Crackdown,” by Jon Emont, New York Times, March 9, 2017:

JAKARTA, Indonesia — Back in his days as a badminton coach with the Indonesian national team, Ahmad Mushaddeq traveled the world on the state’s dime. But after he became the spiritual leader of a back-to-the-land organic farming movement on the island of Borneo, regarded by his followers as the messiah who succeeded Muhammad, the government locked him up for the second time on charges of blasphemy.

This week, an Indonesian court sentenced him to a five-year prison term, and gave two other leading figures of Milah Abraham, the religious sect he established, prison terms as well. The sentences, delivered on Tuesday, were the latest in a continuing crackdown on new religious movements across Indonesia that has alarmed human rights groups.

“The verdict is another indicator of rising discrimination against religious minorities in Indonesia,” said Andreas Harsono, the Indonesia representative for Human Rights Watch. He called for a review of state institutions that “facilitate such discrimination, including the blasphemy law office.”

Indonesia’s blasphemy laws have become a focus of debate ever since Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, the hard-charging Christian governor of Jakarta, was indicted on charges of insulting the Quran in November. While his case has drawn the most attention, a significant portion of the more than 106 people convicted on blasphemy charges since 2004 are not Christians or even unorthodox Muslims, but self-proclaimed prophets and their apostles.

Indonesia, a Muslim-majority nation, has “a broken system of pluralism,” said Al Makin, a professor at Sunan Kalijaga State Islamic University in Yogyakarta, who testified as an expert witness on behalf of Milah Abraham at the three men’s trial. “If the government keeps this policy of arresting people who are different from the mainstream, it means the government denies pluralism.”

Milah Abraham, also known as Gafatar, is by far the largest religious movement to have emerged in Indonesia over the past few decades, claiming over 50,000 members around the archipelago. More than 25 members have been convicted on blasphemy charges over the last decade, including 11 who spent time in prison.

During that time, numerous other self-proclaimed messiahs have also languished in prison, including Lia Aminuddin, the founder of a sect who claimed that she was the wife of the archangel Gabriel, and Agus Noro, who claimed to be a reincarnation of Sukarno, Indonesia’s first president.

Though the Indonesian Constitution ostensibly guarantees freedom of religion, that freedom does not extend to new religious movements. The state authorizes just six official religions: Islam, Protestantism, Catholicism, Buddhism, Hinduism and Confucianism. Establishing a new faith is virtually impossible. Sects like Milah Abraham are criticized by Muslim councils and targeted by the police for promoting heresies.

“Freedom is guaranteed in Indonesia, but violations of the law are not allowed,” Boy Rafli Amar, a police spokesman, said via the WhatsApp messaging service, writing that Milah Abraham’s teachings contradicted those of Indonesia’s established religions….

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Filed Under: blasphemy, Featured, Indonesia Tagged With: Ahmad Mushaddeq, Milah Abraham


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Comments

  1. Angemon says

    Mar 10, 2017 at 12:59 pm

    But after he became the spiritual leader of a back-to-the-land organic farming movement on the island of Borneo, regarded by his followers as the messiah who succeeded Muhammad, the government locked him up for the second time on charges of blasphemy.

    Under islamic law properly applied, he should be killed. See? Indonesia is moderate!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    • utis says

      Mar 10, 2017 at 2:10 pm

      I’m afraid too many people of the leftard persuasion will take you seriously.
      With more cases like this however, the imams will gain clout and be able to demand execution — by the State or by a “spontaneous mob.”

    • gravenimage says

      Mar 10, 2017 at 4:28 pm

      I’m afraid this is true, Angemon–he wasn’t sentenced to death, so this is what passes for “moderate” in Islam. *Ugh*.

  2. mortimer says

    Mar 10, 2017 at 1:59 pm

    Blasphemy laws will only get worse around the world until governments start funding the deprogramming of Muslims right out of Islam. Governments must develop high quality films and educational materials to deprogram Muslims.

    Islam is totalitarian and uses authoritarian thought and supremacist ethics. Muslims must be convinced that Islam is 1) amoral 2) unhistoric 3) self-referentially incoherent… and then they will abandon Islam with confidence.

    • David Ramseur says

      Mar 10, 2017 at 2:19 pm

      Islam isn’t amoral, it is immoral. Amoral is relativistic thinking. Islam is objectively immoral.

    • gravenimage says

      Mar 10, 2017 at 5:19 pm

      Mortimer wrote:

      Blasphemy laws will only get worse around the world until governments start funding the deprogramming of Muslims right out of Islam. Governments must develop high quality films and educational materials to deprogram Muslims.
      …………………………..

      How would films and educational materials deprogram Muslims? Most Muslims know all about their vicious creed, and they like it that way. Why would they listen to “filthy Infidels” who consider Islamic oppression and savagery a bad thing?

      More:

      Islam is totalitarian and uses authoritarian thought and supremacist ethics. Muslims must be convinced that Islam is 1) amoral 2) unhistoric 3) self-referentially incoherent… and then they will abandon Islam with confidence.
      …………………………..

      How would we convince them of that? Mortimer, you yourself note that Islam is a supremacist creed–so why would they change their minds at the urging of people they consider inferior?

      And pious Muslims overtly reject reason, so convincing them that Islam is incoherent would do no good–moreover, they consider the Qur’an and model of the “Prophet” to be unimpeachable models, so they do not care that Islam is self-referentially incoherent. Saying that it is in the Qur’an or was something that Muhammed practiced is enough.

      And finally, I agree with David–Islam is not amoral, it is deeply *immoral*. An amoral person might treat his business associates or friends in a thoughtless, uncaring, or exploitative manner; he is probably not going to go on a murderous rampage as Muslims do, though.

      • Angemon says

        Mar 11, 2017 at 1:04 pm

        “How would we convince them of that? Mortimer, you yourself note that Islam is a supremacist creed–so why would they change their minds at the urging of people they consider inferior?”

        I, too, would like to know this. This sounds like the kind of paradigm shift that can only come from within.

  3. Crusades Were Right! says

    Mar 10, 2017 at 3:49 pm

    “Get your act together, or prepare for war!”

    Somebody in authority needs to say that to the various Retardistans infesting the globe, or the problem will only get worse.

  4. Eric Jones says

    Mar 10, 2017 at 6:39 pm

    What is it about Indonesia that so many odd ball religious cults spring up there?

    Eric

  5. UNCLE VLADDI says

    Mar 11, 2017 at 5:50 pm

    Of course sharia looks the same everywhere. It’s all based on extrapolating the ‘principles’ (mainly, criminally avoiding any real cause-and-effect, legal principles) found in the Qur’an; and it’s not like the four main schools of sharia jurisprudence (maddhab fiqhs) evolved or developed over long periods of time, taking precedents into account in order to further glean any principles, either: all four of the Sunni fiqh founders were contemporaries, who lived within one generation of Muhammad. Malik compiled his stuff from the hadiths, and he knew and met Haneefa, who trained Shafei, who in turn trained Hanbal.

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