An instructive event in “Islamically moderate” Indonesia remains timely as an illustration of Islamic “tolerance”: Meiliana, a Buddhist woman tired of enduring a loudspeaker near her home blasting out the Muslim Call to Prayer, had the temerity, back in 2016, to complain about the noise; she asked a Muslim neighbor if the volume might be turned down. For this mild request she was arrested, held for two years, finally put on trial, and then, having been convicted in August 2018 of “blasphemy,” she was sentenced to 18 months in jail. She lost her appeal in April 2019, but was released on parole the following month.
But did her complaint constitute “blasphemy” at all? She made no remark about the contents of the call to prayer, but only complained about its excruciating noise level. “Blasphemy” ordinarily means “the act or offense of speaking sacrilegiously about God or sacred things; profane talk.” Did she speak about God or sacred things? She did not. She was not complaining about the message, but only about the painfully loud broadcasting, right near her house, of the muezzin’s azan, five times a day. Had the noise been as loud and as frequent, from church bells, she would have complained just as forcefully. And why, one might well wonder, did the loudspeaker have to be used at all, given that nowadays, Muslims can receive on their phones, and most reliably, the Call to Prayer five times a day?
Some — including at least one Muslim working with Amnesty International — were outraged at the time of her conviction and sentencing:
Her lawyer, Ranto Sibarani, said they would appeal the verdict.
“We will appeal the verdict because the judges could not prove that our client has committed blasphemy,” he told The Jakarta Post.
Responding to the sentencing, Usman Hamid, Amnesty International Indonesia’s executive director, said: “Making a complaint about noise is not a criminal offence. This ludicrous decision is a flagrant violation of freedom of expression.
“Sentencing someone to 18 months in prison for something so trivial is a stark illustration of the increasingly arbitrary and repressive application of the blasphemy law in the country.
The news story about her appeal being denied contains this telling detail: “While she has so far served eight months for her crime, eight men convicted of destroying 14 Buddhist temples in the town were sentenced to average sentences of six weeks.” Yet there must be some judges in “moderate” Indonesia who recognize that a complaint about noise levels does not constitute “blasphemy.” And there must be some decibel level which the fair-minded will agree is simply too loud, no matter what the contents. Or is there to be no limit to the loudness of the Muslim Call to Prayer, amplified by loudspeakers, that neighbors must endure?
Remember, too, that the Call to Prayer of which Meiliana was complaining was broadcast through loudspeakers five times a day, beginning before sunrise and ending after sunset. She was convicted of “blasphemy”: in the Muslim view, no non-Muslim has a right to complain about how Muslims conduct any of their affairs, including the volume of the loudspeaker used by the muezzin who summons Believers to prayer. Muslims, after all, are “the best of peoples,” while non-Muslims are “the most vile of creatures.”
What does this incident tell us? It tells us that even in “moderate” Indonesia, Muslims, and the justice system, are quick to label as “blasphemy” almost anything non-Muslims do that offends them. And what offends them includes the uppity Infidel who dares to complain about noise levels, a complaint which is then labeled “blasphemy.”
Back in 2016, after Meiliana was first arrested for saying that the azan was “too loud” and “hurt” her ears, and for having asked a Muslim neighbor if the loudspeaker’s volume could be turned lower, enraged Muslims took out their fury on the entire community of Chinese in North Sumatra. A Muslim mob destroyed prayer equipment, statues of the Buddha, tables, chairs, lamps in Buddhist temples, while fourteen temples were set on fire, all because one woman had made a most modest request to lower the noise level.
Meiliana endured three years of hell, from the time she was first accused of blasphemy in 2016 until she was freed on parole last May. And she remains in great physical danger. She is not safe in her old neighborhood. Some Muslim or Muslims, still convinced that she was guilty of “blasphemy,” and that she was insufficiently punished, may well decide to inflict on her the punishment — death — that “blasphemers” deserve. She has likely moved from North Sumatra — turning her life upside down — and if she has not done so, she remains vulnerable. Even if she has moved in the six months since she was freed, she will never again feel quite safe in Muslim-majority Indonesia. All because she mildly inquired if a loudspeaker’s volume might just possibly be turned down.