Indonesian Atheist Beaten by Mob, Arrested

Last month, The Telegraph (UK) carried a story about a man in Indonesia beaten by a mob and then arrested for blasphemy after stating that God does not exist on his Facebook page. The man, named only Alexander, showed up for work and was attacked by a mob, part of which consisted of his colleagues. He was then taken into protective custody and later arrested and charged with blasphemy which carries a five-year sentence. According to the Telegraph, “Under the Indonesian criminal code blasphemy is defined as publicly expressing feelings or taking some action that spreads hatred, abuse or taints a religion in a way it would cause someone to disbelieve any of the country’s six official religions.”

Thanks to Volokh Conspiracy for bringing this story to my attention.

American Convicted of Blasphemy in Indonesia

According to Howard Friedman's Religion Clause Blog, an American was recently convicted of blasphemy in Indonesia and sentenced to 5 months in jail. The American, Gregory Luke, became upset with a local mosque's broadcasts of the call to prayer during Ramadan. Although Luke denied it, the court found that he pulled the plug on the mosque's loudspeakers and therefore committed blasphemy and related crimes.

New Report on Blasphemy in Seven Countries

As noted in Howard Friedman's Religion Clause Blog, an organization called Freedom House has issued a major report titled Policing Belief: The Impact of Blasphemy on Human Rights. The report examines blasphemy in seven countries (Algeria, Egypt, Greece, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, and Poland) and concludes that such laws severely impact freedom of expression and religion. I haven't yet read the report, but I hope to do so and discuss it in more depth in a future post.