Religion
Related: About this forumWhose Blasphemy? The Atheist Case for 'Religious Freedom'
May 24, 2012
By Austin Dacey
It is hard to imagine a less hateful person than Alexander Aan. Mild and soft-spoken, the 30-year-old Indonesian bureaucrat recently told Al Jazeera, in an interview conducted just outside his jail cell, As a democracy and part of the global community, because we are not isolated from the outside world, I think we should be more tolerant. Nobody hurts anyone simply because he has different ideas. And yet Aan is facing up to 11 years in prison for blasphemy and inciting religious hatred because he voiced his skepticism about Islam on Facebook.
In the West, the paradigms of blasphemy are fair-haired Danish cartoonists drawing the Prophet and Richard Dawkins badmouthing Yahweh. The public debate is about how to balance freedom of speech with respect for religious belief. But Alexander Aans case, playing out in the worlds most populous Muslim country, represents a much different global reality. Here the value at stake is not just freedom of speech, but freedom of conscience. The real contest is not between atheists and believers, but between those who affirm the equality of all persons of conscience and those who deny it.
Aan was arrested in a small town in West Sumatra on January 18 after a number of local residents assaulted him at work in an act of self-styled vigilantism. They were reacting to some of his postings on a Facebook page devoted to atheism: a note entitled the Prophet Muhammad was attracted to his own daughter-in-law; a comic suggesting the Prophet slept with his wife's maid; and a status update reading, If you believe in god, then please show him to me.
Prosecutors have charged Aan under the Electronic Information and Transaction Law, which prohibits inciting hatred or enmity of a religious group, and under the countrys blasphemy provision, Article 156a, which criminalizes hostility, hatred or contempt and disgracing of a religion. Article 156a also prohibits attempts to persuade others to leave their religion and embrace atheism.
http://www.religiondispatches.org/archive/atheologies/6012/whose_blasphemy_the_atheist_case_for_religious_freedom/
dmallind
(10,437 posts)I wonder how far the intent of the various authors differs.
trotsky
(49,533 posts)"hostility, hatred or contempt"
Almost as if some DUers agree with the fundamentalists that blasphemy must be prevented and/or punished.
rug
(82,333 posts)trotsky
(49,533 posts)In an attempt to shame, scold, or otherwise punish the heretics.
Like I said, the similarities are striking...
rug
(82,333 posts)and not "hostility, hatred or contempt"?
Angry Dragon
(36,693 posts)ProgressiveProfessor
(22,144 posts)Angry Dragon
(36,693 posts)cbayer
(146,218 posts)Angry Dragon
(36,693 posts)I stated that churches do not believe in religious freedoms for other religions
cbayer
(146,218 posts)in religious freedoms for other religions.
But blanket statements are easy.
cbayer
(146,218 posts)I don't think we can even imagine what it is like to live with these kinds of laws.
dimbear
(6,271 posts)Shall we say a possible future?
Brrrrr.