A court in Indonesia has found the governor of Jakarta, a Christian, guilty of blasphemy and sentenced him to two years in prison.
His crime? He said in an election campaign that his opponents were deceiving people by saying that the Q’uran teaches that Muslims should not be led by non-Muslims.
This apparent questioning of the Q’uran sparked riots and an indictment against him. The court drew on the statements of an Islamist radical as an expert witness.
The conviction is evidence that radical Muslims are becoming more and more influential in Indonesia, which has a large Christian minority (including some six million Lutherans).
As the panel of five judges delivered the verdict condemning Jakarta governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama to two years in prison for blasphemy on Tuesday, they cited firebrand Islamist Habib Rizieq as a Koranic authority.
Imprisoned twice for inciting violence, the leader of the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) had until recently occupied the fringe of Indonesian society, his followers regarded as thuggish vigilantes with a penchant for extremism and extortion.
His recognition by the court as a venerable Islamic theologian – and the court’s verdict itself – highlights the rising influence of Islamist groups in Indonesia. It is the world’s largest Muslim-majority country but one with a multi-religious constitution and a tradition of tolerance. . . .
As he geared for an election to win another term as governor of the Indonesian capital last year, Purnama told a group of fisherfolk that his rivals were deceiving people by using a verse in the Koran to say that Muslims should not be led by a non-Muslim.
That comment triggered mass demonstrations, which were spearheaded by the FPI, and the blasphemy case against the ethnic Chinese and Christian governor.
[Keep reading. . .]
For more details, go here, where we learn that the judges gave Purnama a harsher sentence than the prosecutor was asking for!
Photo of Basuki Tjahaja Purnama by Goverment of the Province of Jakarta – http://www.jakarta.go.id/english/uploads/files/Basuki_Tjahja_Purnama.jpg, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=24178166
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