Source & Credit: The Jakarta Post | Headlines
By Bagus Budi Tama Saragih | Jakarta
A group of NGOs concerned with religious freedom and democracy has filed a judicial review request at the Constitutional Court, asking the judges to review articles of the 1965 Blasphemy Law, which they deemed to discriminate against certain religious groups.
The group, calling themselves the Advocacy Alliance for Freedom of Religion, comprises seven organizations; Imparsial, the Policy Research and Advocacy (Elsam), the Indonesian Human Rights and Legal Aid Association (PBHI), the Institute for Studies on Human Rights and Democracy (Demos), the Setara Institute, the Desantara Foundation, and the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI).
Also included in the group filing the lawsuit were several individuals, such as the late Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid, Muslim activist M. Dawam Rahardjo and noted Islamic scholar Ahmad Syafii Maarif.
A lawyer for the group, Choirul Anam, told The Jakarta Post on Friday that Law No.1/1965 on Prevention of Religious Abuse and Blasphemy had raised a public outcry and triggered sectarian conflicts as the law required people to accept only the five official religions - Islam, Catholic, Protestants, Buddhism and Hindu. Confucianism was recognized later, thanks to Gus Dur.
"The law *considers' those with different faiths to be heretics. This is discriminatory and against the democratic spirit adopted by the country today, which should strongly protect the freedom of faith," Anam said.
"Our constitution guarantees religious freedom. All religious groups deserve equal treatment. Therefore, this law, which gives the government the power to intervene in religious matters, must be annulled.
"The law may have been relevant *when it was signed during the Sukarno era* but isn't anymore."
The alliance asked the panel of judges at the court to review three out of five articles on the law.
"We consider the articles not to be in line with the amended 1945 Constitution, Articles 28 and 29, which guarantee the equality of all citizens, including those with faiths outside the six religions," Anam said.
Article 1 on the law stipulates that no one is allowed to make interpretations deviating from the official religions' teachings.
"This is not right. Interpretations of certain religions are people's rights," Anam said.
"The government should guarantee such freedom. Instead, the government creates policies that have the potential to *justify' conflicts against certain religious groups."
Anam said the government should accommodate any sects or faiths in the country, "instead of using its arms, like the MUI *Indonesian Ulema Council*", to prohibit such religious groups.
The Constitutional Court may revoke the reviewed articles if the trials in the future prove them to be in conflict with the constitution.
The first trial will be held Feb. 4, hearing opinions from representatives of the government and the House of Representatives.
A sect that has frequently fallen victim to a number of horizontal conflicts is Ahmadiyah. Many mosques where Ahmadis pray have been burned down and followers in the West Java's Bogor, Sukabumi and Kuningan, and Lombok in West Nusa Tenggara, have been displaced.
The MUI has claimed Ahmadiyah to be a religious sect whose teachings are heretical.
Read here: NGOs request judicial review of religious blasphemy law
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