Siti Aisyah, the owner of an Islamic learning center, has been sentenced to two years and six months in prison for spreading “misguided” Islamic teachings. Siti was found guilty of violating Article 156 of the Criminal Code (KUHP) on blasphemy.
The sentence handed down by the Mataram District Court in West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) is lighter than the prosecutor’s demand of three years’ imprisonment. Presiding judge Didiek Jatmiko said Siti had been proven guilty of spreading teachings that contravened Islamic principles.
Didiek said Siti did not admit her fault, insisting that what she taught did not go against the principles of Islam. Siti, who is the owner Rumah Mengenal Al-Quran (Home to learn Quran), had reportedly taught her followers that the Quran did not oblige Muslims to pray. She also reportedly rejected Al-Hadist (Prophet Muhammad’s words and attitudes) as a religious guideline.
Ahok got 2 years jail in Indonesia for blasphemy and the world cries foul. Yes its jail time. Not murder.
When The Rohingyas were persecuted, not many were outrightly denouncing the Myanmar government for its crimes against humanity.
Islam got slammed instead for bigotry. Clerics are ridiculed. Judges chastised. The press also solidifies the hatred/prejudice some people have for the religion by pushing out articles to make the religion look bad instead of correctly pointing the atrocities of humans, using religion to promote their political agendas.
Shanmugam recently has called on the United States (and the world) to pay attention to the rise of “political Islam” and radicalism in Southeast.
Instead, I say we should also pay close attention toward islamophobia.
With rising islamophobia across the world and Singapore, the Muslims in Singapore are walking on a tightrope. We get scrutinized even for raising fundamental issues.
The government’s distrust on the Malay/Muslim community dates back to LKY’s era. It has continued with the current administration led by his son Lee Hsien Loong but with a new dimension added to it. ‘Radicalization’
With radicalization on the rise, and the effort to look into its emergence in Singapore, rightfully, the government may have fail to also give due consideration towards an emerging trend in Singapore. Islamophobia.
I’d came across many postings on social media to kill the Muslim. To incarcerate anyone with the slightest differences of opinions. To remove citizenships of Singaporean Muslims and ship them ‘back’ to Saudi/Pakistan etc etc.
It’s a growing trend if left unchecked, may rip apart the delicate social fabric currently maintained.
Radicalization is a problem. So is Islamophobia. Deal with it concurrently without further aggravating the growing pressure my community faced from the gov and public.
Jakarta’s Christian governor has been sentenced to two years in jail for blasphemy, a harsher-than-expected ruling critics fear will embolden hardline Islamist forces to challenge secularism in Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation.
Tuesday’s guilty verdict for Basuki Tjahaja Purnama comes amid concern about the growing influence of Islamist groups, who organized mass rallies during a tumultuous election campaign that ended with Purnama losing his bid for another term as governor.
President Joko Widodo was an ally of Purnama, an ethnic-Chinese Christian who is popularly known as “Ahok”, and the verdict will be a setback for a government that has sought to quell radical groups and soothe investors’ concerns that the country’s secular values were at risk.
As thousands of supporters and opponents waited outside, the head judge of the Jakarta court, Dwiarso Budi Santiarto, said Purnama was “found to have legitimately and convincingly conducted a criminal act of blasphemy, and because of that we have imposed two years of imprisonment”.
Shahbaz Taseer, the son of a Pakistani politician, has spoken out about his four years in captivity.
Mr Taseer was seized by gunmen in Lahore in August 2011, months after his father Salman was killed for opposing Pakistan’s blasphemy laws.
He told the BBC he was “tortured badly” while being held – but that he found solace in listening to Manchester United matches on the radio.
He said he was eventually released by a senior member of the Afghan Taliban.
Mr Taseer was reunited with his family in March, but has not spoken out about his experience in captivity until now, amid unanswered questions over how he was freed or whether a ransom was paid.
He says he was held by Uzbek militants, before eventually being passed to the Taliban.
Recounting the day he was captured, Mr Taseer told the BBC’s Today Programme: “I was ambushed by about five men… My first instinct was they were going to kill me.”
“They drugged me five minutes after abducting me. I passed out – they had beaten me up very badly because I was moving and screaming while being drugged.”
While held by Uzbek militants, he says he was “tortured badly”, and that he and his captors “could never relate to each other”.
“I didn’t want a friendship. I was [categorical] – you’ve done this for money, you’ve ruined my life. You’re not going to find me being gracious at even a piece of bread you throw me.”
However, he and his guard did find common ground – because they were both Manchester United fans.
“I would listen to these Manchester United games every Saturday and Sunday on the radio on BBC. My guard, he was a Manchester United fan, but for him [listening to the games] was a sin.”
They would listen to the matches together in secret, Mr Taseer said, and celebrate the goals together in silence.
“Can you imagine, you’re watching a game, your team scores, and everybody screams, but here we are air jamming our celebrations.”
However, the two were not friends, Mr Taseer said. “For me, [listening to the matches] was [for my] sanity, to listen to something about the world.”
Mr Taseer said his ordeal ended after he was taken prisoner by the Afghan Taliban, who eventually let him go.
“I found someone who was senior Afghan Taliban – he worked some magic, organised for me to meet a few motorcyclists who had no idea who I was. I just got on the back of the motorcycle and came to Pakistan.”
He said being back home, “to wake up and have breakfast with my mother, and see her face”, was “the most unbelievable feeling”.
Egypt’s prime minister has sacked the justice minister, Ahmed al-Zind, after he was criticised for saying he would jail Islam’s prophet Muhammad himself if he broke the law.
Zind’s comments came in a televised interview on Friday. Upon realising what he had said, Zind immediately stopped and said: “I ask for forgiveness from God.” He also issued an apology in another interview on Saturday, but to no avail.
“Prime minister Sherif Ismail issued a decree today to relieve Ahmed al-Zind … of his position,” a government statement said, giving no more details.
Zind, a former appeals court judge, had been publicly outspoken in his criticism of the Muslim Brotherhood removed from power by the army in mid-2013 and banned as a terrorist group.
He has in the past denounced the 2011 revolt that ended Hosni Mubarak’s 30-year rule and ushered in the election that brought the Islamist movement to power. He has also been a strong defender of the judiciary and its powerful position.
Egyptian judges issued a statement opposing Zind’s removal over what the head of the Judges Club told Reuters was a slip of the tongue that could have happened to anyone.
“Egypt’s judges are sorry that someone who defended Egypt and its people, judiciary and nation in the face of the terrorist organisation that wanted to bring it down should be punished in this way,” said Abdallah Fathi.
Egyptian courts have been absolving Mubarak-era officials, while imposing long sentences on liberal and Islamist activists.
Egypt’s judiciary has faced criticism from rights groups in the past two years after judges issued mass death sentences against Muslim Brotherhood supporters, locking up youth activists and sentencing writers and journalists.
Zind’s predecessor was also forced to resign last May after saying the son of a garbage collector was ineligible to serve as a judge.
It was not immediately clear who would replace him.
Reuters and Agence France-Presse contributed to this report
