Jakarta, Indonesia - Leading human rights and legal organizations as well as a number of public figures, including former President Abdurrahman Wahid, on Tuesday demanded the Constitutional Court strike down a controversial law adopted in 1965 that they argue is discriminatory and limits religious freedom.
The groups, including the Institute for Human Rights Study and Advocacy (Elsham), Imparsial and the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI), argued that the Law on the Prevention of Blasphemy and Abuse of Religion, which carried jail terms of up to five years, was unconstitutional.
The law bans people from publicly espousing or gathering public support in favor of certain religious interpretations, and forces citizens to follow one of six state-sanctioned religions.
Choirul Anam, a lawyer representing the applicants, identified two major faults with Article 1 of the law.
“The first is that it prohibits people from having their own unique perception of religious norms. And secondly, it limits the number of religions [that can be legally followed] in Indonesia,” he said.
Following this article, he said, were five other related articles that stated that certain interpretations of religious teachings were wrong, and gave the president the power to ban any sects or religions and to jail followers.
“The government cannot give tickets to heaven,” Choirul said. “So it’s not its right to ban or to state that certain religious interpretations are wrong.”
Choirul said that in Indonesia, the followers of most major religions are grouped according to the different ways of interpreting their religions.
“In Islam, we know several interpretations such as Hambali, Hanafi, Syafi’i and many others,” he said. “Even organizations like Muhammadiyah and Nahdlatul Ulama have different interpretations of the way we should pray.”
He said the law was recently used as a legal base for several government ministries to issue a joint letter banning Ahmadiyah, a controversial minority Muslim sect that has suffered from constant harassment by mainstream Muslim groups.
The laws were also used to jail Kingdom of Eden sect leader Lia Aminuddin, who claims to be the bride of the biblical figure Archangel Gabriel, a “God” who has ordered that Islam and other religions be disbanded.
Choirul said the appeal against the validity of the law was not to defend any particular sect.
“We just want the government to free people to have their own interpretation, instead of being forced to follow the major interpretation of a religion,” he said. “However, in the case of sects or heretical teaching, leave it to religious communities or leaders, such as Ulema, to deal with it. It is not the right of the government to decide.”
Febi Yonesta, another lawyer, also took aim at the law for explicitly stating that citizens must conform to one of six religions — Islam, Christianity, Catholicism, Buddhism, Hinduism or Confucianism.
“Based on the Constitution, other religions besides the six major religions should be protected by the government,” Febi said.
The court gave the applicants two weeks to make their arguments clearer. “Applicants should make it clear whether the law is meant to protect religion or to limit it,” Judge Harjono said.