Text your say: Criminalizing atheism

Your comments on the Padang District Court sentencing on Friday a man to two and a half years for blasphemy and for publicly declaring himself an atheist.

Jailed for being an atheist? I’m a Catholic and feel freedom of speech is the only thing that allows the classes to be equal. If your government has guts, it will overturn any ruling like this and treat these hard line Muslims as a joke. They give moderate Muslims a bad name.

Mike Cummins
Sydney

The problems with that man are his blasphemy and his publicly declaring himself an atheist. Silence is golden and speech is in this case not silver but catastrophic. One has to reap what one sows.

E Nurdin
Jakarta

It made the news the world over. Good publicity stunt, Indonesia. Now playtime is over. Back to fighting the abject poverty, corruption and grave mismanagement in a potentially beautiful nation.

Philippe
Pontianak

Come on silent majority, speak up! Are we all cowards?

Sjeline Lukiman

The narrow-mindedness of the Sijunjung District Court is simply gross and deeply appalling. The government should pay attention to more important things like rampant corruption, roads full of potholes and unemployment.

Paul Faigl

He was never charged in court with being an atheist. What did he do then to be sent to prison when FPI thugs weren’t after killing and attacking others?

“Alexander may be the first person in Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation, to be imprisoned for being an atheist.” No he is not. That is a gross mis-reporting to deceive readers since he was never charged in court with being an atheist.

CrossEye

Now they have outlawed atheists in Indonesia I will never be travelling to Indonesia for a holiday, I am sure my fellow atheists will not be going as well. What a disgrace, the extremists have won, the more you give them the more they will take.

A stand should have been taken and now it is too late. Lady Gaga, then this, what next? Where are the moderates, are there any moderate Muslims in Indonesia?

Mark El

How weak and fragile are some people’s beliefs? What passes for faith in Indonesia seems sometimes to be the coalescing of people into the largest/strongest group. People who have no identity or purpose without the enemies they create to oppose.

This guy is in jail for doing nothing. He terrorized no one. He kicked no one’s door in. He killed no one. He disrupted no one.

Compare that to the FPI. Compare that to the self-appointed “preachers” who block the streets. Compare that to all the people behind government desks claiming to be good Muslims with hands out for a kickback.

John

Sadly no, atheists do not have a place in Indonesia. Neither do agnostics.The reason is that religion is used here as a tool of social control. Not subscribing to the list of “approved” religions means you are not subject to their control, and therefore you a threat.

One day in the future we will be civilized enough to have a rule of law according to how we behave and what kind of people we are, irrespective of how (or if) we pray, and what kind of uniform we wear. But that day has not come yet.

Deedee S

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A survey by the Indonesian Survey Circle reveals that the Golkar Party will benefit at the expense of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s Democratic Party in the 2014 general election and possibly win. What do you think?

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