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.

Religion is a personal matter. It is an outrage that the courts or other public institutions have any jurisdiction whatsoever in such matters.
Jesper
Jakarta

He spoke the truth, so he goes to jail. Let us keep on lying. It is safer.
Hadi
Surabaya

Punished for honesty, he is in the august company of Socrates and Gallileo.
Wibowo
Jakarta

Our Constitution recognizes freedom of religion and other ways to express our belief in God. Also our state ideology Pancasila stipulates Belief in God as a principle. It is true that faith is a personal matter, including being an atheist.

Nothing is wrong if someone keeps it personal, but as soon as he (or she) declares it in public using public communication space with the intention of spreading his belief then he acts against the law. It is therefore just that he was sentenced by the court.

In my view, however, the sentence was too harsh.
Soebagjo Soetadji
Jakarta

Was that sentence lawful?
Ferdinandus Supandri

Saying “God does not exist” in Facebook landed the person in prison? Love how some media nowadays conveniently distort stories.

The guy was an atheist and the people around him knew it but didn’t care (probably some got
uneasy but overall everyone was cool).

It’s only when he decided to increase his ignorance level, by anonymously creating a Facebook group (the name of the group was “Ateis Minang”/Minang Atheist) and started to preach his holy message (and by holy I mean trashing religion, in particular Islam).

Intellectual discussion? Of course, everybody knows when you anonymously create a group/account it is nothing else other than to spread kindness and always being responsible for what you say, right?
Ryan Sukrisna

I fail to see why there should be a link between hurting others’ feelings, and being an insecure person, or even a bad person.
Anders Skov Johansen

This judgment is an utter disgrace. Shame on you, Indonesia. What an intolerant society you are.
Carsten John

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