TheJakartaPost
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The undeniable courage of Ahmad Ishomuddin
Ahmad Ishomuddin is a young cleric who shocked us for his courage by being an expert witness in the Ahok trial on March 21.
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Ahok’s blasphemy case has further exposed Indonesia’s progressive Islamic movement, which currently has proven to be fragile and weak in its ability to spread its message to a general audience. (Media Indonesia/POOL/Ramdani/via JP)
T
he Jakarta gubernatorial election has escalated another dimension outside the political race — a massive and systematic use of religion to win votes.
This is actually not new to our elections. What makes the difference in the Jakarta election is the historic, first use of the Blasphemy Law in a gubernatorial election to charge one candidate, the incumbent Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama, for allegedly insulting Islam.
The controversy opens not only legal, but, more importantly, theological debates about Islam. However, propagators of the Blasphemy Law seem to dominate Islamic public discourse here.
Almost all the so-called moderate Muslim organizations support, to some extent, the accusation that Ahok has insulted Islam, excluding the executive body of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU).
This is evident in the ongoing trial in which witnesses presented by the state prosecutors are mostly among the religious leaders of NU, Muhammadiyah, the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) and the Islam Defenders Front (FPI).
It is a tiny minority who are bravely expressing their opinion that Ahok has not blasphemed religion.
The silence of many progressive Muslim scholars and activists to speak their opinions on Ahok’s blasphemy case is mostly due to their fear to be considered as defenders of Ahok, who is of Chinese descent and a Christian.
