Panji is a 77-year-old cleric and the head of the Al-Zaytun Islamic boarding school in Indramayu, West Java, which was founded in 1996 and currently houses some 5,000 students. The school has been embroiled in an increasingly heated public controversy since April, when footage of its unorthodox practices circulated on social media and prompted a call for its closure from conservative groups, including a group of local residents.

At the center of the furor is that it allows women to pray in the same row as men during congregational prayers and female preachers to lead Friday prayers, both of which depart from traditional Islamic practices.

The Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) previously called some of the practices at Al-Zaytun as a “mistaken interpretation of the Quran”, and that it had investigated the school in June for “misguided religious practices”.

That same month, Panji said the mixed-gender prayer was intended to promote equal rights for women, digital news portal Liputan6 reported.

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Panji was declared as a suspect on Wednesday by the special economic crimes subdirectorate of the National Police's Criminal Investigation Department (Bareskrim), and could face charges of religious blasphemy, hate speech and spreading fake news that carry a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.

The cleric has denied the accusations and released a statement through his lawyer that he felt “criminalized and politicized”.

'Threat to civil liberties'

Human rights activists have called Panji’s detention the latest example of minority discrimination and a violation of the country’s civil liberties, including the freedoms of speech, of religion and of worship.

“What Panji Gumilang said or did is part of his belief,” Arif Maulana from the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI) said on Wednesday at a press conference, which was organized by civil society organizations (CSOs) that have long been concerned about the use of the 1965 Blasphemy Law.

The CSOs, which included the Journalists Association for Diversity (Sejuk), called the cleric’s detention a “threat” to democracy in the country and urged the police to release him.

In a statement on Thursday, the think tank Setara Institute for Democracy and Peace said it was not surprised about the outcome in light of the growing number of blasphemy cases in recent years, particularly under the administration of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo.

The 1945 Constitution recognizes six religions and though the Blasphemy Law was enacted in 1965, the statute was rarely used before the end of the Soeharto regime in 1998.

Data from the Setara Institute showed that blasphemy cases skyrocketed during Jokowi’s two terms to 122 cases in 2014-2022, compared to a combined total of 54 blasphemy cases in 2004-2013, including zero cases in 1999-2001.

One notorious case is that of former Jakarta governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama, a Christian of Chinese descent, who was convicted of blasphemy and sentenced to two years in 2017.

Read also: Islamic preacher Panji Gumilang under fire over unorthodox views

Andreas Harsono, a researcher at Human Rights Watch, said the issues surrounding Panji and Al-Zaytun should have remained part of the theological debate in Islamic circles about women’s roles. But instead, it turned into a legal case showing that the Blasphemy Law was again being weaponized to silence critical and minority views.

“It's obviously cruel to prosecute someone like Panji, an elderly cleric, for so-called blasphemy simply for his views on women’s rights,” Andreas told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

Shortly after he was declared as a suspect and detained on Wednesday, Panji filed a request with the police that his detention be suspended.

He had yet to receive a response at the time of publication, while the National Police spokesman was not immediately available to respond to the Post’s request for comment.