Indonesia is facing renewed calls to repeal its controversial blasphemy law after the jailing of Jakarta’s Christian governor, with critics pointing to a sharp increase in its use to target minorities.
Basuki Tjahaja Purnama was jailed for two years on Tuesday for blasphemy over comments he made about Islam while campaigning for re-election to the capital of the Muslim-majority nation, a far harsher sentence than had been expected.
Critics viewed the case as unfair and politically motivated. The allegations were pushed by hardliners who opposed a non-Muslim as governor, and sparked a series of mass protests that dented Mr. Purnama’s popularity and contributed to him losing the race for the Jakarta governorship to a Muslim rival last month.
Light-hearted remark
The allegations against Mr. Purnama centred on a light-hearted remark he made about his rivals using a Koranic verse in order to trick people into voting against him, which judges ruled amounted to blasphemy against Islam.
The blasphemy legislation has been on the statute books in Indonesia since 1965 but was rarely used before 1998, when three decades of authoritarian rule under brutal dictator Suharto — who sought to run the country along largely secular lines — came to an end.
