An Islamic boarding school and its leader in Indonesia are under fire for its unorthodox teachings on Islam, facing charges of blasphemy and hate speech filed by authorities in the Muslim-majority country.
Panji Gumilang, head of the Al-Zaytun school, says in a recent interview with Metro TV that women and men were equal according to his interpretation of the Koran. https://t.co/4lxClfbA5j
Several human rights groups in Indonesia have called on the government to place a moratorium on blasphemy, urging them to amend the country’s laws on blasphemy and calling on the police to temporarily halt the enforcement of blasphemy-related articles to stop the abuse of religious minorities in the Muslim-majority country.
Indonesia’s national legislature passed a new criminal code on December 6 that will criminalize pre-marital sex.
The new criminal code will apply to Indonesians and foreigners alike, and the punishment for sex outside marriage would be up to a year in prison. Aside from pre-marital sex, the new criminal law would also penalize cohabitation between unmarried couples as well as insulting the President or state institutions, expressing opinions against Indonesia’s state ideology, and staging protests without a permit.
Southeast Asia is home to 250 million Muslims. According to a new report, 1 in 3 consider themselves more religious than their parents.
“The New Muslim Consumer” was released on September 21 by the marketing, research, and advertising company Wunderman Thompson Intelligence. The report explores how religious observance affects consumer market trends.
On April 6, a Christian Youtuber in Indonesia was sentenced to ten years in prison for allegedly posting offensive videos. According to the Union of Catholic Asian News (UCA News), prosecutors insisted on the 10-year jail sentence.
The 56-year-old Muhammad Kace, a former Muslim cleric who converted to Christianity, has uploaded at least 450 videos on his Youtube channel. AS of the writing of this article, Kace’s videos are still available.
A recently opened Holocaust museum in Indonesia's North Sulawesi province is causing an outcry from conservative Muslims and Islamic scholar groups. The groups are demanding that the permanent exhibition and museum dedicated to the horrors of the Holocaust be closed.
Sudarnoto Abdul Hakim, head of foreign relations and international cooperation of the country's Indonesian Ulema Council, said they demanded that the exhibition stop and cancel the museum.
On January 13, a couple involving an adult male and an adult female, after being charged with adultery in the Aceh province of Indonesia, were punished with public lashings.
The man, who refused to confess to the accusation, received 15 lashes, while the woman, who did confess, received an overwhelming 100. The amount of lashes was so excruciating that she needed a break at one point before continuing on.
On Thursday, November 11, Indonesia's National Ulema Council (MUI) declared that cryptocurrency is haram or forbidden. Asrorun Niam Sholeh, the MUI's head of religious decrees, explained that cryptocurrencies constitute uncertainties in their use and behave like wagering.
The Indonesian National Police’s Criminal Investigation Agency or Bareskrim confirmed on the weekend of September 20 that the detained former police general attacked another inmate. Former Insp. Gen. Napoleon Bonaparte assaulted Muhammad “Kace” Kosman due to blasphemy.
Police in Indonesia opened an investigation involving a woman’s peculiar case of bearing a child at the local clinic. Authorities are examining the odd details of her claim that she was impregnated only an hour earlier by a “gust of wind.”
The young woman, Siti Zainah (age 25), recently gave birth to a baby girl in Cianjur, a town within Indonesia’s southern province of West Java.
