Siti Aisyah, the owner of an Islamic learning center, has been sentenced to two years and six months in prison for spreading "misguided" Islamic teachings.
Siti was found guilty of violating Article 156 of the Criminal Code (KUHP) on blasphemy.
The sentence handed down by the Mataram District Court in West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) is lighter than the prosecutor's demand of three years’ imprisonment.
Presiding judge Didiek Jatmiko said Siti had been proven guilty of spreading teachings that contravened Islamic principles, kompas.com reported.
Didiek said Siti did not admit her fault, insisting that what she taught did not go against the principles of Islam.
Siti, who is the owner Rumah Mengenal Al-Quran (Home to learn Quran), had reportedly taught her followers that the Quran did not oblige Muslims to pray.
She also reportedly rejected Al-Hadist (Prophet Muhammad's words and attitudes) as a religious guideline.
Source: Jakarta Post, August 21, 2017
Indonesian housewife sentenced to 2.5 years in prison for insulting Islam
An Indonesian housewife has been sentenced to two and a half years in prison for insulting Islam, an official said Tuesday, the latest conviction under the country’s controversial blasphemy law.
Siti Aisyah, 47, was found guilty on Monday evening of spreading Islamic teachings that differed from local ulemas, calling them liars for disagreeing with her.
Her conviction comes at a time of rising concerns about religious intolerance in a country traditionally regarded as a bastion of tolerant Islam.
“What she has committed was an insult for our religion, she is dangerous for a religious city like Mataram,” Didiek Jatmiko, presiding judge at Mataram district court in West Nusa Tenggara Province, told AFP.
Aisyah was named a blasphemy suspect in February for promoting an unorthodox version of a Muslim prayer on a website she ran, and in flyers she distributed around Mataram.
She also urged readers of her website not to follow hadiths — words and practices of the Prophet Mohammed — Jatmiko said.
“We sentenced her to two and a half years in prison because she did not regret her crime at all, she is adamant that her belief is the ultimate truth,” Jatmiko said.
Aisyah rejected assistance from a lawyer and did not defend herself from the charges. She told the court she would not appeal the decision.
Rights groups have long campaigned against Indonesia’s archaic blasphemy laws, which they say have been used to persecute religious and ethnic minorities.
Former Jakarta governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, who is Christian, was jailed for two years on blasphemy charges in May.
He came under fire from hardline Islamic groups after he claimed his political opponents had been manipulating voters by using a verse from the Koran to urge Muslims not to vote for a non-Muslim leader.
The verdict fuelled fears of Indonesia’s moderate brand of Islam coming under threat from increasingly influential radicals.
Source: Agence France-Presse, August 22, 2017
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