Prosecution of suspected ‘atheist’ criticized

[rug]

Syofiardi Bachyul Jb
The Jakarta Post, Padang
Wed, 04/04/2012 9:11 AM

Activists in Padang, West Sumatra, are criticizing the authorities for prosecuting a 31-year-old civil servant for allegedly proclaiming his atheism on Facebook.

The indictment of Alexander Aan under the Information Law that carries six years of imprisonment, is bogus, according to Sudarto, the director of the Center for Interfaith Community (Pusaka).

“The charges of blasphemy brought against Alexander are based on ‘rubber articles’. Their argument, which is exaggerated, is a failure of the Muslim community and our government to take care of other more important things,” Sudarto told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.

The authorities used several ambiguously phrased articles of the law to indict Alexander to serve their own interests, Sudarto said.

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2012/04/04/prosecution-suspected-atheist-criticized.html

[longship]

1. The freedom to believe or not

Apostacy in some countries incurred the death penalty. I don't know which ones still practice this, but one of the reasons atheists are very activated these days is some of the pronouncements from the GOP candidates that this is a Christian country. If they had complete power, with all three branches of government in their hands, a very scary possibility, what would they do?

Years ago I read The Handmaid's Tale and I shudder to think that if today's GOP got in total power that they might go down that same road. It's not a possibility that I would want to experiment with.