Indonesia arrests TikTokker for videos of ‘jokes’ mocking Christianity
- He is expected to be charged with inciting hatred under the information and electronic transactions law that has a sentence of up to six years’ jail
- Human Rights Watch says Indonesia’s blasphemy law is prone to misuse as it allows the ‘protection of religion to be weaponised as a political tool’
An Indonesian TikTokker accused of blasphemy against Christianity has been arrested in North Sumatra province after videos of him mocking the religion went viral on the popular Chinese-owned app.
Police said Fikri Murtadha was picked up from his home and brought to Medan city for investigation.
“We arrested the TikTok user Fikri as he is suspected to have committed blasphemy against Christianity,” senior police officer Teuku Fathir Mustafa said.
Fathir said the 28-year-old allegedly insulted the Christian faith in one of his videos by telling Christians to return a cross to the state-run utility company PLN to be reused as an electricity pole once they had “repented”.
That clip spread quickly on the short-video platform.
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In another TikTok post, Fikri also said he would visit a church and blast the opening soundtrack of the British animated children’s series “Shaun the Sheep” via a Bluetooth speaker.
Police said the man apologised for his videos that he said were “jokes”, The Jakarta Post reported.
Fikri is expected to be charged with inciting hatred under the information and electronic transactions (ITE) law, which carries a sentence of up to six years in prison.
Critics say the stringent internet legislation is designed to muzzle free speech.
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According to the digital advocacy group, the Southeast Asia Freedom of Expression Network (SAFEnet), there had been about 97 cases involving the ITE law in 2022.
Blasphemy is a criminal offence in the Muslim-majority country with a maximum penalty of five years in jail.
Mukherjee, who identifies as a Muslim, was also fined 250 million rupiah (US$15,750) for which her jail term would be extended by three months if it was not paid.
In 2018, a court in Sumatra sentenced an ethnic Chinese Buddhist woman who complained about the volume of a mosque’s loudspeakers to 18 months in prison for blasphemy. Her comments also sparked a riot in her hometown of Sumatra two years earlier.
Former Jakarta governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, an ethnic Chinese Christian, was jailed for two years in 2017 after being found guilty of blasphemy for a speech made during his re-election campaign.
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Human Rights Watch last year said Indonesia’s blasphemy law was prone to misuse as “it enables the protection of religion to be weaponised as a political tool”.
A 2021 report by the US State Department noted growing intolerance towards religious minorities in Indonesia, including closures of places of worship, access for foreign religious organisations and convictions for blasphemy.
Indonesia officially recognises six religions: Islam, Catholicism, Protestantism, Buddhism, Hinduism and Confucianism.
