ID :
117613
Tue, 04/20/2010 - 08:55
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https://oananews.org//node/117613
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News Focus: CLERIC HAILS COURT'S VERDICT ON BLASPHEMY LAW
By Andi Abdussalam
Jakarta, April 19 (ANTARA) - The Constitutional Court (MK)`s decision on Monday to reject a request by a group of petitioners for a judicial review of a 45-year old controversial religious blasphemy law was hailed by Muslim clerics and Islamists.
West Sumatra`s noted Muslim cleric Buya H Mas`oed Abidin said the Constitutional Court verdict that rejected the judicial review of the law was correct.
The MK on Monday rejected a request of petitioners for a judicial review of Law No. 1/PNPS/1965 on Religious Blasphemy which the plaintiffs thought had restricted freedom of religion based on the 1945 Constitution.
The 1965 law recognizes only six religions: Islam, Protestantism, Catholicism, Buddhism, Hinduism and Confucianism. Others are officially banned. It also prohibits alternative interpretations of recognized religions, including Islam.
The review was filed by human rights groups and the late former President Abdurrahman Wahid, who was also a longtime former chairman of Nahdlatul Ulama, Indonesia`s largest Muslim organization.
Among the petitioners also a number of non-governmental organizations such as the Imparsial, the People`s Advocacy Studies Institutes (ELSAM), the Indonesian Legal Aid Association (PBHI), the Association of Human Rights Study Center, the Association of Equal Society, the Desantar foundation and the Indonesian Legal Aid Institute Foundation (YLBHI).
However, after a series of trials, the MK finally decided to uphold the 45-year old law.
"We hereby state that the court rejects as a whole the request of the petitioners for a judicial review of the law," MK Chairman Mahfud MD said when he read the MK verdict here on Monday.
He said that the court was of the view that the arguments presented for formal and material reviews of the law had no legal basis. Based on morality reasons, the religious blasphemy law remained to be needed as a means of controlling public order for the sake of religious harmony in Indonesia.
Besides, the Constitutional Court also opined that the state had the interest in having a law on religious blasphemy as part of its responsibility for protecting human rights based on the principles of a law-abiding state.
"The court is of the view that the right to profess a religion in the context of individual human rights is inseparable from the right to embrace a religion in the context of social human rights," the MK chairman said.
In the issuance of the court verdict, one judge, namely Harjono expressed his concurrent opinion and another one, namely Maria Farida, presented her dissenting opinion.
Maria said that although in formal term the law was still in force, yet in essence it contained deviations from human right values as contained the 1945 Constitution.
The request for a judicial review of Law No. 1/PNPS/1965 on Religious Blasphemy was filed by plaintiffs which consisted of seven non-governmental organizations and a number of individuals such as the Late Abdurrahman Wahid, Musdah Mulia, Dawam Rahardjo and Maman Imanul Haq.
Petitioners were of the view that the law contained articles discriminatory to interfaith adherents, against the principles of tolerance, diversity, open-mindedness and restricted religious freedom as contained in the 1945 Constitution.
According to Buya H Mas`oed Abidin, as a judicial institution, the MK has taken a correct decision. After all, the MK must be sensitive to whatever it was going to decide, particularly matters which had wide impact on the general public conditions in the country.
Therefore, he said, the MK should not merely based its decisions on rational/intellectual capacity but also on the nation`s emotional and spiritual experience.
Besides, it must also base its decisions on cultural capacity which thereby requires it to have judges who were wise in taking a decision. "The court verdict was not based on like-and-dislike grounds but on the ground of the nation`s need in the long term as the MK has proved it," Buya said.
The MK has held 12 times court sessions regarding the petition for a judicial review of the religious blasphemy law until it took a decision on Monday.
Prof. Ahmad Rofiq, secretary of the Indonesian Ulemas Council (MUI) for Central Java, said that actually the law did not restrict people from professing a religion. It did not restrict freedom of religion.
He said that freedom was not identical to blasphemy. The people were free to embrace a religion but they should not blaspheme any other religion. He cited as an example followers of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad who claimed Islam as their religion, while also claiming Ghulam Ahmad as their prophet. "This is blasphemous as Islam only recognizes Muhammad as its only prophet," he said.
In the meantime, the Jakarta Globe reported in its website that Police had earlier deployed 600 officers and a water cannon as Islamic protesters gather outside the Constitutional Court in Central Jakarta ahead of its verdict on the legality of the controversial 1965 Blasphemy Law.
The protesters consist of members of the hard-line Islamic Defenders Front as well as Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia, which is based on an international organization that aims to create a global pan-Islamic state.
Jakarta, April 19 (ANTARA) - The Constitutional Court (MK)`s decision on Monday to reject a request by a group of petitioners for a judicial review of a 45-year old controversial religious blasphemy law was hailed by Muslim clerics and Islamists.
West Sumatra`s noted Muslim cleric Buya H Mas`oed Abidin said the Constitutional Court verdict that rejected the judicial review of the law was correct.
The MK on Monday rejected a request of petitioners for a judicial review of Law No. 1/PNPS/1965 on Religious Blasphemy which the plaintiffs thought had restricted freedom of religion based on the 1945 Constitution.
The 1965 law recognizes only six religions: Islam, Protestantism, Catholicism, Buddhism, Hinduism and Confucianism. Others are officially banned. It also prohibits alternative interpretations of recognized religions, including Islam.
The review was filed by human rights groups and the late former President Abdurrahman Wahid, who was also a longtime former chairman of Nahdlatul Ulama, Indonesia`s largest Muslim organization.
Among the petitioners also a number of non-governmental organizations such as the Imparsial, the People`s Advocacy Studies Institutes (ELSAM), the Indonesian Legal Aid Association (PBHI), the Association of Human Rights Study Center, the Association of Equal Society, the Desantar foundation and the Indonesian Legal Aid Institute Foundation (YLBHI).
However, after a series of trials, the MK finally decided to uphold the 45-year old law.
"We hereby state that the court rejects as a whole the request of the petitioners for a judicial review of the law," MK Chairman Mahfud MD said when he read the MK verdict here on Monday.
He said that the court was of the view that the arguments presented for formal and material reviews of the law had no legal basis. Based on morality reasons, the religious blasphemy law remained to be needed as a means of controlling public order for the sake of religious harmony in Indonesia.
Besides, the Constitutional Court also opined that the state had the interest in having a law on religious blasphemy as part of its responsibility for protecting human rights based on the principles of a law-abiding state.
"The court is of the view that the right to profess a religion in the context of individual human rights is inseparable from the right to embrace a religion in the context of social human rights," the MK chairman said.
In the issuance of the court verdict, one judge, namely Harjono expressed his concurrent opinion and another one, namely Maria Farida, presented her dissenting opinion.
Maria said that although in formal term the law was still in force, yet in essence it contained deviations from human right values as contained the 1945 Constitution.
The request for a judicial review of Law No. 1/PNPS/1965 on Religious Blasphemy was filed by plaintiffs which consisted of seven non-governmental organizations and a number of individuals such as the Late Abdurrahman Wahid, Musdah Mulia, Dawam Rahardjo and Maman Imanul Haq.
Petitioners were of the view that the law contained articles discriminatory to interfaith adherents, against the principles of tolerance, diversity, open-mindedness and restricted religious freedom as contained in the 1945 Constitution.
According to Buya H Mas`oed Abidin, as a judicial institution, the MK has taken a correct decision. After all, the MK must be sensitive to whatever it was going to decide, particularly matters which had wide impact on the general public conditions in the country.
Therefore, he said, the MK should not merely based its decisions on rational/intellectual capacity but also on the nation`s emotional and spiritual experience.
Besides, it must also base its decisions on cultural capacity which thereby requires it to have judges who were wise in taking a decision. "The court verdict was not based on like-and-dislike grounds but on the ground of the nation`s need in the long term as the MK has proved it," Buya said.
The MK has held 12 times court sessions regarding the petition for a judicial review of the religious blasphemy law until it took a decision on Monday.
Prof. Ahmad Rofiq, secretary of the Indonesian Ulemas Council (MUI) for Central Java, said that actually the law did not restrict people from professing a religion. It did not restrict freedom of religion.
He said that freedom was not identical to blasphemy. The people were free to embrace a religion but they should not blaspheme any other religion. He cited as an example followers of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad who claimed Islam as their religion, while also claiming Ghulam Ahmad as their prophet. "This is blasphemous as Islam only recognizes Muhammad as its only prophet," he said.
In the meantime, the Jakarta Globe reported in its website that Police had earlier deployed 600 officers and a water cannon as Islamic protesters gather outside the Constitutional Court in Central Jakarta ahead of its verdict on the legality of the controversial 1965 Blasphemy Law.
The protesters consist of members of the hard-line Islamic Defenders Front as well as Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia, which is based on an international organization that aims to create a global pan-Islamic state.
