Indonesia’s Sentencing of ‘Son of God’ Adds to Alarm Over Crackdown

http://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/09/world/asia/indonesia-blasphemy-laws.html

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JAKARTA, Indonesia — Back in his days as a badminton coach with the Indonesian national team, Ahmad Mushaddeq traveled the world on the state’s dime. But after he became the spiritual leader of a back-to-the-land organic farming movement on the island of Borneo, regarded by his followers as the messiah who succeeded Muhammad, the government locked him up for the second time on charges of blasphemy.

This week, an Indonesian court sentenced him to a five-year prison term, and gave two other leading figures of Milah Abraham, the religious sect he established, prison terms as well. The sentences, delivered on Tuesday, were the latest in a continuing crackdown on new religious movements across Indonesia that has alarmed human rights groups.

“The verdict is another indicator of rising discrimination against religious minorities in Indonesia,” said Andreas Harsono, the Indonesia representative for Human Rights Watch. He called for a review of state institutions that “facilitate such discrimination, including the blasphemy law office.”

Indonesia’s blasphemy laws have become a focus of debate ever since Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, the hard-charging Christian governor of Jakarta, was indicted on charges of insulting the Quran in November. While his case has drawn the most attention, a significant portion of the more than 106 people convicted on blasphemy charges since 2004 are not Christians or even unorthodox Muslims, but self-proclaimed prophets and their apostles.

Indonesia, a Muslim-majority nation, has “a broken system of pluralism,” said Al Makin, a professor at Sunan Kalijaga State Islamic University in Yogyakarta, who testified as an expert witness on behalf of Milah Abraham at the three men’s trial. “If the government keeps this policy of arresting people who are different from the mainstream, it means the government denies pluralism.”

Milah Abraham, also known as Gafatar, is by far the largest religious movement to have emerged in Indonesia over the past few decades, claiming over 50,000 members around the archipelago. More than 25 members have been convicted on blasphemy charges over the last decade, including 11 who spent time in prison.

During that time, numerous other self-proclaimed messiahs have also languished in prison, including Lia Aminuddin, the founder of a sect who claimed that she was the wife of the archangel Gabriel, and Agus Noro, who claimed to be a reincarnation of Sukarno, Indonesia’s first president.

Though the Indonesian Constitution ostensibly guarantees freedom of religion, that freedom does not extend to new religious movements. The state authorizes just six official religions: Islam, Protestantism, Catholicism, Buddhism, Hinduism and Confucianism. Establishing a new faith is virtually impossible. Sects like Milah Abraham are criticized by Muslim councils and targeted by the police for promoting heresies.

“Freedom is guaranteed in Indonesia, but violations of the law are not allowed,” Boy Rafli Amar, a police spokesman, said via the WhatsApp messaging service, writing that Milah Abraham’s teachings contradicted those of Indonesia’s established religions.

Professor Makin said new religious movements had faced increasing persecution since Indonesia began transitioning to democracy in 1998.

“During the reform period,” he said, “radical groups have used hate speech to build momentum and intimidate the public with radical or conservative ideology,” forcing the state to move against new religions. He said this was a pity because many of the 600 new sects in Indonesia’s history had made its religious landscape more vibrant.

Mr. Mushaddeq, 72, a broad-shouldered man with gray eyes and a gift for gab, discussed his journey from badminton coach to controversial prophet in a jailhouse interview in January.

Born in Jakarta during the last years of Dutch colonial rule, he said, he essentially raised himself. During the Japanese invasion of World War II, his father was taken as a forced laborer and never returned, and his mother quickly married another man, leaving Mr. Mushaddeq to be raised by his deaf grandmother. She could hardly communicate, which meant that his impressions of the world, and religious teachings, were gleaned through his own experience.

A talented athlete, Mr. Mushaddeq studied sports science in school, eventually rising to become a badminton coach for the national team. Though he had no formal religious education, he taught himself to read Arabic.

In 1987, he was recruited as a leader of the Islamic State of Indonesia, a hard-line movement that wanted Islamic law established throughout the country. But by the turn of the millennium, he had a revelation about who his father was that separated him permanently from his former comrades.

“I am the son of God, son of the spirit of God,” he said.

By the early 2000s, Mr. Mushaddeq proclaimed a version of a new ideology, ultimately called Milah Abraham, which argued that every Abrahamic faith eventually lost its way. Just as Judaism had given way to Christianity, and Christianity to Islam, it was Islam’s turn now to give way to a new, vibrant faith, Milah Abraham. This new faith would in turn be superseded by a new iteration of Abrahamic faith centuries from now.

“We believe messiahs always arise at a time like this, and their enemies are always the priests,” said Farah Meifira, a member of the faith.

Mr. Mushaddeq hosted study sessions to gain converts, and encouraged his followers to hold their own. They also posted his sermons on YouTube, which spread his message to a wide audience.

He was imprisoned for blasphemy for the first time in 2008, but was released halfway through his four-year term after he signed a letter renouncing his claim to be Muhammad’s successor.

“Now I am only a messenger from God,” he said.

In 2012, his followers established a social organization called Gafatar, a back-to-the-land communitarian movement that promoted organic farming and agricultural self-sufficiency. Those who joined Gafatar were also encouraged to learn the teachings of Milah Abraham.

Dwi Adiyanto, 32, a farmer who sold his belongings to buy land with Gafatar in West Kalimantan Province on Borneo, said Milah Abraham provided him with a community and allowed him to “discover the true path for himself.”

In late December 2015, Mr. Dwi was called to a local police station and told to leave the province because Gafatar’s presence was angering locals. Not long after, Mr. Dwi’s new homestead was burned to the ground by mobs.

The police then forced him and about 7,000 other members of the movement to return to their homes on other islands. Human Rights Watch called the action “the most notorious example” of Indonesian religious intolerance in 2016.

Mr. Dwi, who is now a farmer in central Java, said the experience had only served to strengthen his faith. “Faith isn’t something you can just drop,” he said.

Still, it is not clear what the future holds for Milah Abraham, whose teachings have also spread to nearby Malaysia, where its local leaders have also been apprehended by the police.

“The fact that the prophet is in jail does not doom the movement,” said Jean-Francois Mayer, a Swiss academic who studies new religious movements. “The question is, are there people with deep beliefs and organizational skills outside of jail?”

In January, Mr. Mushaddeq said that no matter what happened to him, the faith would go on.

“God is my father,” he said. “He taught me. But when I say that to other people, they say I’m crazy.”