BLASPHEMY SHOULD NOT BE REGARDED AS A FREE SPEECH

BLASPHEMY SHOULD NOT BE REGARDED AS A FREE SPEECH

More than five millions demonstrators came to the National Monument to fight for their religion which is slandered by ex-governor of Jakarta Indonesia, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama or Ahok a year ago.  This event was commonly known as  “AKSI 212”. Mostly, the demonstrators were Moslem because they believe that they must defend their religion which is Ahok have done the blasphemy by quoting a surah in the Al Quran about leadership and it is assessed as a defamation. Blasphemy is an insulting act against people, religion or things that are considered sacred. In sum up, blasphemy can not be said as a free speech because it can influence the life of the nation.

Many countries have an anti-discrimination law against this case of blasphemy, one of them is Indonesia which is governed by Law KUHP No. 156 1969. The other side,  there are some countries like America and Myanmar who strongly discriminate against any one religion or group and they openly discriminate them. For example, the government of Myanmar which is openly expelled Rohingya people who are mostly Moslems society. This is very tragic and unfortunate. This acts like the example are a blasphemy and inappropriate for an independent and sovereign state. For instance, blasphemy is racist and very harmful to many parties because it can tarnish the good name of the state, and it is considered as a contravention of human rights.

Some countries like Pakistan, Indonesia, Malaysia, etc have declared that blasphemy is a religious crime and deserves to be tried. Although there are some countries that have not yet declared it, if it happens, it will get censure from the world's inhabitants. For example, a film of the innocence of Moslem, which is produced by Naoukola Bassley in the United State of America. The film is censured by various parties due to indirectly insult Moslem figures and considered contra with the original life. Therefore, after the censure of the world, everyone involved in the filming is on trial. There is also some crews of the film who are getting strees, depressed and finally committed to suicide.  Granted, this kind of thing deserves the perpetrator of blasphemy for judging the provocative and hurt the life of a person or a group.

Social media also contributes to spreading blasphemy. Most of the blasphemy actors share their blasphemous content via facebook and youtube. This very tarnishes their country's good name because all people in the world can access the content of social media, although its contents an insult. One of the cases of blasphemy content dissemination happened in Pakistan. The defendant, who came from Okara, proved to have spread content about the insult to prominent Sunni religious figures and Prophet Muhammad (SAW) on Facebook. This incident caused the outrage of various parties throughout Pakistan. In the end, Pakistan's counter-terrorism court sentenced the defendant to death. In sum up, once again blasphemy can affect the life of the nation and the state.

Blasphemy is an insulting act against people, religion or things that are considered sacred and inviolable. Blasphemy can divide the nation and intolerant actions. People who do a blasphemy can be censured and tried. As religious and educated people, we are not worthy of blasphemy. In the case of Blasphemy is also proven to violate human rights. So, Blasphemy should not be regarded as a free speech.

Written by

Anis Nisa -- DP