Injust Verdict

Many of us here at AICC are great friends and partners of Indonesia. We follow developments closely and are more often than not impressed by positive changes in the country. But every once in a while a verdict or policy decision gives us pause. Recently, members of a frenzied mob that beat and hacked to death members of a religious minority (Ahmadiyah) were let off easy by an Indonesian court.

These murderers and their leader received sentences of under a year. It was not a just verdict and perpetuates an image of the country that many Indonesians are working to change. Law enforcement and prosecutors should have done a better job to build an airtight case that would have sent a message to the next mob. The US and other nations took the unusual step of filing a formal rebuke. The continuing attacks and calls for the banning of the Ahmadiyah (a Muslim sect that honors other Prophets) belies Indonesia's constitutionally protected freedom of religion. In the words of the Economist: "If the present government wants to be known as progressive and democratic at home and abroad—putting the Suharto years behind it, as it were—but that aspiration will remain well out of reach unless it does a great deal more to protect vulnerable minorities within its own borders."