The debate about God's existence is as old as mankind
itself. Such questionings have set many a man on a spiritual journey to search
for the truth. Some find God, and what they believe to be the truth. Others find
nothing, and they become atheists. In Indonesia, where 88 percent of its 240
million people are Muslims, merely posing that question in public can land you
in deep trouble.
The Indonesian police decision to arrest a man for posting
the statement "God does not exist" in a Facebook message amounts
to tampering with his freedom to inquire and seek the truth. Police say they
were acting in response to public complaints. It is clear to all -- except
those blinded by their faith -- who the sinner is here.
Alexander Aan, a 31-year old civil servant in Padang, the capital
of the devoutly Muslim province of West Sumatra, faces charges of blasphemy for
"insulting a major religion," an offense that carries a maximum five-year jail
term. He was already the target of physical attacks by a group of radical
Muslims before his arrest. He may as well stay
in custody. There are people on the outside who are literally are clamoring
for his head.
Although the Indonesian constitution guarantees freedom of
religion, it also stipulates that every citizen must believe in one supreme god.
Monotheism rules, at least technically. Indonesia is home to all the major world
religions, but many of its people practice home-grown beliefs, including
animism, at times in combination with their Islamic or Christian faiths. But
while the nation appears to tolerate polytheism, there seems to be zero
tolerance towards atheism.
The constitutional stipulation of monotheism was a
compromise struck in the early days of the republic after Indonesia proclaimed
independence from Dutch colonialism in 1945. Islamist politicians had earlier
pushed for a theocratic state, but they eventually settled for the next best
thing, the requirement that everyone must have a religion. This turned out to
be a powerful and effective weapon to fend off the threat of communism, which
was gaining a lot of traction in the nascent country. Rightly or wrongly,
atheism was always closely associated with communism.
With the threat of communism as a political ideology in
Indonesia now long gone, atheists are slowly coming out of the closet. Thanks
to the proliferation of social media, many have turned to Facebook to build
online communities in the country.
Alexander Aan is one of the few who have ventured out to
publicly proclaim his belief that God does not exist. He runs a community of
people who share his views called Ateis
Minang. (The photo above shows a reader perusing the site.) Now he is paying a heavy price for his activism. Unlike their
equivalents in the West, atheists in Indonesia shy away from attacking
religions. They simply pose questions about their lack of freedom. In a country
that professes to respect all types of freedom and human rights, people should
not be persecuted for choosing to deny the existence of god.
His trial, if and when it begins, should rekindle the debate
in Indonesia about whether the constitutional requirement to follow a religion
is consistent with the notion of the freedom of faith itself. The article also
happens to be a violation of one of the first principles in Islam -- that
"there shall be no coercion in matters of faith." It also negates the idea of
free will, which Islam and most other major religions also recognize as God-given.
As applied to the state, this notion of the freedom of
religion also implies the freedom not to believe. A separate law in Indonesia
requiring people to adhere to one of the six religions recognized by the state
(Islam, Christianity, Roman Catholicism, Hinduism, Buddhism and Confucianism) would
also seem to violate the freedom of religion.
Free will and freedom are the essence of Islam and most
major religions.
Since the question "Does God exist?" (which is another way
of saying "God does not exist") is the starting point of a genuine search for
truth, I would personally put my money on the likes of Alexander Aan finding
God. Those who persecute him have, in all likelihood, blindly and
unquestioningly accepted their faith. They will not find God, but God will
surely find them.
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