Embrace of Atheism Put an Indonesian in Prison

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/04/world/asia/indonesian-who-embraced-atheism-landed-in-prison.html?_r=0

in this article, Joe Cochrane talks to us about the religious limitations in Indonesia. A man named Alexander Aan was raised in a muslim household, so when he mentioned to his parents and close friends that he was an atheist it was very unexpected, especially since Indonesia is a very religious country. Mr.Aan expressed his beliefs on an atheist Facebook page. Because of that he was sent to jail for running afoul of a 2008 law restricting electronic communications. He was later on released, but it is one of many cases were people are sent to jail because of their beliefs or how they express them. In the article they also mention that Indonesia is going through a change from authoritarianism to democracy, and the constitution grants freedom of religion and speech, yet we can se that people have the mentality of the previous government. christian, hindu, and buddhist minorities are present in Indonesia and have been victims of violent assaults due to the facts that they have different beliefs.

In my opinion this is outrageous, how can a person be deprived of their freedom due to their beliefs and the way they express them. This relates to the enlightenment, because at that time people were tortured for having different religions and the way they expressed them. the first amendment in the united states constitution states that it is prohibited to make any law respecting an establishment of religion, impeding the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, and so on. We are not talking about Indonesia, not the united states, yet if they are on a process of democracy the constitution should say something along these lines. It also infringes privacy in a way if Alexander posted this on Facebook were supposedly only certain people can see what he publishes. This is also clearly related with society since people show resentment towards those that practice another religion. I lived in Jakarta for two years, and it is a highly religious country, were people are not very open to strangers (unless they are involved with tourism.) and this relates to how people are discriminated because they are different. Here in colombia we can see this happening, yet not in such a radical way, but often the liberals are discriminated because we created the stereo type that if you are liberal you are in favour of the guerrilla and things like that. I would say that in order to get Indonesia to fully become democratic, they need to leave behind the discrimination and become more open to new ideas.