Overview

This book examines the persistence of blasphemy provisions, their increasing use in post-authoritarian Indonesia and the extent to which religion has been instrumentalised for political ends justified by law. Based on empirical research and an analysis of more than a hundred court decisions that connects evidence to theoretical discussions, this book traces the evolution and dynamics of capitalism in relation to the nature of legal order and the operation of laws, particularly those related to religion. Using an interdisciplinary approach, the author offers a rich analysis of the competing discourses on blasphemy in Indonesia. The work bridges the literatures of law and other social sciences. Providing an updated analysis of Indonesian blasphemy laws, this book also aims to shed light on the dynamics of legal order that affect how and why such laws exist. Rather than merely documenting regulations on and cases of blasphemy, the study aims to further understand the operation of law as a reflection of power relations. Specifically, the book reveals that the persistence of blasphemy laws has more to do with the illiberal nature of Indonesia’s legal order, which renders laws that privilege religious orthodoxy a practical instrument for religious mobilisation for political purposes, than with the cultural distinctiveness of Indonesian society or the lack of modern bureaucratic and legal institutions supporting secularisation, as many scholars have argued. Offering original contribution to scholarship on blasphemy, the politicisation of religion and illiberalism in democracies, this book will be of interest to academics in the field of Asian politics, law and Southeast Asia studies.

Full Product Details

9781041100898

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Reviews

“Few developments have raised concerns about the state of democracy in Indonesia as has the rise of blasphemy prosecutions. In this richly detailed and theoretically insightful book, Rafiqa Qurrata A’yun examines the origins and persistence of blasphemy prosecutions in democratic Indonesia. She provides a masterful overview of the political and institutional background to the “invention” of blasphemy as a legal offence. She provides a no less incisive analysis of the uses and abuses of blasphemy allegations in Islamist electoral campaigns and mobilisations. Her study provides troubling and important insights into the challenge of religious freedom and activism in contemporary Indonesia. The result is a book that deserves to be read by all students of Islam and politics in Indonesia and the broader world.” -- Robert W. Hefner, Professor of Global Affairs, Boston University and President of the American Institute for Indonesian Studies, USA. “This book challenges the way that we think about law, especially pertaining to the way it regulates religious practices. Tackling the issue of blasphemy laws in post-authoritarian Indonesia, it shows that their persistence is more directly the product of an illiberal legal order linked to a highly illiberal form of democracy, rather than about prevailing cultural sensibilities. In this broader socio-political context, blasphemy laws can be instrumentalised when religious cultural references are effectively harnessed to intra-elite conflicts. Rather than about values, laws are therefore about power, and this book shows that blasphemy laws are no exception.” -- Vedi R. Hadiz, Professor of Asian Studies and Redmond Barry Distinguished Professor, University of Melbourne, Australia.

Author Information

Rafiqa Qurrata A’yun is an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Law, Universitas Indonesia, and an Associate at Centre for Indonesian Law, Islam and Society (CILIS), Melbourne Law School, University of Melbourne.

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