Vulnerability of Religious Minority in Indonesia due to the Implementation of the Blasphemy Law

Abstract

The establishment and application of blasphemy law in Indonesia is generally under the justification of maintaining public order, preventing violent-conflict, and protecting the enjoyment of the right to freedom of religion. However, when the blasphemy law should be applied to adjudicate an internal religious conflict among the sects then the debate arises on whose interpretation and how it will be referred by the State authorities as demarcation or exclusionary standard to distinguish between the deviant religion and legally valid ones. Issues on the fragility of fair and impartial trial as protection to the existence of religious minority group therefore becomes very central due to the implementation and application of blasphemy law will be always influenced by power relation among the involved parties. This paper is intended to explore Tajul Muluk case that has been exhaustively ruled by all level of Indonesian courts in order to reveal complex roles of judiciary in applying service-conception of blasphemy law into first-order reason of person’s faith. Source-based legal reason of the court which merely refers to the historical or social facts as texted in the blasphemy law with prejudice to human rights’ moral test has been paradoxically widen penumbra of legal rule to uncertainty that undermines access to justice for religious minority group especially when addressing social conflict.