Atheism, or irreligion, in Indonesia, is uncommon among the country's inhabitants, as there is a great stigma attached to being an

atheist Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

and it is widely condemned by the Indonesian people.

Society

It is difficult to quantify the number of atheists or agnostics in

as they are not officially counted in the country's census. Indonesian atheists, such as those belonging to the

Indonesian Atheists Indonesian is anything of, from, or related to Indonesia, an archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. It may refer to: * Indonesians, citizens of Indonesia ** Native Indonesians, diverse groups of local inhabitants of the archipelago ** Indonesia ...

organization, predominantly communicate with each other solely via the Internet. According to

Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Headquartered in New York City, the group investigates and reports on issues including War crime, war crimes, crim ...

, tolerance towards atheists among the general Indonesian public is growing, but they are still subject to violence by "largely militant Islamists." The founder of Pancasila and the first President of Indonesia

Sukarno Sukarno (6 June 1901 – 21 June 1970) was an Indonesian statesman, orator, revolutionary, and nationalist who was the first president of Indonesia, serving from 1945 to 1967. Sukarno was the leader of the Indonesian struggle for independenc ...

stated that belief in the Almighty as a characteristic of this nation needs to be recognized, even by those who do not believe in God. Accepting the First Precept means not only tolerating religious diversity in Indonesia, but also tolerating those who are irreligious, and asking for tolerance from those who do not have a religion to those who have a religion.

Discrimination

Atheists Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...

are subject to discrimination in Indonesia, seeing as irreligion violates the first principle of Pancasila (i.e. ''Ketuhanan yang Maha Esa'', The One and Almighty God).

Religious tolerance Religious tolerance or religious toleration may signify "no more than forbearance and the permission given by the adherents of a dominant religion for other religions to exist, even though the latter are looked on with disapproval as inferior, ...

in Indonesia is limited to muted acceptance of other religions apart from Islam. Indonesian atheist activists are pursuing their religious freedom.

Law

Freedom of religion is enshrined in the Indonesian Constitution; however legal protection is afforded only to six recognised faiths of the country—

Islam Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

Protestantism Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...

Catholicism The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

Buddhism Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

Hinduism Hinduism () is an Hypernymy and hyponymy, umbrella term for a range of Indian religions, Indian List of religions and spiritual traditions#Indian religions, religious and spiritual traditions (Sampradaya, ''sampradaya''s) that are unified ...

, and

Confucianism Confucianism, also known as Ruism or Ru classicism, is a system of thought and behavior originating in ancient China, and is variously described as a tradition, philosophy, Religious Confucianism, religion, theory of government, or way of li ...

. B. F. Intan has written that ''

natural law Natural law (, ) is a Philosophy, philosophical and legal theory that posits the existence of a set of inherent laws derived from nature and universal moral principles, which are discoverable through reason. In ethics, natural law theory asserts ...

'' does not require one to follow a particular religion. Atheism as he sees it, however, is used more as an example of harmony between various religions and is not used as grounds to denounce popular religion. This natural law is used as grounds for the creation of a

common law Common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law primarily developed through judicial decisions rather than statutes. Although common law may incorporate certain statutes, it is largely based on prece ...

, which is more usually employed elsewhere as the basis for laws governing criminal activity or civil disputes. The 7th part of the first precept of Pancasila states “Not forcing a religion and belief in God Almighty to others.”

Blasphemy

Insulting or interfering with the practice of one of the official faiths stated above in Indonesia can bring a five-year prison term. In the past, prominent atheists have only been prosecuted under religious customary laws, so it is unknown if atheism is prosecutable under secular law. When declared atheist

Alexander Aan Alexander Aan (born 1981) is an Indonesian atheist and ex-Muslim of Minang descent. He was imprisoned in 2012 for posting comments and images to Facebook that were judged to be "disseminating information aimed at inciting religious hatred or hos ...

wrote in February 2012 on

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

that God does not exist, he was taken into custody and initially charged with

blasphemy Blasphemy refers to an insult that shows contempt, disrespect or lack of Reverence (emotion), reverence concerning a deity, an object considered sacred, or something considered Sanctity of life, inviolable. Some religions, especially Abrahamic o ...

. The police claimed that they were doing this to protect him from attackers, however, no charges have been levied against his attackers. He has been prosecuted under the blasphemy law, part of the country's Criminal Code. The Code’s Article 156(a) targets those who deliberately, in public, express feelings of hostility, hatred, or contempt against religions to prevent others from adhering to any religion, and targets those who disgrace a religion. The penalty for violating Article 156(a) is imprisonment, Presidential Decree No. 1/PNPS/1965 on the Prevention of Blasphemy and Abuse of Religions. This incident raised a debate about the legality of atheism versus treating it as a genuine religion.

References

{{Asia topic, Irreligion in Religion in Indonesia

Law of Indonesia

Society

Discrimination

Law

Blasphemy

See also

References