Indonesian social media influencer Ratu Thalisa was recently sentenced to two years and ten months behind bars for telling a picture of Jesus that He needed a haircut.
A court in Medan, Sumatra found Thalisa guilty of spreading hate speech against Christianity, as well as disrupting “public order” and “religious harmony” in Thai society, after she responded to a comment that told her to cut her hair to look more like a man by holding up a picture of Jesus Christ and saying: “You should not look like a woman. You should cut your hair so that you will look like his father.” Just a few days after making the remark in a TikTok video, five Christian groups filed complaints against her, accusing her of blasphemy. In addition to jail time, the court ordered Thalisa to pay a fine of around $6,200.
Thalisa, a transgender Muslim woman with nearly 450,000 followers on TikTok, was sentenced by a court in North Sumatra province a decision that is now being condemned by human rights groups like Amnesty International as a “shocking attack on freedom of expression.”
“While Indonesia should prohibit the advocacy of religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence, Ratu Thalisa’s speech act does not reach that threshold,” Amnesty International Indonesia’s Executive Director Usman Hamid said.
Ratu Thalisa was charged under Indonesia’s controversial Electronic Information and Transactions (EIT) law, which was introduced in 2008 and amended in 2016 to address online defamation. However, many human organizations are accusing authorities of using the law to restrict freedom of expression. In September 2023, a Muslim woman received two years in prison for uttering a Muslim expression before eating pork, and a year later, and a year later, another TikToker was arrested and accused of blasphemy after posting a quiz asking children what kind of animals can read the Quran.
In Thalisa’s case, prosecutors sought a prison sentence of at least four years and immediately appealed the recent decision of the court. They must really want that woman in Jail!
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