In Islam, Prophet Muhammad is the 25th and the last of the religion’s prophets, so when an Indonesian woman claimed to be the 26th prophet sent by God, it was never going to end well.
That woman, identified as Hadasari, a middle-aged woman from Makassar, South Sulawesi, claims that she was sent by God to convince mankind to band together amid all their differences to fix the world, which has been destroyed by the hands of man.
It’s admittedly a nice message, but it has landed Hadasari into trouble in the Muslim-majority country. While she could have easily fallen afoul of Indonesia’s harsh and ambiguously worded blasphemy laws (as happened to some Indonesians who made similar spiritual claims in the past), instead of being sent to jail she was sent to a mental hospital in Makassar.
“She was admitted to the Dadi Mental Hospital in Makassar last night,” said Daeng Dudding Samado, Hadasari’s husband, as quoted by Liputan 6 today.
According to Dudding, doctors at the hospital said his wife suffers from heavy depression and must be treated immediately.
Hadasari began claiming her status as an Islamic prophet in 2013, regularly going around to houses, campuses and offices to spread the word of God. Despite her efforts, she never gained a single follower.
Her neighbors believe that her supposed delusion began after her family lost a land dispute. Since then, she’d always lock herself in her house, only to come out from time to time to spread her teachings.
There have been several cases in the past of sect leaders being jailed for blasphemy, as Indonesia officially only recognizes six religions and criminalizes any teachings that deviate from the mainstream beliefs of those religions. The most recent example of this was the 5-year prison sentence given in March to the founder of the Gafatar sect, Ahmad Moshaddeq, who also claimed to be another Islamic prophet and thus had his teachings criminalized as heretical.
Another high-profile sect leader in Indonesia is Lia Eden, (the founder and leader of a cult called God’s Kingdom of Eden) who claims to be the reincarnation of Mother Mary and that her son is the reincarnation of Jesus Christ. Lia Eden, who once wrote a letter to President Jokowi asking to allow a UFO to land in Jakarta (which, as far as anybody knows, didn’t happen), has been jailed twice for blasphemy after she publicly denounced and criticized Indonesia’s officially recognized religions.
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