Ade Armando, a lecturer at Universitas Indonesia (UI), is being summoned by the Jakarta Metro Police for questioning today after being accused of blasphemy.
The communications lecturer was reported to the police for writing a status on Facebook that many netizens considered to be blasphemous. According to Vivanews, the controversial status, which was posted on May 20 and has since been deleted, read:
“God is not an Arab. Surely God would be happy if His scripture is read in the dialects of Minang, Ambon, China, Hip-hop, blues…”
In a recent Facebook post, Ade justified his controversial post by saying he was merely showing his support for the Religious Affairs Ministry’s idea (which itself is highly controversial) for a Quran recital festival in which the Islamic holy book could be recited using Indonesian dialects as well as Arabic. He also wrote that people have been accusing him of blasphemy for comparing God to humans, whereas the essence of his controversial post was the exact opposite of that.
Ade is scheduled for questioning by the police this morning. It remains to be seen what charges, if any, will be filed against him.
