Opinion

Indonesia’s troubled minorities

By Greg Fealy
September 13 2018 - 10:00pm

Meiliana, a 44-year-old Buddhist mother of Chinese descent, sat crying in disbelief in a North Sumatra court in late August. The judges had just sentenced her to 18 months’ jail for blasphemy because she complained to a neighbor in 2016 about the ear-splitting volume of amplified calls to prayer from a nearby mosque. Her complaint had sparked violent backlash from local Muslim groups, who had stoned her home, forcing her and her family to flee to another city. They also attacked and seriously damaged twelve Buddhist temples in the area. The same court that sentenced her showed leniency to eight attackers arrested by police, giving them jail terms of just 1-2 months.

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