As I’m sure you are already aware, an Indonesian non-believer called Alexander Aan was sentenced to 2.5 years in jail for posting “God doesn’t exist” on his Facebook page apparently because under Indonesian law, not believing in God is illegal.
Well, there is a nice article in the Christian Post about an effort to help (Yikes … did I just use the words “Christian Post” and “Nice” in the same sentence without a hint of irony). Anyway, they write …
An international non-theist organization has launched efforts to help an Indonesian atheist who was imprisoned for writing on Facebook that he did not believe in God.
Atheist Alliance International is trying to help Alexander Aan, who was recently imprisoned for writing “God doesn’t exist” on Facebook. Carlos Diaz, president of AAI, told The Christian Post that his organization learned of the incident from some of their contacts in Indonesia – the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation.
… “I understand that Alex appreciates the efforts on his behalf and it’s important that he knows he is not alone. Ultimately we’d like Alex to be freed and for this injustice to not happen to any other person, but we’ll have to see what happens next.”…
… As part of AAI’s efforts to help Aan, the organization launched a “God does not Exist” campaign wherein they urge people to post on Facebook “God does not exist” and on Twitter to post #goddoesnotexist. When asked by CP if such a campaign could alienate human rights activists who are religious, Diaz responded that he felt the campaign went beyond agreement with the statement.
“Freedom of expression and conscience is a basic human right. Even if people do not personally agree with the statement that ‘God Does Not Exist’ they should support Alex’s right, indeed anyone’s right, to make that statement,” said Diaz…
So that’s a first then … the Christian Post has an article encouraging their readers to tweet and post ‘God Does Not Exist’.
More seriously, it is indeed a breach of basic human rights, and so it is perhaps in some ways encouraging that an evangelical paper is willing to highlight the injustice, even when the victim does not hold a view that aligns with theirs.
Links
- Atheist Alliance International also condemns this outrage
- God Does not Exist
- AAI have been running an appeal to assist with Alexander Aan’s legal expenses and support his family since he was arrested in January this year. Donate at www.atheistalliance.org/support-aai/donate (Legal/Support Fund for Alex Aan).
- TAKE ACTION: Please contact the Indonesian authorities to condemn Alex Aan’s jail sentence and to call for the immediate repeal of Indonesia’s blasphemy laws.