By World Watch Monitor Jakarta’s former governor, known widely and simply as “Ahok”, walked out of prison today, 24 January, after serving nearly two years for blasphemy. He was granted early release, four months ahead of schedule, for ... Full Article

By Stephen Wright and Niniek Karmini | Associated Press JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — A polarizing Christian politician whose campaign comments ignited the largest protests in years in Muslim-majority Indonesia was freed Thursday after serving ... Full Article

By Christian Solidarity Worldwide A mother of two was jailed for 18 months on 24 August under Indonesia’s controversial blasphemy laws, following an incident in which she was alleged to have insulted Islam. On 22 July 2016 Meiliana, a ... Full Article

My office has prepared an update on the state of freedom of religion or belief in Indonesia. Please watch the video report below. Thank you for your engagement with issues of religious freedom. David Anderson, MP Full Article

By Voice of the Martyrs Authorities on the Indonesian island of Sumatra closed three churches on September 27th, stating that they lack the necessary permits. Church leaders, however, argue that the closures relate instead to restlessness among ... Full Article

By Erin Cook | The Diplomat The runup to Indonesia’s presidential elections next year has offered a brief quiet period in the past couple of weeks, relatively speaking. Both tickets are readying their campaign teams ahead of launching an ... Full Article

By Max Walden | VOA News JAKARTA — Interfaith and human rights groups gathered in Jakarta, Indonesia, this past week to show their support for Meiliana, an Indonesian Buddhist who was sentenced to 18 months prison in August for complaining ... Full Article

Keith Loveard | UCA News Indonesian President Joko Widodo, in his annual national address to the nation before Independence Day, urged the country to embrace its founding spirit of tolerance. Those who had fought for independence had not been ... Full Article

By Niniek Karmini | Associated Press JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesia’s largest Muslim organization has criticized the blasphemy conviction and imprisonment of a Buddhist woman who complained that the call to prayer from her neighborhood ... Full Article

By Apriadi Gunawan | Jakarta Post A Chinese-Indonesian woman of the Buddhist faith in Tanjung Balai, North Sumatra, faces a possible 1.5-year prison sentence after she was charged with blasphemy for saying that the azan (the Islamic call to ... Full Article

By Stephen Wright | Associated Press JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — The battle lines for Indonesia’s 2019 presidential election were drawn Friday as the incumbent Joko “Jokowi” Widodo formally registered as a candidate after choosing a ... Full Article

By John McBeth | Asia Times Radical Islam’s penetration of Indonesia’s universities has alarmed President Joko Widodo’s government, providing further evidence that evolving religious conservatism and intolerance is changing the character ... Full Article

By Christian Solidarity Worldwide Three churches in Indonesia’s second-largest city, Surabaya, were hit in bomb attacks which killed 13 people and injured dozens on 13 May. The bombings are described as the worst terrorist attack in Indonesia ... Full Article

By Peter Kenny | Ecumenical News Church officials have called on Catholics in Indonesia to stay alert during Holy Week following an upsurge in violence against Christians and some attacks on churches in several parts of the country. “We ... Full Article

By Tom Allard & Jessica Damiana | Reuters JAKARTA (Reuters) – Indonesia’s Constitutional Court on Tuesday affirmed the rights of devotees of faiths outside the country’s officially recognized religions, in a move activists welcomed ... Full Article

By Andreas Harsono | Human Rights Watch The Indonesian government has just made it clear that the country’s dangerously ambiguous blasphemy law is here to stay – which is bad news for beleaguered religious minorities. During the United ... Full Article

By Andreas Harsono Donald Ignatius Suyanto, a chef living on the Hindu-majority island of Bali, on March 21, 2016 uploaded a video to YouTube in which he questioned the integrity of the Islamic shahada, or statement of faith. That prompted ... Full Article

By World Watch Monitor Jakarta’s Christian ex-governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama (also known as “Ahok”), has withdrawn his appeal against his two-year prison sentence for blasphemy in a controversial case that has challenged religious ... Full Article

By World Watch Monitor Tuesday’s verdict of an Indonesian court, sentencing Jakarta’s outgoing governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, known as ‘Ahok’, to two years in prison for blasphemy, has received widespread condemnation globally as ... Full Article

By BBC News The outgoing governor of Jakarta has been jailed for two years for blasphemy after judges handed down a sentence that was harsher than expected. Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, also known as Ahok, was accused of insulting Islam by referring ... Full Article