Police on Thursday (Oct. 17) arrested a Christian for comments he made about Islam on social media that had led hundreds of angry Muslims to besiege his home, according to local reports.
The Muslim mob surrounded the home of florist Rudi Simamora in Sunggal, near Medan city, Deli Serdang Regency, North Sumatra Province for more than an hour, local media reported. Rudi had stated on his TikTok account that messages by Muhammad, the prophet of Islam, were of human rather than divine origin, and some residents said he asserted that the quranic Allah is racist, according to TVOne.com.
Amid the mob siege, Rudi had appealed for police help via his TikTok account, TribunMedan TV reported.
“Police, please help me,” he said in a live broadcast. “Please help me those police who are watching the broadcast. Friends, please contact the police first, whoever the police are in Medan City.”
Rudi had been arrested in 2022 for allegedly insulting Islam, according to Tribun.com, owned by Indonesian media conglomerate Kompas. He was sentenced to one year in prison on Feb. 23, 2023 and released earlier this year.
The Rev. Erwin Tambunan, chairperson of the Medan Regional Indonesian Churches Association (Persatuan Gereja Indonesia Daerah, or PGID), had issued an apology to the Muslim community for Rudi’s 2022 comments and said Christians support all legal processes against such perpetrators.
Arrest in Sibolga
In the coastal city of Sibolga about 210 miles away from Medan, capital of North Sumatra Province, Muchtar Nababan, a former councilor of Sibolga, was arrested on Sept. 3 for allegedly blaspheming Muhammad and Islam on his Facebook account.
Muchtar reportedly said on Facebook that Christians were protected from Muslims’ black magic.
The arrest took place after Raju Firmanda, secretary of the National Committee of Indonesia Youth (Komite Nasional Pemuda Indonesia, or KNPI), Central Tapanuli Chapter, filed a case against Muchtar. Area Muslims staged demonstrations against Muchtar at Sibolga police headquarters, according to Bisik.id.
“I am very disappointed with the behavior of a former member of the Sibolga City DPRD who wrote something that I suspect has insulted Islam,” Raju reportedly said. “We also strongly agree that it is not permissible to blaspheme any religion. For that, let us monitor this law enforcement process until it is complete.”
Within 10 days of a report submitted to police about Murchtar's comments, officers detained him, said Sibolga police spokesman Iptu Suyatno, according to detikcom.
Muslims account for 83.3 percent of Indonesia’s population, while 11.43 percent identify as Christian, with the evangelical population estimated at 3.23 percent, according to the Joshua Project.
Indonesia ranked 42nd on the Christian support organization Open Doors’ 2024 World Watch List of the 50 countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian. Indonesian society has adopted a more conservative Islamic character, and churches involved in evangelistic outreach are at risk of being targeted by Islamic extremist groups, according to the WWL report.
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