Replace Blasphemy With Incitement

This document is a legal and human rights research report in e-book format, published in March 2017 under the title “Replace Blasphemy With Incitement: How Indonesia Should Promote Religious Harmony While Upholding Human Rights”. This book, which is vi + 164 pages long, was written by Allison DiMase, with Bonar Tigor Naipospos serving as the proofreader, and was officially published by Pustaka Masyarakat Setara (SETARA Institute).

This English-language research book provides a critical and in-depth examination of blasphemy laws in Indonesia, particularly Law No. 1/PNPS/1965. The author highlights how, in the post-Reform era, this law has often been misused as a political instrument and a tool of legal subjugation that actually threatens the human rights of minorities and stifles freedom of expression in the public sphere. As a solution, this book offers comprehensive recommendations for legal reform, namely shifting the paradigm of Indonesian criminal law from punishing “blasphemy” (blasphemy) to one that punishes “incitement to hatred” (incitement to hatred/hate speech) in order to promote religious harmony in line with international human rights standards.