An Indonesian court has sentenced an Islamic sect leader to four years in prison for "blasphemy".

Abdul Salam, who founded the Islamic sect al-Qiyadah al-Islamiah in 2000, was arrested last year after the Indonesian Ulema Council, the country's authority on Islam, declared the group heretical.

Salam has declared himself a prophet and has not required his followers to pray, fast during the month of Muslim holy month of Ramadan, or perform the Haj pilgrimage, three of the five pillars of Islam, the prosecutor said.

The chief judge trying the case at the South Jakarta district court said Salam, also known as Ahmad Mosaddeq, was guilty of: deliberately committing acts which are blasphemous to the religion. Throughout the trial the defendant did not admit even once that what he did was wrong.

Salam smiled after the verdict was read out, while radical Muslims fiercely opposed to his teachings shouted "Allahu Akbar" (God is Great).

Salam's supporters, who filled the court's gallery, sang chants of praise for him.

The Indonesian government has announced state repression of followers of the minority Ahmadiyah sect.

In the decree, the Ahmadiyah are warned they risk five years in jail if they do not stop spreading unorthodox beliefs and return to mainstream Islam.

The Indonesian constitution supposedly guarantees freedom of religion.

This latest move is widely seen as bowing to Islamic hardliners, who have stepped up a sometimes violent campaign against the nation's 200,000 Ahmadiyah.

Last week dozens of pro-tolerance demonstrators were attacked by members of a militant Islamic group - and on Monday several thousand hardline Muslims again took to the streets in support of banning the sect.

The Ahmadiyah have views that are seen as controversial by mainstream Islamic society. A widespread belief among sect members is that their founder, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, was the final prophet of Islam - and not Muhammad.

The religious affairs minister made the long-awaited announcement in a joint decree with the country's interior minister and attorney general. The text of the decree orders the sect to stop spreading interpretations and activities which deviate from the principal teachings of Islam, reported the news agency AFP.

Thousands of Muslims swamped the main streets of Indonesia's capital to pressure the president to ban a minority Islamic sect branded "deviant" by clerics.

More than 4,000 protesters gathered outside Jakarta's presidential palace before setting off in a motorcycle convoy to police headquarters to demand the government ban Ahmadiyah and free radicals jailed over violence early this month.

A speaker accused the sect of "staining Islam" and demanded President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono issue a decree banning the organisation. We ask first that Ahmadiyah repent, return to Islam or make a new religion. If they don't want to do that then they must be broken up," said Mohammed Alwi, a student.

The protest comes after the government earlier this month ordered Ahmadiyah, which has peacefully practised its faith in Indonesia since the 1920s, to stop spreading its belief that Mohammed was not the last prophet.

The ministerial decree stopped short of the ban demanded by Muslim leaders after the country's top Islamic body issued a fatwa describing the sect as "deviant."

Indonesian police were holding the head of a Muslim cult on a preliminary charge of blasphemy after allegations that the group held rituals involving sex orgies and adultery, a police spokesman said.

Agus Imam Solihin, head of the Satria Piningit Weteng Buwono sect, gave himself up to police last week after a raid on the cult's house. A former sect member accused the leader of proclaiming himself God and holding the bizarre sex rituals, Jakarta police spokesman Zulkarnain Adinegara said.

Authorities in Indonesia had been investigating the sect and police said Solihin faces five years jail if found guilty of blasphemy.

The leader of an Indoenesian religious group went on trial for blasphemy, with prosecutors accusing him of forcing the group members to perform ritual orgies and banning his followers from observing Muslim prayers.

Agus Imam Solihin has incited hatred and committed blasphemous acts against one of the religions observed in Indonesia, the prosecutors said, reading out the indictment at the South Jakarta District Court.

The defendant has claimed to the followers that he was the manifestation of God after he received spiritual guidance from the country’s first president, Sukarno, in a dream in 1999, the indictment says.

The cult, known as Satria Piningit Weteng Buwono, had 35 followers, including five couples and their children.

Sometime in 2003 at his residence in South Jakarta, Agus forced four couples to perform sex orgies witnessed by him and two teenage girls, with an aim to test the couples’ loyalty to the defendant, said prosecutor Deddy Sukarno.

The teachings by the Satrio Piningit Weteng Buwono group deviate from Islamic teachings, and therefore could potentially incite hatred and hostility, says the indictment.

Cult leader Lia Aminuddin or better known as Lia Eden has been sentenced to two and a half years in jail by a local court for religious blasphemy, Kompas.com reported.

Presiding judge Subachran said Lia had violated Article 156a of the Criminal Code on religious blasphemy.

The court found Lia guilty of religious blasphemy and incitement of hatred among religious adherents by proselytizing her religion - which she named God's Kingdom of Eden - and delivering her messages to thousands of government institutions, including the Presidential Palace.

The defendant did not show any remorse. This is the second time she has been tried for religious blasphemy. The court hereby sentences Lia Eden to two years and six months in prison, said Judge Subachran during the trial.

Lia's follower Wahyu Wibisono was sentenced to two years in prison for writing Lia's religious concept, lighter than the prosecutor demand of two and a half years imprisonment. Subachran said Wahyu got a lighter sentence due to his young age and zero criminal record.

Lia began proselytizing publicly in 1997, writing songs, poetry and books. She has also called herself the Virgin Mary and her son Ahmad Mukti, Jesus Christ. Her followers have named the religion Salamullah, and declared all religions truthful.

Her religion has drawn attention because not only does she require her acolytes to dress in white from top to toe, but they must also wear white plastic halos on their heads.

Police have arrested a leader of the Sion City of Allah Christian sect and his six followers in Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara, suspected of blasphemy.

They were charged under Article 156 of the Criminal Code on blasphemy. Police seized six robes of various colors, six scarf used as belts, two bibles and several songbooks from the suspects.

According to the police, the sect's doctrines deviated from Christian teachings, and the sect only based its teachings on the book of Jeremiah.

A police spokesman said the sect banned its members from attending church on Sunday and from paying their condolences: They believe people should not take care of the dead.

The Timor evangelical church praying group chairman Melkianus Adoe said the Sion City of Allah sect was illegal since its liturgies deviated from Christianity teachings: The group is categorized as illegal since the liturgy is deviant from Christianity. I support the legal process conducted by the police. If the sect was found committing blasphemy, they should be processed according to the law.

The National Alliance for the Freedom of Religion and Faith (AKKBB) has planned to file a request with the Constitutional Court to review the 1965 blasphemy law which they say is discriminatory and against the amended 1945 Constitution that guarantees freedom of religion in the country.

The alliance said the law had raised a public outcry and triggered sectarian conflicts as people were required to accept only the six official religions - Islam, Catholic, Christian, Buddhist, Hindu and Kong Hu Chu - and those with different faiths were branded heretics.

We are in the process of completing the necessary documents to be given to the Constitutional Court, AKKBB coordinator Anick Hamim Tohari said here last week.

The 1965 law on the prevention of religion abuse and blasphemy stipulates that no one is allowed make interpretations deviating from the official religions' teachings. Anick, executive director of ICRP too, said the alliance had formed a small team who was still preparing the judicial review proposal and supporting documentation.

Ahmadiyah and Lia Eden were two Muslim communities that have been rejected because their teaching and doctrine were different to what has been designated official Islamic teaching and doctrine. Many mosques belonging to the two communities have been burned down and their followers displaced from their villages in the West Java regencies of Bogor, Sukabumi and Kuningan, and Lombok in West Nusa Tenggara.

Our constitution guarantees religious freedom. All religious groups deserve equal treatment. Therefore, this law which gives the government the power to intervene in religious matters must be annulled, Anick said, referring to the 2008 joint ministerial decree barring Ahmadiyah from disseminating its teaching.

A group of Indonesian NGOs concerned with religious freedom and democracy has filed a judicial review request at the Constitutional Court, asking the judges to review articles of the 1965 Blasphemy Law, which they deemed to discriminate against certain religious groups. The group calls itself the Advocacy Alliance for Freedom of Religion.

A lawyer for the group, Choirul Anam, told The Jakarta Post that Law No.1/1965 on Prevention of Religious Abuse and Blasphemy had raised a public outcry and triggered sectarian conflicts as the law required people to accept only the five official religions - Islam, Catholic, Protestants, Buddhism and Hindu. Confucianism was recognized later, thanks to Gus Dur.

The law *considers' those with different faiths to be heretics. This is discriminatory and against the democratic spirit adopted by the country today, which should strongly protect the freedom of faith, Anam said: Our constitution guarantees religious freedom. All religious groups deserve equal treatment. Therefore, this law, which gives the government the power to intervene in religious matters, must be annulled.

The alliance asked the panel of judges at the court to review three out of five articles on the law.

Articles 28 and 29 guarantee the equality of all citizens, including those with faiths outside the six religions, Anam said: Yet Article 1 on the law stipulates that no one is allowed to make interpretations deviating from the official religions' teachings. This is not right. Interpretations of certain religions are people's rights, Anam said.

The first trial will be held Feb. 4, hearing opinions from representatives of the government and the House of Representatives.

Update: Petition Rejected

27th February 2010. Based on article from thejakartaglobe.com

Constitutional Court chief Mahfud MD refused to accept a petition against annulling a blasphemy law because the petition's organizers — several Islamic boarding schools and a forum of Muslim leaders from Madura — had supposedly not followed proper procedures.

They arrived as a delegation, Mahfud said. I received them and spoke with them. However, such aspirations must be conveyed during court proceedings, inside a courtroom, and not directly to a judge, he said.

The 1965 Law on the Prevention of Blasphemy and Abuse of Religion is currently the subject of a judicial review after it was challenged by the late President Abdurrahman Wahid last year on the grounds it was being misused to intimidate minority religions.

The review applicants have requested that the court hear testimony from W Cole Durham Jr, a human rights and religious freedom advocate from Brigham Young University in the United States, Mahfud said.

He said the petition organizers had argued the law should not be annulled because matters of religious blasphemy would fail to be legally regulated. The public would then resort to using their own version of the law [street justice], which would be chaotic. Actually, this opinion has been presented in previous hearings, Mahfud said.

The judicial review was filed by several people and organizations, including Wahid. According to Choirul Anam, a lawyer representing the applicants, the law is unconstitutional because it only recognizes six religions: Islam, Protestantism, Catholicism, Hinduism, Buddhism and Confucianism. The law bans people from publicly espousing other religious views or following non-mainstream interpretations of one of the state-sanctioned religions, he said.