Careful what you say in Indonesia

[pefjr]

Indonesian man sentenced to 30 months in prison for making athiest comments on Facebook

Given that the phenomenon of Facebook and social media are relatively new, it's somewhat excusable for courts of law to be unsure how to proceed with regard to matters involving human interaction on the site. That said, there are few supporting an Indonesian court's latest act: A 30-year-old man was sentenced to 30 months of prison and a $10,600 fine for posting pro-atheist and anti-Islam comments on Facebook.
Alexander Aan was charged with posting cartoons of the prophet Mohammed to an atheist Facebook group and for making statements including, "If God exists, then why do bad things happen?" The comments Aan made wound up inciting an angry mob to seek him out and severely beat him. Aan was arrested by police for his own protection.
Since then, Aan has been charged and convincted of "disseminating information aimed at inciting religious hatred or hostility." Amnesty International is calling for Aan's release, branding his conviction "a serious setback for freedom of expression in Indonesia, and [a violation of] Indonesia's obligations under international law."
(Source)
This article was written by Fox Van Allen and originally appeared on Tecca

[The Bigfella]

Then there was the Malaysian actress who was sentenced to a lashing because of an online photo of her drinking a beer in Singapore.
There was also controversy surrounding the caning sentence for Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno.^[19] She was sentenced by a religious court in 2009 to six strokes of the cane and a fine for drinking beer in a hotel bar. Some said Kartika's sentence did not conform to Islamic law, but Mohamad Sahfri, chairman of the Pahang Religious Affairs Committee, said all relevant regulations had been observed.^[20]
On 1 April 2010 the Sultan of Pahang commuted the sentence to community service a day before the sentence was due to be carried out.^[21] Kartika has said that she would have preferred for the original sentence to have been imposed

[skuthorp]

There is no separation of powers in Islam I think, except those that are dictated by circumstance or enforced, such as by the influence of a secular military in Turkey, or by economics and whose getting rich and who isn't.

[George Jung]

Facebook is an interesting phenomena, and how 'the world' responds/reacts even more so. In the news recently, many businesses 'require' you give your site and password for your account, as part of the interview process. Don't want to? That's okay - 'Next'? Many of the larger businesses have folks on staff whose only job is to search the internet for evidence any of their employees is misbehaving. AFA 'protecting' your account, that's a joke. Anyone with even a modicum of skills can access most folks facebook info. Those with exceptional skills can access anything they want. So I tell my kids - don't put anything on the internet, esp. Facebook, that you wouldn't put on the front page of your local newspaper.

Somewhat related - anybody use 'hide my isp' applications? Presumably all here know that anything you post gives the info about where it was posted from, identifying the person. hidemyisp is one of many purported to disguise this - but there are 'levels' of security, depending on how much you're willing to spend. My suspicion - if you need this, you're probably posting stuff you'd be better off not, and those who might 'take offense' have someone with the skills to ferret out your ID, anyway.

[skuthorp]

Don't use Facebook, to me it always seemed to be a crazy thing to do.

[George Jung]

Short, sweet, pertinent and to the point. I like.

[Phillip Allen]

I write here in the bilge, assuming the whole world can see it...

[Andrew Craig-Bennett]

Then there was the Malaysian actress who was sentenced to a lashing because of an online photo of her drinking a beer in Singapore.
There was also controversy surrounding the caning sentence for Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno.^[19] She was sentenced by a religious court in 2009 to six strokes of the cane and a fine for drinking beer in a hotel bar. Some said Kartika's sentence did not conform to Islamic law, but Mohamad Sahfri, chairman of the Pahang Religious Affairs Committee, said all relevant regulations had been observed.^[20]
On 1 April 2010 the Sultan of Pahang commuted the sentence to community service a day before the sentence was due to be carried out.^[21] Kartika has said that she would have preferred for the original sentence to have been imposed

I think she's Singaporean, but the Sharia laws were held to apply to her, as a Moslem. She insisted that "if she was going to be caned it should be done in public, so that other Moslems could profit from her example" - this triggered the climb down.

It's not so very long since "whores" were whipped in public in Tudor England.

[Gerarddm]

Not so long? Several hundred years sounds like 'long' to me. 'Course, I'm from the US, capital of short attention span disorder.

[Andrew Craig-Bennett]

"Seeing the whores whipped" was one of the popular entertainments, along with hanging drawing and quartering and burning at the stake, which were provided free by the Government and with which Shakespeare had to compete!

[George Jung]

Tough crowd, Andrew. Think I'll 'pass'....