Atheist faces jail after Facebook remark
An Indonesian civil servant who declared himself an atheist on Facebook was arrested and is now facing jail for blasphemy after being attacked by an angry mob, police said today.
Alexander An, 30, who wrote "God doesn't exist" on his Facebook page, was beaten by a mob of dozens on Wednesday in his hometown in Pulau Punjung, West Sumatra province.
"He is suspected of having blasphemed against Islam," local police chief Chairul Aziz told AFP.
"The man told police investigators that if God really exists and has absolute power, why didn't he prevent bad things from happening in this world."
An said on his Facebook page that he was brought up as a Muslim, like the vast majority in Indonesia, where blasphemy is a punishable crime carrying a maximum five-year prison term.
Dozens of locals stormed into his office after a heated debate with them on Facebook over religion, police said.
An was also an administrator of a Facebook group promoting atheism with 1243 followers. His postings no longer appeared online following his arrest.
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Comment by Barry Eckert on January 24, 2012 at 10:35pm -
@ archaeopteryx lol yeah
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Comment by archaeopteryx on January 25, 2012 at 4:06am -
I hope the bills sink, especially after the fight that little girl put up! (see video below)
pax vobiscum,
archaeopteryx
www.in-His-own-image.com
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Comment by archaeopteryx on January 25, 2012 at 4:35am
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Sorry Barry, I got my links mixed up - the one below is about a high school girl who won a court victory to get a prayer poster taken down from the wall of her school - sorry 'bout that.
Still, it's worth watching.
Here's the other one - it's a must-watch, but, gotta warn you, it's two-hours long, but can be done in increments with the pause button --
http://freethoughtnation.com/contributing-writers/63-acharya-s/640-in-god-we-trust-documentary.html
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