Alexander Aan stands guilty of nothing but being an unbeliever in a religious state. In June 2012, Aan was sentenced to two and a half years in an Indonesian prison for expressing anti-Muslim sentiments on the internet, according to DemocraticUnderground.com.
Aan, a civil servant in West Sumatra, launched a religious debate on Facebook and declared that "God does not exist," according to an article in the Wall Street Journal. Before he was arrested, Aan was attacked and beaten by an angry mob. It is worth noting that the local police arrested none of his attackers.
Any country which has pretensions to democracy should embrace religious freedom, and that freedom should include the right to question the validity of religion. However, in Indonesia, blasphemy, which can be defined as any reasoned denial of imaginary friends, is illegal.
Tell Indonesia President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to release Aan from prison!
We the undersigned deplore the arrest and imprisonment of Alexander Aan.
Aan has done nothing wrong. He has questioned the validity of religion and the existence of god, which should be a sacred human right in every part of the world. You have charged him with inciting hatred for doing nothing more than lampooning the Islamic religion and questioning the existence of god on the internet. This kind of ideological expression should be protected by your laws, but instead, you have put him in prison.
Release Alexander Aan!
