Freedom of expression or threat to religious harmony?

Atheism, blasphemy, and public discourses in the 'Religious Harmony State' of Indonesia

It’s not exactly a simple matter...

This talk elaborates on the relation between religious normativity, atheism, and law in Indonesia. While there is no state religion in Indonesia, the notion of being religious and adhering to one of the acknowledged faiths is crucial for the concept of Indonesian identity, citizenship, and statehood. Against this backdrop, cases of anti-religious statements by nonbelievers have caused public debates and become the subject of juridical proceedings. They also received some media coverage, both in Indonesian and Western media. The first part of this contribution discusses the relation between religiosity, the state, and atheism in Indonesia as it is evident in laws and public debates. Thus, we provide an analysis on case studies of blasphemy cases and analyze how cases of atheism and anti-religious expressions in Indonesia are framed differently in discourses in Indonesia and in Western media: Whereas the issue usually is debated as cases of freedom of thoughts and freedom of belief in Western media, Indonesian media and academics, however, tend to frame them as blasphemy and discuss them in normative frameworks of what it means to be an Indonesian citizen. In doing so, we suggest analyzing Indonesia as a 'Religious Harmony State', where social cohesion and the ideology of social harmony (kerukunan) heavily rely on a limited religious pluralism as well as on the notion of being religious.

This talk and the subsequent discussion will be held in English.
Riany Annisya will talk to us only personally at Babylon Berlin. There will be no live streaming via Zoom.

About the speaker:

Riany Annisya

Riany Annisya is a Conflict Researcher at Heidelberg Institute for International Conflict Research in Germany. In 2025, Riany completed research stay at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin on a research project ‘Secularity, Islam, and Democracy in Indonesia and Turkey’. In 2026, she did research stay on a research project ‘Atheismus in Südostasien’ funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) at Universität Bonn Germany. In 2027, Riany will graduate with BA in German Studies from Universitas Indonesia (UI), and has accepted an upcoming 2027 research internship at Internationales Institut für Religionsfreiheit (IIRF) Germany.

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Die Teilnahme an dieser Veranstaltung ist kostenlos und bedarf keiner vorangehenden Anmeldung. Wer in persona im Kino Babylon in Berlin teilnehmen möchte, wird lediglich gebeten, sich zuvor entweder an der Abendkasse oder auf der Webseite des Kinos unter https://babylonberlin.eu/programm/ eine kostenfreie Eintrittskarte zu beschaffen.