Coming soon to a Western country near you.
An update on this story. “BREAKING: Buddhist woman imprisoned for complaining about mosque’s speaker,” by Apriadi Gunawan, Jakarta Post, August 21, 2018:
A Chinese-Indonesian woman of the Buddhist faith has been sentenced to 1.5 years in prison for complaining about the volume of the azan (Islamic call to prayer) that was blasted from a speaker of a mosque near her house.
Meiliana, 44, a resident of Tanjung Balai, North Sumatra, was found guilty of blasphemy as stipulated under articles 156 and 156A of the Criminal Code on blasphemy, the Medan District Court said on Tuesday.
“[We] declare that the defendant is legally and compellingly proven guilty of […] committing blasphemy against a certain religion that is professed in Indonesia,” presiding judge Wahyu Prasetyo Wibowo said.
“[We] sentenced the defendant to one and a half years in prison.”
Meiliana is one of the first people to have been sentenced to prison for complaining about the volume of a mosque’s speakers, despite a plea from the Indonesian Mosque Council, now led by Vice President Jusuf Kalla, for mosque staff to use loudspeakers wisely.
Meiliana reportedly said the azan was “too loud” and “hurt” her ears, and asked a neighbor to lower the speaker’s volume.
Her remark, made in 2016, is believed to have triggered the worst anti-Chinese riot in the country since 1998, with Muslims who claimed to have been offended by her words burning several Buddhist temples.
During the riot, the angry mob destroyed prayer equipment, Buddha statues, tables, chairs, lamps and several cars and motorbikes, the police said….