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 Humble Guardsman wrote:
My personal opinion; being a man accustomed to the liberalism, free speech and freedom of religion that is nurtured and appreciated in most developed secular nations, is that any one should be free to criticise any book, no matter how holy, regardless of how offensive or blasphemous that criticism might be seen as. Certainly that an Islamic nation that considers itself -moderate- cannot forgive a non-Muslim even questioning the interpretation of the books by various clerics points to the conclusion that Islam as a doctrinal faith has a long way to go, either in reformation of the text or reformation of the interpretation of that text, before it can be accepted as compatible with secular society. Laws that allow valid criticism of a faith to be punished, severely punished as we can see, have no place in a society that values the freedom of the individuals that live within it. Censuring opposing views is demonstrably the fast-track route to totalitarianism.

Yeah, these events are straight up fething disastrous for Indonesia.

That said, it's important people don't start with this event and assume it is the normal state of affairs in Indonesia. It is disastrous precisely because it is not how things have operated, but because this may be how they will operate from now on.

The greater context for this is that Ahok was a rising star in Indonesian politics. He was Governor of Jakarta, Indonesia's capital and largest city, a position that normally sets you up for a run at the presidency. The previous Governor of Jakarta, Joko Widodo, is now president.

After he won election, Ahok was seen as a clear threat to socially conservative elements in Indonesian society. It is important to note that he wasn't just Jakarta's second Christian Governor, he was also its first Chinese governor, so there are racial tensions here in addition to religious ones. It is a reactionary response to Indonesia becoming more accepting of its minority groups. That reactionary response was to organise a lot of conservative Muslim leaders to claim the Koran banned Muslims from voting for Christians. Which led to Ahok's response, challenging this interpretation. Which led to a campaign to misrepresent Ahok's statement, editing it to make it appear that he was challenging the Koran itself, and claiming this was blasphemy and needed to be punished.

All of that is unfortunately run of the mill gakky politics in Indonesia, and in many other countries. What is terrible is that this beat up was able to go to court, and even more shocking was the court finding him guilty. That changed this from being a second rate reactionary response, in to a potentially far reaching change to Indonesian society.

 Humble Guardsman wrote:
Long prison sentences for blasphemy is nothing new to Indonesia.
https://en.tempo.co/read/news/2017/05/10/055874088/Major-Blasphemy-Cases-in-Indonesia

What's different is that here it is being applied to a powerful politician who was believed to have the potential to rise even higher. He's a close ally of the president. And now blasphemy laws are used to cut him out of politics.

I agree with you that this is regular mudslinging for the country, and that both religious and ethnic tensions are at play here due to Ahok's chinese heritage. That said, it is indicative of how things have been in Indonesia for a long time now. This is merely the most publicised and high-profile incident of it occurring.