Women face jail for stepping on Quran

SERANG, Indonesia (AFP) — Indonesian police said Sunday they had arrested two women on blasphemy charges after a video showing one of them stepping on a Quran went viral on social media in the Muslim-majority country.

The two women, whose names and ages were not disclosed, were nabbed by police in Banten province this week and risk five years in prison if found guilty under Indonesia’s blasphemy law.

The law forbids anyone from making statements offending one of the country’s six official religions or trying to prevent someone from adhering to one of those religions.

The incident happened on Wednesday when a salon owner in Lebak, Banten, some 140 kilometers from the capital Jakarta, accused a guest of stealing her belongings.

When the woman denied it, the salon owner insisted she swear an oath while stepping on a Quran, and took a video.

“The person who stepped on the Quran, and the person who asked her to swear an oath, have both admitted what they did. Police have summoned them, and they have now been named as suspects,” Banten police spokesperson Maruli Ahiles Hutapea told Agence France-Presse.

The video of the incident spread like wildfire on social media, sparking public anger.

Rights groups have long campaigned against the blasphemy laws, which they say are frequently misused to target religious minorities.

Jakarta’s ex-governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, better known as Ahok, was jailed for nearly two years on blasphemy charges in 2017.

In 2024, a court sentenced a stand-up comedian to six months in prison after he made a joke about the name Muhammad.

Indonesia is the country with the largest Muslim population in the world, with more than 240 million adherents.