An Indonesian civil servant who declared himself an atheist on Facebook was arrested and is now facing jail for blasphemy after being attacked by an angry mob, police said Friday.

Alexander An, 30, who wrote "God doesn't exist" on his Facebook page, was beaten by a mob of dozens on Wednesday in his hometown in Pulau Punjung, West Sumatra province.

"He is suspected of having blasphemed against Islam," local police chief Chairul Aziz told AFP.

"The man told police investigators that if God really exists and has absolute power, why didn't he prevent bad things from happening in this world."

An said on his Facebook page that he was brought up as a Muslim, like the vast majority in Indonesia, where blasphemy is a punishable crime carrying a maximum five-year prison term.

Dozens of locals stormed into his office after a heated debate with them on Facebook over religion, police said.

An was also an administrator of a Facebook group promoting atheism with 1,243 followers. His postings no longer appeared online following his arrest.

http://news.yahoo.com/indonesian-atheist-faces-jail-facebook-post-101922486.html

This god wey no fit fight for himself, na wa ooo. If god vex make he come down come deal with the guy himself na. Abi?

is it me or frosbel posts more on the 'evils' of Islam than he does on the love of Christ, abi na ur ministry?

[size=14pt]Christian community threatens violence against atheist student[/size]
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/05/31/980731/-Christian-community-threatens-violence-against-atheist-student


[size=16pt]US high school student threatened by Christians with death for opposing school prayer[/size]

http://freethinker.co.uk/2011/05/30/us-high-school-student-threatened-with-death-for-opposing-school-prayer/

NORTH LOUISIANA has been described as “the buckle on the Bible Belt” – and not without good reason, as high school student Damon Fowler at Bastrop High School has discovered to his cost.

Damon Fowler: demonised, ostracized and threatened with death
On the eve of his graduation, the atheist student contacted the school superintendent to let him know that he opposed the inclusion of a prayer at the graduation ceremony. He pointed out that government-sponsored prayer in the public schools was unconstitutional and legally forbidden – and that he would be contacting the ACLU if it went ahead. The school agreed to substitute it with a moment of silent reflection, which was subsequently scuppered by a Christian student.

Then Fowler’s name, and his role in this incident, was leaked. As a direct result:

1) Fowler has been hounded, pilloried, and ostracized by his community.

2) One of Fowler’s teachers has publicly demeaned him.

3) Fowler has been physically threatened. Students have threatened to “jump him” at graduation practice, and he has received multiple threats of bodily harm, and even death threats.

4) Fowler’s parents cut off his financial support, kicked him out of the house, and threw his belongings onto the front porch.

Oh, and the school went ahead and had the graduation prayer anyway.

According to this report, Fowler has become the center of what he terms a “shitstorm”: he has been harassed, vilified, targeted with insults and name-calling and hateful remarks. He’s been told t he’s the devil. He’s been told, “Go cry to your mommy… oh, wait. You can’t”. (A reference to him being disowned by his parents.) He’s been told that he’s only doing this to get attention. A student’s public prayer at a pre-graduation “Class Night” event was turned into an opportunity for the school and community to gang up on Fowler and publicly close ranks against him – teachers as well as students. (Here’s video). And people seen defending him have been targeted as well.

Here are a few comments on the Bastrop Enterprise news story about the controversy:

I personally see him as a coward.

I hope they [Christians] put enough pressure on this kid to convert him and save his soul from the fire of hell.

If he don’t want prayer at graduation he can stay at home and not come to graduation.

I hope that the little athiest (sic) is offended.

What he is really doing is trying to shove his views down people’s throats.

Satan continues to prowl and is deceiving many in this world.

A piece published yesterday by PoliticusUSA points out that Christian fundamentalists have persecuted atheists and agnostics for the past 30 years with accusations that non-believers are aggressive and are “throwing atheism in our faces,” when the opposite is true.

There is a dangerous trend of Christian fundamentalists taking over the government to change the nature of America. It may be in part because in America, like the rest of the world, Christianity is on the decline and the number of Americans claiming to be Atheists, Agnostic, or non-religious has increased by 15 percent leading to an alarming trend of fundamentalists making a last-ditch effort to force Christianity on the country.

The young man who protested prayers at school events is not an isolated case, and around the country young people are standing up to school officials and fundamentalists who “force their religion down the throats” of non-believers regardless of age or station in life. The Constitution does not forbid religious fundamentalists from praying whenever and wherever they please, but it does maintain the separation of the government and religion and it means no public school prayer.

The article concluded:

Evangelical Christian leaders recently conceded in an interview that there were Christians around the country who were prepared for armed conflict to enforce Christianity if necessary, and they claimed the military and Congress had been infiltrated by fundamentalists; it is a foreboding that should frighten every person in America. If any American thinks they are safe from fundamentalist Christians whose intent is replacing the Constitution with the Ten Commandments and its Stone Age punishment (stoning), they are deluded and do not comprehend the level of violence extremists are capable of inflicting in god’s name.

If in America in 2011, one student faces public threats without a theocratic government or the Ten Commandments as the law of the land, imagine the violent Crusade and Inquisition a group of well-armed, angry fundamentalists will unleash if given authority and power.

Last month, an interviewer asked four evangelical church leaders if their intent of using violence to force Christianity on Americans was tantamount to the Taliban in Afghanistan. They replied that, ‘yes, they were the same as the Taliban except they were better armed, better organized, and had the full support of conservatives in positions of power’.

Still think fundamentalist Christians are harmless? You should be mortified.

Pastor AIO:

This god wey no fit fight for himself, na wa ooo. If god vex make he come down come deal with the guy himself na. Abi?

you know pastor that based on christianity he couldn't come down to save his own son.so how would he save poor muslims?

LagosShia:

you know pastor that based on christianity he couldn't come down to save his own son.so how would he save poor muslims?

It is not even the 'saving' part that is doing me right now. If your god dey vex why e no flash lightening from the sky to kill the person wey dey vex am. Abeg all you guys dey worship mumu gods.

^^^^^^^^^^ Allah says in the Quran that the appointed time will not change.
So what is doing you will catch up with you quicker at the end than catching up with you during the boarding house years, by the difference of years between your age now and age when you suffered from the hands of the white boys that screwed up your head. You are approaching the end by that much difference. The luxury of time to the end has diminished by that much.

Even God made faith a thing of choice not force.

^^^^^^^ And the christians are forcing the muslims to accept 3 gods. Shame on your dishonesty, even though I dislike the actions of muslims in so many instances.

Sweetnecta:

^^^^^^^^^^ Allah says in the Quran that the appointed time will not change.
So what is doing you will catch up with you quicker at the end than catching up with you during the boarding house years, by the difference of years between your age now and age when you suffered from the hands of the white boys that screwed up your head. You are approaching the end by that much difference. The luxury of time to the end has diminished by that much.

If this dishonesty that you are spieling here is true then why don't you tell your Islamic brethren to stop beating people up for their views. Why don't you tell Boko Haram to be patient and wait for Allah? The fact is that all the angst and gnashing of teeth is an expression of your real state of being, and I'm sorry but your practice of Islam has not helped to alleviate your malaise.

^^^^^^^^^^^ religion is personal.
I am most responsible for my action.

I am less responsible for the actions of my ward.

I am least responsible for the action of your brothers called boko haram.

Every human being knows from the heart what is good and what is bad. A person who ignores his conscience and opt to do evil, how am I responsible for it when I was not his adviser, and I do not know him?

What the Quran states is clear. What Boko Haram does is completely clear but different from the commandments of God in the Quran.

If the action of Boko Haram is Islamic, you would have found Dr. Abdlatiif Adegbite doing it. No muslim would want to be left behind doing what is Islamic. We would all ave raised one another in doing it as we raise one another in spending in the cause of Allah in Zakat, Sadaqah.

Pastor AIO: how far now?

Mr Sweetnecta, I have to congratulate you on one point that you made. Namely that 'religion is personal'.

The way you go on sometimes I would have thought that your religion operates as a cabal. Nobody moves without conferring with each other and even if anyone should go wrong, all members of the cabal would come together to support the wrongdoer or at least mask his deeds. I believe that is what you guys call Asabiyyah. The same Asabiyyah that you have been doing ever seen I've known you guys on NL.

Yet you see me that if I don't agree with another christian I am quick to voice my objection. I even went to the extent of disowning the label of 'christianity' because I felt that too many people were cheapening it.

But now you say that religion is personal, even if you behaviour does not affirm that you truly believe this, yet I will accept it because your mouth has said it. Today is a special jubilee day where I accept lip service.


Please can I alert you to a typo error in your post above. You said:

I am least responsible for the action of [b]y[/b]our brothers called boko haram.

I'm sure that you know that I have a lot less in common with them than you do. Even if I accept that they are fellow nigerians, fellow africans, even fellow human beings, just as you are too, yet you share the religion of Islam with them. Religion is not a trifling matter. If blood is thicker than water, then prayer is thicker even that blood. You all face the same stone when you pray. That is enough to make them your brother before they are my brother. Even so, I cannot deny my fellow human being. Yes, they are my brothers. Very naughty troublesome brothers in need of discipline but still they are my brothers.

Yet this is shameful of you to deny them like that. haba! wetin. pata pata let us accept to call them 'our' brothers.

^^^ The boko haram are your brothers because by location you are closer to them than me.

Not everyone who uses the label of Islam is a muslim. Example is the Nation of Islam.

Islam is build or based on 5; That there is 1 Absolute God Whose Personal Name is Allah.

Then Salah is observed daily. Zakah and Sadaqah is enjoined. Saum and Hajj are the last 2.

The most important among the 5 has at least 70 levels. The lowest of it is to remove hurt from the part of all creations. So when the Boko Haram and others are hurting innocent people, they fail in the least of what Laa Ilaha Ila Allah is.

@Pastor AIO; So you are a christian and Babalawo at the same time? O ga fun e o.

@Pastor AIO: If you worship Jesus, why can't you stand up to the challenge of Lagosshia and affirm to us where Jesus said he was God and he deserved all worship?