Alexander Aan, Murtadin Atheis Minangkabau Dlm Berita
Posted: Mon Jan 23, 2012 4:56 am
Dari Faithfreedom internasional
Foto Alexander Aan, Murtadin Atheis Minang, Minangkabau
http://www.faithfreedom.org/articles/po ... -facebook/
Update 1: FFI receives an email from an Indonesian Group
1/21/2012
Readers, please support this movement to any extent you can. Visit their FaceBook page. Leave a word of encouragement if you can. FFI received this email from this group, and we’ll be contacting them to see if a more concrete steps of assistance to them can be taken on the political/Human Rights level. Thank You – FFI Editors.
Here is the body of their email to us
Dear Editor,
We are a group of international people, indonesian as well as other nationalities, including ex indonesian journalists as well as legal assistants, supporting Alex Aan in regard to his recent arrest and charges under indonesian law for blasphemy due to his posts on the wall of his Facebook group of which he is one of the admin. Alex Aan exercised his right to free speech in a democratic country, Indonesia, by openly questioning the existence of god and criticizing islam.
We are please asking for your help in spreading the word about our Facebook group at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Support-A ... 28?sk=info
We are very concerned about Alex Aan and his family’s safety and hope that international pressure and outrage at this violation of his basic human rights will result in him being freed as soon as possible. Thank you for your help in support of Alex Aan.
————————————————————————————-
FFI Addendum – Link to a media story about Mr. Alex Aan
Here is a copy of a second email we received from this group:
Hi there,
Thank you so much for your quick reply.
As the Indonesian police have a very limited amount of time to extract a ‘confession’ from Alexander Aan, it’s critical that things happen as fast as possible. Because the police are under pressure from the Indonesian government – the majority being Muslim themselves, the Muslim-majority public, and fanatical Islamic organizations, these so-called ‘officers of the law’ will do whatever is necessary to extract a confession from him, including beat and torture him. He will then be forced to sign it, at which point it is unlikely anybody will be able to help him.
At this time we only know that he has been unable to secure a lawyer to help in his defence. Even the lawyers are in fear of these radical Islamic groups, the public, judges within their own legal system and their government. In addition, if these charges against him are not dropped, he will face a guaranteed conviction. It is very likely that he will then be tortured and killed in prison for ‘insulting Islam’, ‘blaspheming’ it, by other inmates, very possibly the police, or prison guards who are Muslim themselves.
Even if we all manage to put enough pressure on the Indonesian government to drop all charges against Alex, he and his family will face public violence, ridicule, shunning, and being fired from their jobs. Their children will most definitely be bullied and tormented in school, by their classmates as well as teachers. We do not feel we are being melodramatic in saying that he or his family members would likely be killed by any of these lunatics. It could be a neighbour, friend, or even another family member who may carry out his execution. And the person who murders him would more than likely be lauded as a ‘defender of Islam’ and be seen as a ‘hero’. No matter how we look at this situation, whether he is convicted or not, whether the charges are dropped or not, he and his family are in a very precarious position at the moment. We hope that, ultimately, he would be able to claim refugee status in any country that would take him in. We can only dream of this at the moment.
We are currently working on attempting to directly contact one of Alex’s family members in Indonesia, by whatever means possible, in order to receive regular updates about what is happening to him in police custody, whether or not any lawyer in the country will offer to work on his behalf, or any other important info related to this case. The Associated Press has already gotten a hold of this story, but our press here in Vancouver, BC Canada has not as of yet as far as we know, so we will be contacting local newspapers, etc tonight. We are also working on a petition which we will submit to the Indonesian government, in English and Indonesian, with which we would appreciate your support/backup. Being able to add your organization’s name to the petition we are drafting would very much help. Please let us know if this is possible.
As to your question regarding what your own organization can do to assist Alex, firstly, if you could please forward this email to as many people, human rights organizations, news agencies etc that you think might be helpful to getting Alex released, we would greatly appreciate it. Feel free to post the entire contents of this email in your forums as well. Please do not, however, post our direct email address as we would prefer not to have to deal with death threats etc which will undoubtedly come our way at this moment. Our time is better spent working on getting Alex freed, rather than dealing with murderous lunatics. In addition, having people worldwide contact the Indonesian embassy in their areas, protesting his arrest and the charges brought against him and demanding his immediate release, would be very helpful. We are also encouraging people to directly contact the Indonesian Ministry of Tourism to let them know that they will not be spending their vacation dollars in Indonesia due to the arrest and charges brought against Alexander Aan. It’s necessary at this time to bombard them with as many emails, phone calls, faxes and letters as humanly possible. We want them to be sitting under a literal mountain of protest and outrage. It’s one of the few ways we will be able to get through to them as Indonesia is very concerned with its international reputation, foreign investment and tourist dollars. It all equals cold hard cash to them, or lack thereof. We have also posted the following list on our Facebook wall in hopes that these methods of applying pressure will result in exactly that.
For those who are wondering what else they can do to support Alexander Aan, we have put together a small list of suggestions.
1) Make others aware of this FB group in support of Alex. Post links to this group in your signatures in your emails, forums you use, as well as your signature of your forum profiles. That allows others easy access to this group so they can become familiar with what is happening to Alex, as well as allow them to share this info and group with their own friends.
2) Write letters to the president of Indonesia in support of freeing Alex Aan and having all charges against him dropped.
3) Contact Amnesty International (and other human rights organizations possible) and let them know you are concerned about the violation of Alex Aan’s human rights. Press them to become involved in this case.
4) Write letters to members of your own government in support of Alex Aan and ask them to put pressure on the Indonesian government to drop the absurd charges against him.
Please be aware that attempting to send funds for Alex Aan’s legal defense is not suggested. As our Indonesian admins with legal and journalistic backgrounds have pointed out, your money will never reach Alexander Aan or his family. It will be eaten up by corrupt police, lawyers and equally corrupt government officials, after which they will still drag him through their kangaroo courts. Money will also very likely end up in the pockets of Islamists who are attempting to railroad this man into 5 years of prison time. Unfortunately, this is the reality, and the last thing we want to have happen is these hypocritical douche bags making money off Alex Aan’s suffering and using those funds to buy themselves new cars and houses, or to further their fanatical & immoral Islamic groups.
The best thing people can do for Alex right now is to increase pressure on the Indonesian government in the ways mentioned above. If you have any further ideas of your own, please let us know. Every little bit helps.
Thanks very much for your timely support and assistance in this ground-breaking matter. It is very much appreciated.
Foto Alexander Aan, Murtadin Atheis Minang, Minangkabau
http://www.faithfreedom.org/articles/po ... -facebook/
Update 1: FFI receives an email from an Indonesian Group
1/21/2012
Readers, please support this movement to any extent you can. Visit their FaceBook page. Leave a word of encouragement if you can. FFI received this email from this group, and we’ll be contacting them to see if a more concrete steps of assistance to them can be taken on the political/Human Rights level. Thank You – FFI Editors.
Here is the body of their email to us
Dear Editor,
We are a group of international people, indonesian as well as other nationalities, including ex indonesian journalists as well as legal assistants, supporting Alex Aan in regard to his recent arrest and charges under indonesian law for blasphemy due to his posts on the wall of his Facebook group of which he is one of the admin. Alex Aan exercised his right to free speech in a democratic country, Indonesia, by openly questioning the existence of god and criticizing islam.
We are please asking for your help in spreading the word about our Facebook group at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Support-A ... 28?sk=info
We are very concerned about Alex Aan and his family’s safety and hope that international pressure and outrage at this violation of his basic human rights will result in him being freed as soon as possible. Thank you for your help in support of Alex Aan.
————————————————————————————-
FFI Addendum – Link to a media story about Mr. Alex Aan
Here is a copy of a second email we received from this group:
Hi there,
Thank you so much for your quick reply.
As the Indonesian police have a very limited amount of time to extract a ‘confession’ from Alexander Aan, it’s critical that things happen as fast as possible. Because the police are under pressure from the Indonesian government – the majority being Muslim themselves, the Muslim-majority public, and fanatical Islamic organizations, these so-called ‘officers of the law’ will do whatever is necessary to extract a confession from him, including beat and torture him. He will then be forced to sign it, at which point it is unlikely anybody will be able to help him.
At this time we only know that he has been unable to secure a lawyer to help in his defence. Even the lawyers are in fear of these radical Islamic groups, the public, judges within their own legal system and their government. In addition, if these charges against him are not dropped, he will face a guaranteed conviction. It is very likely that he will then be tortured and killed in prison for ‘insulting Islam’, ‘blaspheming’ it, by other inmates, very possibly the police, or prison guards who are Muslim themselves.
Even if we all manage to put enough pressure on the Indonesian government to drop all charges against Alex, he and his family will face public violence, ridicule, shunning, and being fired from their jobs. Their children will most definitely be bullied and tormented in school, by their classmates as well as teachers. We do not feel we are being melodramatic in saying that he or his family members would likely be killed by any of these lunatics. It could be a neighbour, friend, or even another family member who may carry out his execution. And the person who murders him would more than likely be lauded as a ‘defender of Islam’ and be seen as a ‘hero’. No matter how we look at this situation, whether he is convicted or not, whether the charges are dropped or not, he and his family are in a very precarious position at the moment. We hope that, ultimately, he would be able to claim refugee status in any country that would take him in. We can only dream of this at the moment.
We are currently working on attempting to directly contact one of Alex’s family members in Indonesia, by whatever means possible, in order to receive regular updates about what is happening to him in police custody, whether or not any lawyer in the country will offer to work on his behalf, or any other important info related to this case. The Associated Press has already gotten a hold of this story, but our press here in Vancouver, BC Canada has not as of yet as far as we know, so we will be contacting local newspapers, etc tonight. We are also working on a petition which we will submit to the Indonesian government, in English and Indonesian, with which we would appreciate your support/backup. Being able to add your organization’s name to the petition we are drafting would very much help. Please let us know if this is possible.
As to your question regarding what your own organization can do to assist Alex, firstly, if you could please forward this email to as many people, human rights organizations, news agencies etc that you think might be helpful to getting Alex released, we would greatly appreciate it. Feel free to post the entire contents of this email in your forums as well. Please do not, however, post our direct email address as we would prefer not to have to deal with death threats etc which will undoubtedly come our way at this moment. Our time is better spent working on getting Alex freed, rather than dealing with murderous lunatics. In addition, having people worldwide contact the Indonesian embassy in their areas, protesting his arrest and the charges brought against him and demanding his immediate release, would be very helpful. We are also encouraging people to directly contact the Indonesian Ministry of Tourism to let them know that they will not be spending their vacation dollars in Indonesia due to the arrest and charges brought against Alexander Aan. It’s necessary at this time to bombard them with as many emails, phone calls, faxes and letters as humanly possible. We want them to be sitting under a literal mountain of protest and outrage. It’s one of the few ways we will be able to get through to them as Indonesia is very concerned with its international reputation, foreign investment and tourist dollars. It all equals cold hard cash to them, or lack thereof. We have also posted the following list on our Facebook wall in hopes that these methods of applying pressure will result in exactly that.
For those who are wondering what else they can do to support Alexander Aan, we have put together a small list of suggestions.
1) Make others aware of this FB group in support of Alex. Post links to this group in your signatures in your emails, forums you use, as well as your signature of your forum profiles. That allows others easy access to this group so they can become familiar with what is happening to Alex, as well as allow them to share this info and group with their own friends.
2) Write letters to the president of Indonesia in support of freeing Alex Aan and having all charges against him dropped.
3) Contact Amnesty International (and other human rights organizations possible) and let them know you are concerned about the violation of Alex Aan’s human rights. Press them to become involved in this case.
4) Write letters to members of your own government in support of Alex Aan and ask them to put pressure on the Indonesian government to drop the absurd charges against him.
Please be aware that attempting to send funds for Alex Aan’s legal defense is not suggested. As our Indonesian admins with legal and journalistic backgrounds have pointed out, your money will never reach Alexander Aan or his family. It will be eaten up by corrupt police, lawyers and equally corrupt government officials, after which they will still drag him through their kangaroo courts. Money will also very likely end up in the pockets of Islamists who are attempting to railroad this man into 5 years of prison time. Unfortunately, this is the reality, and the last thing we want to have happen is these hypocritical douche bags making money off Alex Aan’s suffering and using those funds to buy themselves new cars and houses, or to further their fanatical & immoral Islamic groups.
The best thing people can do for Alex right now is to increase pressure on the Indonesian government in the ways mentioned above. If you have any further ideas of your own, please let us know. Every little bit helps.
Thanks very much for your timely support and assistance in this ground-breaking matter. It is very much appreciated.