Mosque complaint lands woman in jail

Medan – A woman in Muslim-majority Indonesia was sentenced to 18 months in jail yesterday for complaining about the volume of a mosque’s call to prayer – the latest conviction under a controversial blasphemy law.

Meiliana, 44, an ethnic Chinese Buddhist, was found guilty of insulting Islam for asking her neighbourhood mosque to lower its sound system because it was too loud and “hurt” her ears.

There are some 800 000 mosques across the archipelago, with the five-timesa-day call to prayer heard everywhere in the biggest cities and smallest towns.

Yesterday’s verdict will likely fuel fears that Indonesia’s moderate brand of Islam is coming under threat from increasingly influential radicals. –