On A More Serious Note

As regular readers know, I've made an effort to keep this blog light.  To that end I usually stay away from politics and religion.  Every once in a while though, I run across something so disturbing that I have no choice but to react here in the only public forum I have available to me.  Today was one of those days.

Alex Aan is an Indonesian citizen who has been jailed and faces up to 11 years in prison for the crime of blasphemy. He posted "God doesn't exist" on his Facebook page and was arrested for that statement soon after.

No matter what you believe about the existence of God, I hope that you agree with me that putting a man in prison for sharing his personal beliefs is a reprehensible abuse of his basic human rights. Indonesian law guarantees freedom of religion, but only so long as you are an adherant of Islam, Catholicism, Protestantism, Buddhism, Confucianism or Hinduism. Apparently being a non-believer (or believing in anything but the six credos listed) leaves one vulnerable to extreme legal action.

I am calling on my readership to make our outrage clear to the Indonesian government. Below are links to the "Contact Us" pages of the Indonesian Embassies in Canada and the United States. Please click the appropriate link, fill out the form and send it to them. Keep it clean, please.

If you reside in a country other than the U.S. or Canada, simply Google "Indonesian Embassy" and your country to find the appropriate Embassy to contact.  With hits from over 100 countries on this blog, I hope we get letters written from outside the North American continent!

If you are unsure what to write, below the links I've provided a paraphrase of what I sent to them earlier today. Feel free to copy/paste it and modify it if you like.  Be sure to sign your real name.

Contact the Indonesian Embassy in Washington

Contact the Indonesian Embassy in Ottawa

It has come to my attention that Alex Aan has been jailed in Indonesia for the crime of blasphemy.

It is incomprehensible that blasphemy could be considered a crime by any civilized nation in the 21st Century.

I ask you to pass along to your government my outrage at this abuse of Mr. Aan's basic human rights and my hope for his immediate and unconditional release.

Respectfully,