Lina Lutfiawati’s movies of consuming delectable meals — that includes fish, crab, clams, prawns and ribs — have earned the Indonesian influencer hundreds of thousands of followers on TikTok.
However when Ms. Lina, 33, ate pork rinds on digital camera in March, her TikTok video of the meal drew the eye of a distinct viewers: Indonesia’s prime Muslim clerical physique, the Ulema Council. On Tuesday, she was sentenced to 2 years in jail and fined the equal of $16,269 for blasphemy.
Ms. Lina’s video was delicate not solely as a result of consuming and even touching pigs is thought of forbidden for Muslims in Indonesia. Earlier than she started consuming, she stated “Bismillah” — Arabic for “within the title of Allah.” Posting the video in a rustic with the world’s largest Muslim inhabitants — almost 90 p.c of Indonesia’s 275 million individuals are Muslim — made her stunt much more contentious.
Though Ms. Lina’s video efficiency was uncommon in Indonesia, a secular democracy, the blasphemy legal guidelines she was convicted below have been used for many years.
The legal guidelines had been tailored from Dutch colonial-era statutes and apply to those that deviate from the central tenets of the nation’s six official religions: Islam, Protestantism, Catholicism, Hinduism, Buddhism and Confucianism. Blasphemy convictions rose within the early 2000s and have continued below President Joko Widodo, who took workplace in 2014 as ascendant Islamic conservatives had been pushing hard-line insurance policies.
In a single high-profile case, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, a Christian who on the time was governor of Jakarta, the capital, was sentenced to 2 years in 2017 for blasphemy after critics accused him of insulting the Quran on the marketing campaign path. A yr later, a Buddhist girl who had complained concerning the quantity of a mosque loudspeaker close to her dwelling was sentenced to 18 months.
After Ms. Lina was sentenced this week, Sapriadi Samsudin, the lawyer for the cleric who reported her to the police, thanked the judges at her trial within the metropolis of Palembang, northwest of Jakarta on the island of Sumatra.
“This isn’t retaliatory,” Mr. Sapriadi stated after the decision. “That is merely a lesson to a citizen to guard this nation, to not provoke a hubbub and to respect every of its non secular communities.”
Ms. Lina instructed reporters after the trial that she had apologized many instances for her conduct. “I do know what I did was incorrect, however I didn’t count on this punishment to be two years,” she stated.
The Ulema Council didn’t reply to a request for touch upon Thursday.
Ms. Lina didn’t seem to have a lawyer at her trial. Neither her representatives nor her household may very well be reached for touch upon Thursday. Information of her sentence was reported earlier by the BBC and different information shops.
On TikTok, Ms. Lina, who lives in Jakarta and has enterprise ties in India, posts below the title Lina Mukherjee. Within the video of her consuming pork rinds, which was not posted on her official account however could be seen on one other account, she is in Bali, an Indonesian resort island the place most residents apply a neighborhood type of Hinduism.
Earlier than she tries the pork rinds with rice, she says within the video that she has eaten pork twice earlier than and is curious to attempt pork pores and skin after watching others discuss it in TikTok movies.
After taking her first chunk, she grimaces.
“Not as yummy as what they stated on TikTok,” she says. “For me, it’s not so particular.”
