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View all search resultsKalla denies blasphemy allegations, says remarks taken out of context
Former vice president Jusuf Kalla has denied allegations of blasphemy over remarks he made during a public lecture last month, and is considering legal recourse against his accusers who he said took his comments out of context in a way that defames him.
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Former vice president Jusuf Kalla speaks to the press on April 18 in his residence in Jakarta. Kalla denies allegations of blasphemy over remarks he made during a public lecture in March and says his comments were taken out of context in a way that defames him. (Antara/Rakha Raditya Yahya)
F
ormer vice president Jusuf Kalla has denied allegations of blasphemy over remarks he made during a public lecture last month, saying that his comments have been misrepresented and taken out of context in a way that defames him and that he would consider legal recourse.
Kalla is facing multiple police complaints filed last week by several Christian and Catholic youth groups, which accused him of making statements that they said were blasphemous and inconsistent with their teachings, which do not justify violence.
The complaints stem from parts of his March 5 public lecture titled “Indonesia’s diplomatic strategy in mitigating the potential escalation of multipolar regional wars” at the Yogyakarta-based Gadjah Mada University’s (UGM) mosque.
At one point in the 43-minute address, Kalla referenced past sectarian conflicts in Indonesia, including in Poso, Central Sulawesi, and Ambon, Maluku, where he said that both Muslim and Christian groups had invoked martyrdom during periods of violence. The remarks resurfaced last week and went viral.
Speaking at a press conference on Saturday, Kalla rejected accusations that he had insulted any religious beliefs, saying instead he had been a subject of defamation, which he described as “worse than murder”.
“I was not speaking about religious doctrine. I was describing the reality of what actually happened at that time […] about why [Muslims and Christians] could end up killing each other […] despite being neighbors,” Kalla said.
He said that his remarks were to explain how religious identity was used to justify violence in the Poso and Ambon conflicts, where the warring sides believed that dying in battle would grant them spiritual rewards.
