Introduction

This chapter describes the constitutional guarantee of the rights of religious minorities within Islam in Indonesia, especially since the fall of the Soeharto regime in 1998. Yet, the rights of religious minorities within Islam in Indonesia seem to be excluded in the middle of progressive legal and human rights development. In the last two decades, religious minorities within Islam such as the Shi’ah and Ahmadiyah have faced discriminatory treatment from central and local governments. Some members from those two groups have also been persecuted and jailed by public courts, which has resulted in religious minorities within Islam becoming more vulnerable. This chapter asserts that the contradiction between progressive legal and human rights development and the preservation of blasphemy laws, particularly Law No. 1/PNPS/1965 and Article 156a of the Indonesian Criminal Code, affects the persecution of religious minorities within Islam in Indonesia. Additionally, anti-democratic religious groups that demand the Islamic standard of Indonesian legal and human rights systems also affect the rise of persecution against religious minorities within Islam.