Woman jailed for two years after eating pork in TikTok video

A woman has been jailed for eating pork in a TikTokvideo - because in doing so she is said to have incited religious hatred. 

Lina Lutfiawati, who lives in Indonesia, an island nation in Southeast Asia, was sentenced to two years in prison after she was convicted of inciting religious hatred for saying a Muslim prayer and then eating pork, something which is considered forbidden in Islam, on a TikTok video.

Judges at Palembang court in South Sumatra province also ordered Lutfiawati to pay a fine of 250 million rupiah (around £13,000) in their blasphemy trial verdict, according to the PA news agency.

Lutfiawati, who is also known as Lina Mukherjee and who identifies as Muslim, said a brief prayer phrase that translates to “in the name of God” before eating a crispy pork skin in a video, which was published on the popular social media channel in March and was widely viewed.

Once she went on trial on blasphemy charges, she expressed regret and also apologised in a post on her social media page last month. She apologised again after the verdict was reached on Tuesday (19 September).

“I am surprised. I have apologised many times. Actually, I know that I was wrong, but I did not expect the sentence to be two years,” Lutfiawati said after the trial.

Indonesia is the largest Muslim-majority country in the world and consuming pork is considered “haram” or forbidden in Islam. The charge of inciting hatred against a religious group is part of blasphemy laws that critics in Indonesia say have been used to curtail freedom of expression.

“What’s been happening to Lina is not surprising, despite the government’s promises” to protect freedom of expression, said Usman Hamid, the executive director of Amnesty International Indonesia. He said the laws have also been used to target religious minorities.

In 2017, Jakarta governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama, a Christian, was imprisoned for two years after being found guilty of blasphemy for quoting a verse from the Koran during a re-election campaign speech. In 2018, an Indonesian court sentenced an ethnic Chinese woman, Meiliana, who complained about a noisy mosque, to 18 months in prison for blasphemy.

Pork is a food taboo among Muslims, but also Jewish people, and some Christian denominations. Pork meat is considered impure and unclean in Islam, and its consumption is prohibited, as per the Islamic holy book the Quran. In Abrahamic religions, eating pig flesh is clearly forbidden by Jewish (kashrut), Islamic (halal) and Adventist (kosher animals) dietary laws. 

In the Quran, there are a few verses which mention that eating pig is not allowed in the Islamic religion. One such verse reads: “The only things which are made unlawful for you are the flesh of dead animals, blood, pork and that which is not consecrated with the Name of God. But in an emergency, without the intention of transgression and rebellion, (it is not an offence for one to consume such things). God is certainly All-forgiving and All-merciful.”