A court in Indonesia sentenced pastor Abraham Ben Moses to four years in prison for religious defamation. The conviction followed his December 2017 arrest due to a viral video of him discussing his Christian faith with a taxi driver.
Rev. Moses is a former Muslim who studied comparative religions and started investigating the Christian faith to disprove it. This led to his recognizing the reality of the Christian faith and he converted to Christ in 2006.
In the video in question, Moses’ talk with the taxi driver brought up a question about marriage in the Koran. He quoted a verse and told the driver that Mohammed contradicted himself. Then he shared the Gospel with the driver and pleaded with him to turn to Jesus. He uploaded the video to his Facebook page, where it went viral.
Indonesia’s largest Islamic organization, Muhammadiyah, filed a blasphemy charge again Abraham Ben Moses. Police arrested him on December 5th and confiscated his cell phone as evidence.
The Tangerang District Court sentenced him to four years in prison and fined him 50 million Rupiah. (Approximately $3,500.) The judge in the case said, “Abraham was convicted under Electronic and Information Transactions Law No. 11/2008 as he intentionally spread information intended to incite hatred against an individual, group, and society based on religion.”
Rev. Moses’ attorneys’ plan to file an appeal in the case, saying the sentence is “too heavy” for him. He has four adult children with his first wife, a Muslim who left him after his conversion. His new wife was pregnant at the time of his arrest and has since delivered the couple’s first child.
During the trial, Moses told the court, “I spread the word of Jesus Christ so everybody can be saved… I get my strength from Jesus, He is a very good friend.”
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Publication date: May 30, 2018
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