Australians have been warned about Indonesia’s strict religious blasphemy laws after an influencer was arrested for saying in a TikTok video that Jesus should cut his hair.
Ratu Thalisa, also known as Ratu Entok, is a transgender celebrity in her hometown of Medan, in the country’s North Sumatra province. She has over half a million followers on social media and also runs her successful skincare business Glow.
In a now-deleted TikTok livestream on October 4, Thalisa showed a photo of Jesus on her phone in response to comments that she should cut her own hair.
“Don’t look like a woman, you have to shave your hair… like a monk,” he said during the livestream, which went viral after some viewers saved the footage.
‘You shave your hair… yes. Don’t look like a woman, shave to look like his father. Men should be bald and clean shaven.
Several people and Christian groups complained to authorities about the live broadcast, the North Sumatra Regional Police said.
The population of North Sumatra is about 30 percent Christian, much higher than the Christian population in all of Indonesia as a whole, which is about 11 percent.
Islam is the country’s largest religion in terms of population and is practiced by approximately 87 percent of the population.
Influencer Ratu Entok was arrested under Indonesia’s blasphemy laws after saying Jesus should cut his hair in a TikTok video (pictured)
Indonesia’s blasphemy laws cover the country’s major religions, including Islam, Christianity, Hinduism and Buddhism, and apply to comments made online (pictured, tourists in Kuta, Bali).
Indonesia’s blasphemy laws cover the country’s major religions, which also include Hinduism and Buddhism, and also apply to comments made online under the Electronic Information and Transactions Law.
The Head of Public Relations of the North Sumatra Police, Senior Commissioner Hadi Wahyudi, said that officers arrested Ms. Thalisa at her home a few days after the live broadcast on October 8 and that the Cyber Directorate is investigating.
The law, which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison, has been criticized by human rights activists in recent years.
‘Indonesia normally only sees Muslims demanding blasphemy prosecutions. It is rare to see Christians making similar demands. This toxic law simply needs to be put to an end,” said Andreas Harsono, a researcher at Human Rights Watch Indonesia. news.com.au.
Usman Hamid, director of Amnesty Indonesia, said the organization recorded 120 cases of blasphemy across Indonesia between March 2018 and June 2024.
Between its introduction in 1965 and 2005, it was only used in eight cases.
Ms Entok apologized for the video (pictured) and said she did not intend to offend.
Some of the recent increases in cases include a woman who complained about the volume of speakers broadcasting the Islamic call to prayer and a Muslim influencer who shared a video of herself eating a dish of crispy pork, which is banned in Islam.
Thalisa has since apologized “to anyone who was offended” by the video in a new video titled “From the Bottom of My Heart,” which has over a million views.
His lawyer has also apologized “to our Christian brothers and sisters.”
“We hope everyone can forgive our client,” they said.