Australians have been warned of Indonesia’s strict religious blasphemy laws after an influencer was arrested for saying on a TikTok video that Jesus should cut his hair.
Ratu Thalisa, who also goes by Ratu Entok, is a transgender celebrity in her home city of Medan in the country’s North Sumatra Province. She has more than half a million social media followers and also runs her successful Glow skincare business.
In a now-deleted TikTok livestream on October 4, Ms Thalisa held up a picture of Jesus on her phone in response to comments she should cut her own hair.
‘Don’t look like a woman, your hair must be shaved… like a monk,’ she said during the livestream, which went viral after some viewers saved the footage.
‘You shave your hair… yeah. Don’t look like a woman, shave so that you look like his father. Men should be bald, closely shaved.’
A number of individuals and Christian Groups complained about the livestream to authorities, North Sumatra Regional Police said.
North Sumatra’s population is roughly 30 per cent Christian, much higher than the Christian population throughout Indonesia as a whole, which is about 11 per cent.
Islam is the country’s largest religion by population and is practiced by about 87 per cent of the people.
Influencer Ratu Entok was arrested under Indonesia blasphemy laws after saying Jesus should get a haircut on a TikTok video (pictured)
Indonesia 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 main religions, which also includes Hinduism and Buddhism, and also applies to comments made online under the Electronic Information and Transactions Law.
Head of Public Relations of the North Sumatra Police, Senior Commissioner Hadi Wahyudi, said officers arrested Ms Thalisa at her home a few days after the livestream on October 8 and she is under investigation by the Cyber Directorate.
The law, which carries a maximum five year prison term, has been criticised by human rights activists in recent years.
‘Indonesia usually sees only Muslims demanding blasphemy prosecutions. It’s rare to see Christians making similar demands. This toxic law should simply be ended,’ Andreas Harsono, a researcher at Human Rights Watch Indonesia, told news.com.au.
Usman Hamid, the head of Amnesty Indonesia, said the organisation recorded 120 blasphemy cases across Indonesia from March 2018 to June 2024.
Between its introduction in 1965 and 2005, it was only ever used in eight cases.
Ms Entok has apologised for the video (pictured) and said she did not intend to cause offence
Some of the recent spike 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 crispy pork dish, which is forbidden in Islam.
Ms Thalisa has since apologised ‘to anyone that. was offended’ by the video in a video titled ‘from the bottom of my heart’, which has over one million views.
Her lawyer has also apologised ‘to our Christian brothers and sisters’.
‘We hope that everyone can forgive our client,’ they said.
