Indonesian authorities have once again used its ambiguous "blasmphemy law" to persecute another victim. According to Human Rights Watch, the latest crackdown convicted Siti Aisyah, owner of an Islamic school in Mataram, a city in the province of West Nusa Tenggara. 

Mataram courts found Aisyah guilty and sentenced him to 30 months in prison for "strange teachings", which included advising students to question beliefs on the contents of the Quran, as well as ignoring other books on Prophet Muhammad's teachings.

Media reports on Aisyah's teachings lead governer of the province, Zainul Majdi, to order the closure of the school in the beginning of 2017, and open an investigation on possible blasphemy law violations. 

The Mataram chapter of the Indonesian Ulama Council, an umbrella of Muslim groups in Indonesia, issued a non-legally-binding edict to the police on January 31 that Aisyah had committed blasphemy, stated a report by Human Rights Watch.

Since President Joko Widodo took office in Obtober 2014, there have been 16 such people persecuted on blasphemy charges. The blasphemy law was passed in 1965, and punishes deviations from the central tenets of Indonesia’s six officially recognized religions with up to five years in prison.

Although the law is claimed to be repeatedly misused, Indonesia’s Religious Affairs Ministry is seeking to reinforce and expand its influence via the so-called religious rights protection bill, which some believe will be debated by parliament towards the end of the year.

"The government’s unwillingness to substantially amend or repeal Indonesia’s blasphemy law suggests that it will continue to pander to bigotry and discrimination at the expense of fundamental rights to freedom of belief and expression," writes Andreas Harsono, a researcher on Indonesian politics. 

The case prior to Aisyah's was held against Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, former governor of Jakarta. During his tenure, he made a controversial statement during a speech on a government project, where he referred to a verse in the Quran urging voters to refrain from supporting any non-Muslim leader. 

Purnama was later convicted of blasphemy against Islam, which some critics state as indicative of the ambiguity of the law. The main question critics pose is why Purnama's conviction was not held on different accounts, such as inciting hate speech, rather than those of blasphemy.