Penistaan: the debate about the vulnerability of religion

In 2016-7 there was a malicious reli-political action against the candidate for governorship of Jakarta, Ahok. He had quoted a text from the Qur'an, given his own interpretation and then he was accused of penistaan or deprecation/vilification of religion. He was sentenced to two years in prison.
About six months ago there was another case in Tanjung Balai a majority ethnic-Chinese town close to Medan. A Chinese lady, Meiliana, living close to a mosque, complained about the very noisy loudspeaker of a mosque nearby. It was mentioned to the police, she was arrested and 19 August 2019 she was sentenced to stay for 1.5 year in prison, for penistaan/penodaan.

Soon after this strange verdict by a local judge, there came another case of accusation of vilification of religion. A preacher from Pekan Baru, the oil capital of Central Sumatra, one Ustaz Abdul Somad, had given a sermon in a mosque which was recorded and available on the internet. He had said: salib itu dalamnya ada Iblis dan ada jin kafir ('in the cross the devil is present and unbelief; evil spirits are found in the cross). Some Batak Christians went to a court to ask for a case against  this UAS (famous people with long names like to use acronyms since Hamka, SBY and others). UAS, born in 1977, studied for some time at Al-Azhar in Egypt and also took an MA degree in Rabat, Morocco. He is at this moment a lecturer at the UIN, Islamic University Syarif Kasim of Pekan Baru.

The MUI, Majelis Ulama Indonesia, Indonesian Council of Muslim Clerics, called for mitigation in this case: it should be handled outside the legal institutions, through dialogue and mutual understanding. This is understandable, but it should have been more convincing if MUI had shown or preached mitigation as well in the Ahok and Meilana cases. Recent history of Pakistan has shown that vilification processes can bring total disorder to a country. And the present Muhammadiyah leader also rightly stated that the Ahok affair only has brought public and social damage to the country. Religion is strong enough and should not be defended as if it is a weak institution.
Benny Susetyo and Gomar Gulton, from the Catholic and Protestantchurches reacted that if this preacher will not ask forgiveness for his words,  he  anyway will be forgiven by them.