Indonesian TikToker Jailed For 2 Years for Saying “Bismillah” Then Eating Pork Skin

Lina Mukherjee, a TikToker from South Sumatra has been sentenced to two years in prison and handed a fine of IDR 250 million (approximately RM76k) for reciting an Islamic prayer and then eating pork in a viral TikTok video. If she does not pay the fine, she may face a further three months in jail.

In the video, Daily Mail reported that Mukherjee cringed as she uttered “Bismillah”, which translates to “in the name of God” before eating some crispy pork skin. The video went viral and was condemned widely in the Muslim-majority country of Indonesia. At the time, she was travelling in Bali, which, unlike the rest of the country, has a majority Hindu population.

The influencer has 446k followers on Instagram and two TikTok accounts with a total of 3.7M followers and 88.3M likes. The original video appears to have been taken down from her account. Her birth name is Lina Lutfiawati but she adopted the Indian name Lina Mukherjee due to her love of Bollywood movies and she also runs a business in India.

See some snippets from the video and of Mukherjee appearing in court here:

@cheeky_singapore TikToker is jailed for two years for video showing her recite Islamic prayer before eating pork in Muslim-majority Indonesia#foryou #fypシ゚viral #tiktok #goviral #foryoupage #news #indonesia?? ♬ original sound - cheeky ??

The 33-year-old, who identifies as a Muslim, was then reported by a resident for the video. At a court in the city of Palembang, she was found guilty of 'spreading information aimed at inciting hatred against religious individuals and specific groups.’

According to Harian Metro, in another video, she admitted to having eaten pork three times, saying she did so once in Sri Lanka by accident, once at a non-Muslim friend’s party and the third time on purpose because she was curious about the taste of the pork skin which had gone viral on TikTok.

The pig is considered an unclean animal in Islam and is considered ‘Haram’ or forbidden by Muslims. Indonesia has strict blasphemy laws as the largest Muslim-majority nation in the world.

The Indonesian Ulema Council, Indonesia's top Muslim clerical body, ruled the video to be blasphemous. She also received severe backlash from conservative Indonesian groups.

Speaking to Indonesian news station MetroTV after the trial, Mukherjee said, “I know that I am wrong but I did not expect this punishment.”

The reaction to her jailing has been divided, with many praising the judge and calling her actions blasphemous. Meanwhile, others have criticised Mukherjee’s jail sentence, noting that the jail terms meted out for corruption cases are often much lower.

There has been a rise in blasphemy cases in Indonesia. According to CNN, earlier this year, a Muslim cleric was arrested on charges of blasphemy and hate speech in Indonesia after his decision to allow women to preach and pray beside men. In 2017, an ethnic Chinese Indonesian widely known as Ahok and Jakarta’s first non-Muslim governor in 50 years was jailed for two years for referencing a verse from the Quran while campaigning for re-election.

Image credit: @lilumekerji