NTB Government Urges Public to Verify Before Judging Viral Video

The West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) Provincial Government has urged the public not to jump to conclusions and to practice tabayun (verification) regarding a viral video of a woman suspected of insulting the Quran. Head of the NTB Communication, Informatics and Statistics Office, Ahsanul Khalik, stated that the public needs to understand information in its entirety and not rely solely on video clips circulating on social media. “We urge the public to be wise in using social media, to prioritise tabayun, and to leave the law enforcement process entirely to the authorities,” he said in a statement in Mataram on Thursday. Based on the results of a linguistic study conducted by language experts, it was revealed that the woman’s statements in the video did not constitute blasphemy against the Quran. The target of the speech was directed at the individual she was speaking to. The linguistic analysis focused on several phrases that drew public attention, namely “the Quran is not a book”, “you make the Quran a concept?”, “only stupid netizens and your protectors believe you”, and “you can even deceive the Quran, let alone people like us”. Ahsanul explained that the sentence “the Quran is not a book” is understood as an affirmation of the Quran’s status as a holy book that cannot be equated with ordinary books, and therefore linguistically contains no element of insult or desecration. Meanwhile, the phrases “you make the Quran a concept?” and “you can even deceive the Quran, let alone people like us” use the pronoun “you”, so the criticism is directed at the interlocutor who is considered to be using or misrepresenting the Quran incorrectly, not at the Quran itself. Similarly, the sentence “Only stupid netizens and your protectors believe you” is, according to linguistic analysis, a criticism of a specific individual and their supporters, not of the Quran as an object. Ahsanul emphasised that the government’s explanation is not intended to take over the authority of law enforcement or to provide a legal assessment of the case. The linguistic analysis was conducted objectively based on sentence structure, meaning, and studies by language experts. The determination of whether a criminal element exists remains the authority of law enforcement in accordance with the provisions of applicable laws and regulations. “Maintaining peace, unity, and harmony among the people is a shared responsibility that we must prioritise above all differences in interpretation,” Ahsanul concluded.