ULIL Abshar-Abdalla was on his way to the Utan Kayu Community office, East Jakarta, last Tuesday. The Liberal Islamic Network (JIL) he once led is headquartered in that place. He no longer works there, but Ulil still attends the group’s routine meeting every Tuesday evening. He usually arrives at 2pm.

That day, however, Ulil had to attend another meeting first. At 2:30pm he received a call from Saidiman Ahmad, a colleague in the JIL, who told