Demonstrating once again that any Sharia is a slippery slope to more Sharia: theocratic systems don't lend themselves to selective implementation. Those who campaign for it are unlikely to be satisfied with just a little Sharia -- rather, it is a proverbial foot in the door. And as the Islamic arm of government gains strength and confidence, more Sharia follows.
"Aceh to Legalize Stoning," from VivaNews, September 11:
VIVAnews - Aceh House of Representatives (DPRA) will soon legalize Qanun (law) on Jinayat (crimes).
Qanun Jinayat and Qanun Jinayat Code contain several rules on Islamic Sharia in Aceh. The regulations also include a number of punishments including hand-cutting for thieves and stoning against adulterers who are married.
Aceh civil activists ask the legislative and local officials not to be hasty in passing the laws. The plan to ratify the regulations is considered rash and filled with political agenda.
So many continue to try to have it both ways: Sharia cannot ever be at fault, lest criticizing it imply that Allah is unkind, or that the legal prescriptions of the Qur'an are behind the times. By process of elimination, then, it must be the implementation of Sharia that is at fault. Thus, Sharia continues its record -- not unlike that of Communism -- as a system whose supposed perfection on paper is never realized in practice... but the defects in the letter of the law are above scrutiny.
"Qanun Jinayah and the (Qanun Jinayat) code are badly prepared. (They) should be further analyzed in the first place, " Aceh Human Rights NGO Director, Evinarti Zein, said in a written statement received by VIVAnews on Thursday, September 10.
Zein also said Qanun draft bill has never been campaigned, which makes it seems to be forced by the House. She also thought the draft bill is far different from the Islamic penal law.
"The Board hasn't seriously worked on Qanun and it will be hard for the law enforcers to enforce Islamic Shari'a if [we] haven't fully adopted Islamic laws," Zein said.
Although it sets out punishments for thefts and adulterers behaviors, it does not oversee any rules on burglary, corruption and murder. The activists predict the laws would only be enforced to the lower-class society.
"This Qanun is only aimed at lower-class community basing its reason on the issue that any regulation not attached in the Qanun Jinayat will be stipulated by the Penal Code. Therefore, the legalization should be delayed," said Evinarti.
Meanwhile, as reported by the Malaysian Insider, former President Abdurrahman Wahid, who encouraged the implementation of Shari'a in Aceh a few years ago, once said that the punishments should not include stoning or body part-cutting because it would violate human rights and Indonesian Penal Code.
two legal systems in one country will never work out...there will be constant conflict as to which one is in charge...
First those horrific tidal waves and now Sharia.
"What a wonderful world..."
On talk-back radio a few years ago: A man said he was in Jakarta in a taxi at the traffic lights, and some kids came up to the car and shook a tin and asked for money for charity. The man gave them money and asked "What is the money for?" and the kids said,"To kill the Christians in Aceh!" I guess the Christians are killed now, and all the Muslims have to do is turn on each other.
There is always an enemy, to Muslim minds.
"Sharia continues its record -- not unlike that of Communism"
And not unlike that of liberal-left statism, where tha answer to any failed program is to expand it and spend more money on it. If Ford Motor Co. had been the federal government, they'd still be making the Edsel, and losing a bilion dollars per year on it.
No wonder Islam turns the countries it conquers into wastelands. They need the stones!
"Thus, Sharia continues its record -- not unlike that of Communism -- as a system whose supposed perfection on paper is never realized in practice..."
Marisol's analogy also fits another comparison between Communism and Islam: As the Communists kept plugging away throughout the 20th century, actively trying to ignite a worldwide revolution piece by piece, country by country (especially exploiting the Third World in this regard, but also insinuating their tendrils deep into the West), they developed an ever-ready excuse for why the dream of Communism was not to be found perfectly realized in any specific country, not even its motherland, the U.S.S.R. The excuse was elegant and ingenious: As long as there exist the powerful enemies of Communism all around in the world, Communism must comport itself in a fighting mode, which will of necessity moderate the "pure" Communism that is its goal. There was thus in Communism pretty much the same idea of a division of the world into a Dar-al-Islam and a Dar-al-Harb, a House or Sphere of Islam, and a House or Sphere of War denoting all countries outside of Islam, defined by Muslims as being in their essence in a state of war against Islam. And as long as there was a Dar-al-Kapital surrounding the Dar-al-Proletariat, then "pure" Communism could never flourish, and the immanentized eschaton of their Prophet Karl Marx (pbuh) would never come about, and human suffering and injuistice would continue. Thus the "struggle" must continue, until all enemies are defeated and Communism -- i.e., the natural sinless state of man -- reigns supreme.
Qanun Jinayat and Qanun Jinayat Code contain several rules on Islamic Sharia in Aceh. The regulations also include a number of punishments including hand-cutting for thieves and stoning against adulterers who are married.
...................
*Stonings and amputations*. This, in what is absurdly cited, on a regular basis, as the "world's third largest democracy".
And what about all the well-intentioned Westerners who were certain that the massive Infidel humanitarian response to the tsunami in Aceh a few years ago would "win Muslim hearts and minds" there? What would they think of this?
Time to put in a brief advertisement for C Snouck Hurgronje's classic work of scholarship "The Achehnese". It may be found in the libraries of older universities.
I should also mention that it was in Aceh, while studying the language and literature of the Acehnese, that Australia's Rev Dr Mark Durie, Anglican priest, linguist and scholar, acquired his sound knowledge of the ugly realities of Islam, and especially of its treatment of non-Muslims.