According to the detainees who were interviewed, they are missing school, and they cannot contact their parents. Jakarta, which consistently takes the path of least resistance with homegrown "extremism," may or may not be motivated to rein in the proliferating abuses in Sharia-ruled Aceh.
An update on this story. "‘Punk’s Not Dead’ Despite Aceh Arrests," by Nurdin Hasan & Dessy Sagita for the Jakarta Globe, December 17 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):
Banda Aceh. Amid rows of youths dressed in police uniforms, 15-year-old Arismunadar kept his head bowed and answered in brief snatches when questioned about his treatment at the police camp in Lembah Seulawah, Aceh Besar district.
The high school student from Medan, North Sumatra, is among 64 punk music lovers undergoing “re-education” in the camp, about 60 kilometers from the provincial capital, after they were arrested last Saturday night.
They were taken to the camp after spending three nights in the Banda Aceh Police jail, where they were held after being arrested at a punk music charity concert they had organized with permission from city authorities.
A set-up?
Arismunadar said his parents gave him permission to make the weekend trip north to Banda Aceh but he was upset and worried because he could not contact them.
“I don’t know what my parents’ reaction will be when they find out I have been taken here,” he said. “I want to talk to them but I can’t because the police have taken our mobile phones.”
Arismunadar said he was also worried about missing school, for which being taught by police “how to march in line and act politely” was little consolation.
Asked whether he would change his ways after the 10 days of camp detention, Arismunadar said, “I will still be a punk because I like it.”
M. Fauzie, one of the camp’s instructors, said the youths were being taught spiritual, moral and behavioral lessons. “We will teach them to wake up early, how to eat properly and how to behave politely,” he said.
On Friday morning, a Muslim cleric council delegation visited the camp and delivered a religious lecture to the youths, most of them in their twenties. At prayer time, police forced the detainees to don traditional Muslim dress and drove them in trucks to a nearby mosque.
There was little sign of a mass conversion to religious piety after the prayers, however.
They may well teach them to hate prayers, hate religion, hate Muhammad, and hate Allah.
“Punk’s not dead!” shouted Andre, 18, after being forced back onto the truck for the trip back to the police camp.
Andre, from Binjai in neighboring North Sumatra, said he was sick of the “re-education.”
“I’ll still be a punk when they let me go, because it’s my chosen life,” he said, adding that he had lived on the streets since he was young. “They can’t change the path I’ve taken.”
One of the female detainees, 20-year-old Intan Natalia, emphasized the creative spirit of the punk community.
“Punks are not about criminality,” said the Medan native. “Don’t look at us from a negative perspective, because we work, too. We create unique tattoos, T-shirt designs and piercings.”
She said she cried when her long, straight hair was cut in the style of female police officers.
“But what else could I do? If I protested, nobody would listen,” she said. “So I had to take it quietly while my beloved hair was chopped short.”
Intan, who was previously a university student in Jakarta, said she had been a punk since 2009 and enjoyed the feeling of solidarity it engendered. She went to Banda Aceh for the charity concert and said she was shocked when police raided the event.
“While the event was underway, we were suddenly arrested,” she said with a frown. “I don’t know why, because we hadn’t broken any laws.”
Aldi, 17, who makes a living printing T-shirts and stickers, said the “re-education” would not change him.
“After I get out of here I will still be a punk because I like the punk lifestyle,” he said. “I’m not a criminal and stealing is not part of punk ethos. If I was a thief, why would I be a punk?”
Arist Merdeka Sirait, chairman of the National Commission for Child Protection (Komnas Anak), said the detention without charge, the head shaving, the dousing ritual and the military-style treatment of the youths at the hands of the police was a breach of human rights.
“Is there a clause in the criminal code that makes self-expression in the punk style a crime? Then show me! This is too much,” he said.
Speaking in Jakarta on Friday, he said the youths were at risk of lasting trauma.
He also scoffed at a statement by Banda Aceh Deputy Mayor Illiza Sa’aduddin Djamal that punk culture was a social disease that stained Islam’s reputation....
This bizarre mistreatment will make these harmless, good natured kids hate Islam for the rest of their lives. That's good! Excellent!
How would someone deprogram a citizen Islamist? Would it not also fuel resentment?
"...we work, too. We create unique tattoos, T-shirt designs and piercings.”
Well, that's not much; but it's better than the slave trading, piracy, and extortion from the infidels that was the mainstay of the Islamic economy for centuries.
And it's better than the welfare cheating and street crime of many Moslem immigrants in the West.
__________
An earlier article said that the piercings were removed by the police. I don't want to ask how. I wouldn't be surprised if they remove the tattoos too.
You can't stop the music!
(“We will teach them to wake up early, how to eat properly and how to behave politely,” he said.)
Funny, we have been trying to do that with your fellow practitioners of hate at gitmo M. Fauzie....it doesnt seem to work, especially the part about behaving politely.
They were taken to the camp after spending three nights in the Banda Aceh Police jail, where they were held after being arrested at a punk music charity concert they had organized with permission from city authorities.
A set-up?
...................................
Maybe. More likely, the "authorities" in Aceh are simply not of one mind as to how much Shari'ah to impose.
My guess is that one individual or group OK'd the concert, then another, more Islamically pious individual or group was behind the crackdown.
In any case, it doesn't look as though anyone is coming to these kids' aid.
Moreover: this was a *charity concert*. Even the "punks" have more of a good social conscience than the Muslims do...
More:
Arismunadar said his parents gave him permission to make the weekend trip north to Banda Aceh but he was upset and worried because he could not contact them.
“I don’t know what my parents’ reaction will be when they find out I have been taken here,” he said. “I want to talk to them but I can’t because the police have taken our mobile phones.”
Arismunadar said he was also worried about missing school, for which being taught by police “how to march in line and act politely” was little consolation.
...................................
Here's a boy concerned about getting in touch with his family and about *missing school*. Seems that he already knows more about morality than the police who arrested him without charge and are keeping him out of school, without council or communication with his family.
More:
M. Fauzie, one of the camp’s instructors, said the youths were being taught spiritual, moral and behavioral lessons. “We will teach them to wake up early, how to eat properly and how to behave politely,” he said.
...................................
Translation: how to get up early for prayers and eat Halal. As though *this* was the business of a modern state...
More:
On Friday morning, a Muslim cleric council delegation visited the camp and delivered a religious lecture to the youths, most of them in their twenties. At prayer time, police forced the detainees to don traditional Muslim dress and drove them in trucks to a nearby mosque.
...................................
Aceh really is becoming a full Shari'ah state...
More:
One of the female detainees, 20-year-old Intan Natalia, emphasized the creative spirit of the punk community.
...................................
This argument might help in the West—that assertion that punk is "creative" will only hurt her case with devout Muslims...
More:
Arist Merdeka Sirait, chairman of the National Commission for Child Protection (Komnas Anak), said the detention without charge, the head shaving, the dousing ritual and the military-style treatment of the youths at the hands of the police was a breach of human rights.
...................................
Sirait is right. Will the fact that he is correct make any difference in a state that now has *stoning on the books*? I would very much doubt it.
More:
He also scoffed at a statement by Banda Aceh Deputy Mayor Illiza Sa’aduddin Djamal that punk culture was a social disease that stained Islam’s reputation....
...................................
Believe me, punk culture could *only improve* Islam's foul reputation. Their draconian and undemocratic reaction to a bunch of high-school and college kids with piercings and silly hair having a good time at a *charity concert* is the real 'stain on Islam's reputation'...