What could possibly go wrong? “In the latest of public whippings in Aceh, a prosecutor on December 5 took a cane to six family members who each received five to eight lashes for playing poker for money at a coffee shop. Such floggings have significantly increased recently in Aceh province, not only for gambling, but also for drinking alcohol and engaging in relationships deemed illicit. Violators face a choice of caning, jail time or paying a fine in gold.” And so Aceh slips farther into darkness and oppression.
“Indonesian Province to Expand Sharia Law,” by Steve Herman, Voice of America, December 12, 2014:
Indonesia has the world’s largest Muslim population and a legal system based on Dutch civil law and Indonesian government regulations. But in a 2001 compromise with separatists, Aceh province in Sumatra island’s north was allowed to implement Sharia law.
Since then, religious justice has become increasingly strict — and, for some residents, uncomfortable, at the very least.
Justice?
In the latest of public whippings in Aceh, a prosecutor on December 5 took a cane to six family members who each received five to eight lashes for playing poker for money at a coffee shop.
Such floggings have significantly increased recently in Aceh province, not only for gambling, but also for drinking alcohol and engaging in relationships deemed illicit. Violators face a choice of caning, jail time or paying a fine in gold.
Sharia police squads target women for immodest dress — such as wearing tight-fitting clothing or not keeping their hair under a scarf. Both women and men can be nabbed for exposing their legs.
Local civil rights advocates, such as Ayu Ningsih, say Sharia law was not wanted nor needed in a place already, as she puts it, “99 percent Islamic.”
“Officers enforcing Sharia law wrongly interpret it,” she says. “Women end up being the primary targets.”…
Yes, wrong interpretations of Sharia are apparently rampant. Now, why is that? And why is Sharia so often misunderstood in a misogynistic direction?