Aceh is a case study in how creeping Sharia works. It gets a foot in the door with promises of moderation, tolerance, and limited applications — after all, “War is deceit,” according to Muhammad. As its proponents gain confidence, enforcement of Sharia becomes more aggressive and intrusive on private behavior, because, in truth, Sharia is a comprehensive system of governance for every aspect of human life, and knows no compartmentalization of public and private behavior. The claim of enforcing Allah’s own law does not lend itself to limitations on power which would be, by extension, limitations on Allah.
We have seen this pattern in Gaza as well as Aceh, and even in Iran, where the worst of Sharia’s punishments were introduced under the guise of a six-year “experimental law” that has now been extended over almost 30 years. Indeed, Sharia is not getting entrenched in Britain to exist only in the form of the already-disastrous arbitration courts over the long term.
Sharia always fails to work as advertised, but not as designed. “Sharia cops vs. Indonesian punks,” by Patrick Winn for the Global Post, March 10 (thanks to Twostellas):
Why do cops in Indonesia’s strictest Islamic territory hate local punk rockers?
Muhammad’s well known antipathy toward music and musical instruments can’t help.
They just do, the punks of Aceh told the Jakarta Globe. The Sharia police, given broad powers to crack down on social impurities, are ridding the streets of punk kids, sometimes demanding they shave off their dyed hair. The kids cry discrimination, the Globe reports, but the police say punk rockers are a nuisance.
“Parents have thanked us because they have been unable to knock sense into their kids who have been influenced by this punk culture,” a Sharia police investigator told the newspaper.
Besides offering a plot for a potentially awesome teen flick, the Sharia crackdown on Indonesian punks is the latest attempt to police morality in strictly Islamic Aceh.
Last month, groups marched the streets in Aceh to stop Muslims from celebrating Valentine’s Day.
Last year, police set up checkpoints to catch women wearing jeans. Caught traveling in Levi’s? Cops had 20,000 skirts on hand to cover up the obscenity of a woman in denim.
As for the punks, many have been forced into religious study “rehabilitation” after short stays in jail, the Globe reports. Those that go back to their punky ways could bring stronger punishment which, in Aceh, often means public caning.