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Young and in love in Indonesia? Beware, the Sharia police are watching

May 20, 2014 2:44 pm By Robert Spencer

IndonesiaShariaPolice2Yet Islamic supremacist advocacy groups in the U.S., such as the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), insist that there is nothing about Sharia that is incompatible with Western society and Western freedoms. They only get away with this by so demonizing and defaming those who tell the truth about Sharia that most people have no idea what it is or of what it consists.

“Young and in love in Indonesia? Beware, the sharia police are watching,” by Marie Dhumieres, Independent, May 20, 2014 (thanks to Blazing Cat Fur):

It’s almost sunset in Banda Aceh and the locals rush towards Ulee Lheue beach before the barrier goes down. The authorities close access to this popular spot after 6pm, to prevent promiscuity between unmarried couples.

Many families, couples, and groups of friends have arrived early, and enjoy a drink or corn on the cob at one of the food stalls lining the seaside. On the pier by the port, several couples brave the law by sitting closely together, sometimes holding hands. Luckily for them, the sharia police don’t seem to be coming this evening. Islamic sharia law was adopted in 2001, a “gift” from Jakarta to quell separatist ambitions in this very religious part of Indonesia. A series of bylaws passed since impose Islamic dress code and forbid gambling, alcohol consumption and “seclusion” between unmarried couples.

Twenty-year old Leonie, chatting with two male friends while watching the sun go down on the sea, is one of the few women around not wearing a headscarf. She has been stopped by the sharia police before, at one of the checkpoints they regularly set up to “advise” people who do not abide by the dress code. Headscarves are mandatory, and wearing tight trousers or shirts, or for men, shorts, are a no-go. Leonie remembers the embarrassment of being reprimanded in public while having to wait with sharia police officers for her parents to come and pick her up. She hasn’t learned her lesson though, and still refuses to cover her head. “I sometimes get comments on the street but I don’t care, it’s my problem.” What will she do if the sharia police come now? “Run,” she laughs.

At the North-Western tip of the Indonesian archipelago, Aceh – Banda Aceh is the capital – is the only province in Muslim-majority Indonesia allowed to partly enforce sharia law, as part of a special autonomy status agreement that put an end to a 30 year conflict between Aceh separatists and the central government in Jakarta.

The sharia police have registered 13,000 offences between 2009 and 2013, the head of the unit, Zulkarnain, tells The Independent. He says “minor violations” of sharia law don’t usually end up in the sharia court, even though the law states that three violations to the Islamic dress code requirements are punishable by caning. “This has never been enforced,” he says.

Serious violations, such as adultery and non-marital sex, are handled more severely. At the sharia police headquarters in Banda Aceh, a man and woman in their thirties are being questioned. The unmarried couple were caught having sex at a barber’s shop. A suspicious neighbour had alerted the sharia police, a sign, says chief investigator Mazuki Ali, that the people support the sharia law enforcement. The investigation is ongoing, but Mazuki Ali says they face between six and nine strokes of the cane.

Although rarely enforced in Banda Aceh – the last public caning took place in 2007 – the punishment is common in other parts of the province. In the Eastern Aceh town of Langsa, the case of a 25-year-old widow caught last week with a married man by eight men, who raped her as a punishment, has outraged human right activists, especially after local authorities said she will still be caned for adultery. “She can’t get caned, she’s a victim, what she needs is support,” says Suraiya Kamaruzzaman, director of the women’s group Flower Aceh. In the same town in 2010, three sharia police officers raped a 20 year old girl who they had arrested for riding a motorcycle with her boyfriend.

Activists monitoring the implementation of sharia law say abuses are on the rise, especially those committed by self-declared guardians of the law. Destika Gilang Lestari, director of the local human rights NGO, Kontras, says her organisation has recorded many cases of vigilante raids, in which young men often take it on themselves to punish offenders as it pleases them. “A couple was pushed into the river in Banda Aceh just a couple of weeks ago. People get beaten up, doused with sewage water, and they’re often too scared to report it,” says Destika Gilang Lestari, who called the Langsa case a “barbaric act” and asked for the heaviest possible punishment. She says perpetrators too often remain unpunished, leading to a “misinterpretation” by vigilantes of what they’re allowed to do.

While cases such as the Langsa one undoubtedly tarnish the image of the province, officials insist Islam is practiced in a “tolerant” and “moderate” manner in Aceh. “This is not Afghanistan,” says the head of the sharia police. In 2009, the local parliament added stoning to death as a punishment for adultery in a draft Islamic criminal code, but the then governor of the province rejected it.

Noting 2009 was an electoral year, the head of Aceh’s Islamic sharia agency Syarizal Abbas suggests sharia is used as a political tool in parliament. “There seems to be a misinterpretation of what Islamic law is among Parliament members,” he says. “Islam in Acehnese society is very moderate. Implementation of sharia law in Aceh has to be done the soft way, it’s more about education than punishment,” he adds.

Several media have reported that the recent adoption of a new Islamic criminal code was taking sharia law to a stricter level by imposing it on everyone, including non-Muslims, but officials strongly deny the claims. “This is absolutely not true,” says Syarizal Abbass. He insists the criminal code is only procedural, meaning it only defines proceedings and not the substance of the law. In any case he says, Aceh’s Special autonomy law clearly specifies that the sharia only applies to Muslims.

For Muslims, who make up for 98 per cent of Acehnese, Islamic law enforcement is getting tougher. The Islamic criminal code adopted last February allows the sharia police to set up detention centres for suspected sharia offenders, and hold them for up to 20 days while their case is being investigated. Activists also say that sharia police raids on hotels and cafes, led by Banda Aceh’s acting mayor – a woman – have intensified. Mazuki Ali says patrols do routine checks. “Patrols come at night, they check the hotel registry and if they suspect unmarried couples might be staying there, they check their rooms and IDs,” he says. If couples prove to be unmarried, they’re taken to the police station.

Sitting at a cafe in central Banda Aceh, Davi, and two of his female friends, Rita and Ayu, share stories about friends arrested for wearing tight clothes or walking around with someone of the opposite sex. A sharia police truck carrying a dozen officers drives by. “They raided this cafe two weeks ago,” comments 23-year-old Davi. “It’s a bit too much. We just hang out, we do nothing wrong.”

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Filed Under: Indonesia, Sharia Tagged With: featured


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Comments

  1. Angemon says

    May 20, 2014 at 2:54 pm

    “The sharia police have registered 13,000 offences between 2009 and 2013, the head of the unit, Zulkarnain, tells The Independent. He says “minor violations” of sharia law don’t usually end up in the sharia court, even though the law states that three violations to the Islamic dress code requirements are punishable by caning. “This has never been enforced,” he says.”

    Never enforced, eh? Is that supposed to make it better?

  2. Champ says

    May 20, 2014 at 2:57 pm

    sharia law is not fit for human consumption: it’s barbaric and cruel.

    In fact, the whole of islam is barbaric and cruel, and our world would be a much more peaceful place without it; since islam is the only “religion” that promotes violence and carries it out in accordance to islam’s evil tenets and sharia law.

    islam be gone!

    • john spielman says

      May 20, 2014 at 4:14 pm

      Sharia is simply a codification of the behavior that Muhammed modeled for faithful muslims. That sharia seems barbaric to us who have a Judeo Christian background is because Muhammed received his revelations from Satan masquerading as the arch angel Gabriel (see St Pauls warning about listeneing to angels who have a different gospel from the one we first received!) and Allah /Satan being cruel and impotent requires his minions to do cruel and evil things in his name!

      • Champ says

        May 21, 2014 at 1:08 am

        I concur, John!

  3. Elise says

    May 20, 2014 at 4:06 pm

    The Indonesian government and their ministry of religion spends so much time regulating the citizens sexual morals but does nothing to stop the corruption, ignorance, sexual abuse, illiteracy, malnutrition and infant deaths. Doctors require bribes for care and the hospitals are atrocious. The people with money go to Singapore for healthcare.
    There are millions of adults and children who do not have birth certificates or an education because they don’t follow one of the 5 recognized religions, they didn’t pay the bribe money to receive one or they were born to unmarried women. Without a birth certificate, these people don’t exist and therefore, don’t receive jobs, education or assistance. The only time they may exist is when they are paid for their votes during election time.
    A corrupt family, who ruled Banten for a decade stole money intended for the community and received money through bribes, stated that their wealth and “things” came from Allah. While the majority of the population in Banten lives on less than $2 a day, the Governor of Banten and family own 16 luxury cars including a Rolls Royce and Lamborghini which she states are gifts from Allah.
    Countries like Indonesia keep their citizens ignorant, compliant, and illiterate through the fear of religion and hell. Most of the elite and leaders are liars and thieves, yet they don’t count that as being Haram.
    One can get arrested and raped by vigilantes in Indonesia for having consensual sex while unmarried and living together. Co-habitation without marriage is illegal is all of Indonesia. It is the law that couples who get married must be of the same religion or convert. However, men from the Middle East come to Indonesia to marry young girls for a weekend or month after they pay the girl’s parents. This is prostitution and the parents are the pimps, but under Islam this temporary marriage for sex is Halal. Indonesia is the land of hypocrites.

    • Meena says

      May 20, 2014 at 5:17 pm

      Elise; Thank you for your post. US citizens need to know what is going on in Islamic countries. Women need to know what will happen if Sharia slowly creeps in here.

      • JAMES says

        May 21, 2014 at 12:28 am

        When you bend your laws to accommodate other peoples laws
        soon those other people will bend you to their laws..

    • Semeru says

      May 21, 2014 at 3:07 am

      Elise

      I do not know where you get your information from but

      Legally speaking kumpul kerbau/cohabiting is NOT illegal all over indonesia. I am talking about people living with a steady and long term girlfriend. There is absolutely no laws forbiding to cohabit with anyone without being married.

      If somebody is living in a kampung/village with someone, without being married, they may be questioned, they may even be investigated, but no legal action can be taken due to the fact that a couple would be cohabiting without being married, as long as neither are married with someone else (or a partner is not a one night “wife” met in a karaoke/club). Police at the maximum and in the worst case, can ask you to follow them to the police precinct to “clarify the situation”

      Elise, you claim It is the law that couples who get married must be of the same religion or convert

      No, The 1974 Marriage Law does not explicitly forbid or allow marriage between people of different religions, but there is considerable debate regarding its interpretation and application. For example, an alternative interpretation to an absolute prohibition is that Article 2(1) only states that marriage must be conducted according to religious law and, therefore “if, according to the religious law, there is no hindrance to the marriage, the marriage can take place.

      Although inter-religious marriage does occur in Indonesia, the legal situation surrounding it is complex. The fact that the 1974 Marriage Law does not explicitly address the issue of inter-religious marriage may be seen as creating “a legal vacuum.” Men and women of different religions also continued to face obstacles to marrying and officially registering their marriages.Such couples had difficulty finding a religious official willing to perform the ceremony, which is required before registering a marriage. As a result, some persons converted in order to marry. Others traveled overseas, where they wed and then registered the marriage at an Indonesian embassy. Or they just do not bother and just live together

      Elise claims One can get arrested and raped by vigilantes in Indonesia for having consensual sex while unmarried and living together Can you prove this claim, Just because there was one case, does not mean it happening all the time.

  4. dumbledoresarmy says

    May 20, 2014 at 8:25 pm

    Any place where the unlaw that is sharia is in force is *paradise* for malicious gossips, and wowsers (who hate anybody else’s having fun), and control freaks, and even more so for those sexually and psychically disturbed persons who in *our* societies become “peeping toms” and voyeurs, and stalkers, or who engage in activities such as lurking in lovers’ lanes and *attacking* couples, beating up the man and raping the woman.

    In a sharia society, persons such as this can join the “morality police” and indulge their vicious propensities with impunity.

  5. Jay Boo says

    May 21, 2014 at 12:58 am

    Iran is not HAPPY about Pharell Williams song ‘Happy’
    The religious police have arrested people for dancing and smiling

    Islam is serious
    no smiling is allowed

    • Salah says

      May 21, 2014 at 1:59 am

      ” The religious police have arrested people for dancing and smiling”

      …and wearing Red Sandals!!!
      http://crossmuslims.blogspot.com/2011/07/red-sandals-in-iran-des-sandales-rouges.html

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