Indonesia’s Aceh province has been caning people at the rate of nearly one per day for Sharia violations; this is punishment for “crimes” that range from adultery to gambling and to a young woman merely standing too close to her boyfriend.
The gay couple was beaten by spying vigilantes and turned over to religious police after having their privacy violated and being recorded. Minor breaches result in a public caning in Aceh. One can only imagine the possible fate of this pair. Human Rights Watch has called on the Indonesian government to release them.
There are many Muslim countries where the death penalty for gays is still the law and is actively enforced. They include Mauritania, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Afghanistan, Somalia, Sudan and the UAE.
“Indonesian gay couple beaten on video before vigilantes hand them over to religious police”, by Jon Sharman, Independent, April 14, 2017:
Video captures the moment two gay men are assaulted by Indonesian vigilantes who caught them having sex and then turned them over to religious police.
The shaky footage appears to show a young man covering his head while talking on the phone, before he is struck and rocks backwards on a bed.
One of the intruders can be heard shouting in the clip as the naked man cowers.
The pair are to go on trial in an Islamic court for having gay sex and could receive 100 strokes of the cane if found guilty, officials in the conservative province of Aceh said, sparking calls for their release.
Aceh is the only province in Muslim-majority Indonesia that criminalises same-sex relations and that uses sharia as its legal code in addition to the national criminal code.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) called on Indonesia to release the men, who were detained last month.
“These men had their privacy invaded in a frightening and humiliating manner and now face public torture for the ‘crime’ of their alleged sexual orientation,” HRW’s Phelim Kine said earlier this week.
In 2014, Aceh enacted a law that punishes anybody caught engaging in consensual gay sex with 100 lashes, 100 months in jail or a fine of 1,000 grams of gold.
It also sets out punishment for sex crimes, unmarried people engaging in displays of affection, adulterous relationships and underage sex.
Authorities in the province on the northern tip of Sumatra island caned 339 people in 2016….
Frank Verderber says
I understand that the Muslim justice is from the Dark Ages, but I see something else in this article; evil beating on evil. Would you have the readers acept the LGBT culture because Islam is worse? It has been a convention of facist regimes to use gays as the whiping posts to get a society under control and then once the gay comunity has helped the dictator or oligarchs, they become food for the sharks. Hitler did this with the Brown Shirts, so did Lennon, so has the Democratic Party and the American Muslims. If you play with fire you get burnt. I feel sorry for their sin but not for their wages.
Guest says
I totally accept homosexuality as valid. I’m here because I’m a liberal, an old-fashioned feminist (ie for equal rights, not necessarily same decisions in life) and can see that islam is against everything I believe in. Not all readers here are conservative. We need to stand together. It’s good that the Independent has this article: more liberals will be waking up.
gravenimage says
Oh, good grief. Frank, do you really want to live in a society where people beat non-violent gay people? If so, why don’t you just move to Dar-al-Islam?
Monty says
I live in Australia. I do not know what it will take to bring Islam down. I can see all of Indonesia going to full on Sharia over the next few years. This Obama’s model nation for Islam and other religions living in harmony. So the Saudis visit and stir up the fundamentalists, just before an election where a Christian is running against a Muslim. Good old Saudi Arabia, the westerners friend. I was in the Aussie military 45 years ago. At that time, Indonesia was considered the biggest threat to Australia. I think now that Islam is the biggest threat. It is not so easy to dislodge and you can’t just fire missiles and drop bombs. Reverse Dhimmi? Maybe. How do you explain reservations to people who will not listen? They do not have to. Most politicians and most of the media actually promote Islam as being “peace loving”. Violence is supposedly an aberration; of course it is the norm for a Muslim. I’d certainly put in to a “go fund me” to get Muslims out of the country. We would not tolerate Neo-Nazis. Islam is worse by a long way.
Jeanette says
I live in the US, and have a good friend in Australia.
I don’t see how we can clean out the vipers’ nest without doing just that – sending Muslims out of western countries and back to the Middle East.
Let them wipe each other out; it would be a lot less expensive for westerners and none of our people would have to die because of the Sex & Death Cult.
TheBuffster says
I’m surprised gay people haven’t left Aceh province for the safer provinces in Indonesia.
LR says
That ‘s what I was thinking too….I couldn’t even imagine being a gay person in that province.
abegeo01 says
Will they prosecute the others who are cornholing the sheep and the camels with the same zeal??
Jeanette says
I don’t know about sheep, but I doubt there are any camels in Indonesia.
abegeo01 says
Well, they have indicated that they are immensely flexible. So I doubt that they will be particularly chagrined if they discover that the object of their affections is some other kind of beast or fowl.
Ren says
Political Islam is the hell. However, sodomy is evil as well! I am against both.
Rob says
Aceh is the same place where the world rushed to offer assistance following a devastating tsunami. Do you think that any of the locals said to those aid workers “Are you gay, having sex outside of marriage, a kafir, kissing in public, in disagreement with the Koran or opposed to Islam? Because, if you are, I can not accept your food your medical care or any other assistance from you”. Aceh has come a long way since that natural disaster, but the trip seems to have progressed down the wrong road.
gravenimage says
Indonesia: Sharia vigilantes beat gay couple, then turn them over to religious police
………………….
This is typical in Dar-al-Islam–Muslims attack people and the victims are arrested and further persecuted. Sometimes police actually join in the attack.
Matthieu Baudin says
If Aceh ever gains independence from Indonesia the punishments meted out would surely be much more extreme.
Santa Voorhees says
Are these the “benefits” Sharia May was talking about?
Michael says
‘Unmarried people engaging in public displays of affection’ … this gets each of them ‘caned.’ Instead of ‘caned,’ I think it would better to say ‘brutally beaten, to death if it results in death.’
‘Caned,’ while not sounding at all nice, has a bit of ambiguity to it.
They are beaten to within an inch of their life … or beaten to death. 100 strokes with a cane? Hit full force by a strong male? That would kill many a healthy person.
For showing affection in public. Terrible, indeed.