Posted on 03/09/2007 7:33:22 PM PST by Flavius
JAKARTA, Indonesia — Women are jailed for being on the street alone after dark in parts of Indonesia, long held up as a beacon of moderate Islam. Gamblers are caned, Christian schoolchildren are forced to wear headscarves and a proposed law would sentence thieves to lose their hands.
In January 2006, this woman was caned by a Shariah law officer in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, for violating a law forbidding contact between unmarried men and women.
Although most people in the world’s most populous Muslim nation practice a tolerant form of the faith, a small but determined group of conservatives is chipping away at the archipelago’s secular traditions and trying to reshape it in the image of orthodox Middle Eastern countries.
And they are slowly gaining ground, in part, critics say, because President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, liberal Muslim leaders and society at large have stayed away from loud, public debate on the issue.
Aiding the conservatives is the high level of autonomy given to local and regional legislatures since ex-dictator Suharto’s 32-year leadership came to an end in 1998.
More than 50 legislative bodies have passed laws inspired by the Islamic legal code, or Sharia.
On a federal level, hard-liners are pushing an anti-pornography bill that calls for prison terms of up to five years for kissing in public and one year for exposure of a woman’s "sensual" body parts, although few expect it to pass in its present form.
"I call it creeping Shariaization of our society," said Syafi’i Anwar, executive director of the Jakarta-based International Center for Islam and Pluralism, charging that because Muslim groups have done poorly in national elections they are pushing their will through the "back door."
Many people remain silent for fear of being labeled un-Islamic, analysts note. Others share concerns of conservatives about moral decay, pointing to girls in miniskirts, Playboy magazines hawked on street corners (albeit in a toned-down version) and offerings of alcohol on restaurant menus.
Lilis Lindawati, a 36-year-old waitress, was waiting for a bus at 8 p.m. on the outskirts of the Indonesian capital when public-order officers hauled her in because she was alone on the street after dark, was not wearing a headscarf and had a tube of lipstick in her purse.
The judge, who heard Lindawati’s case at a public trial in the town square last March, said that was enough to prove the mother of two was a prostitute. He sentenced her to three nights in prison.
"Everything changed after that," said Lindawati, who insists she is not a sex worker. "My neighbors started avoiding me. My husband’s friends stopped coming around. When word got out that I intended to file a suit against the city, I started getting threats.
"Eventually I quit my job and we moved here," she said, forcing back tears as she pointed to her family’s sparse, one-room house outside the city.
Indonesia has more Muslims than any other nation, with 90 percent of its 220 million population practicing the faith.
But Hindu, Buddhist and animist beliefs and traditions that held sway long before traders brought Islam here in the 14 th century have dramatically shaped the country’s outlook, and some islands have large Christian populations.
Irfan Awwas, chairman of Majelis Mujahidin Indonesia, worries that the country is suffering from moral decay and says Islamic-based laws, or anti-sinful-behavior regulations as he calls them, are necessary.
"Look around you. Existing criminal codes have done nothing," says Awwas, whose group is pushing to impose Sharia nationwide.
Some religious leaders say rising anger over U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East and the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, seen by many here as attacks on their faith, have added to the legitimacy of hardliners.
MEDIA BIAS ALERT!
Hey, NOW, where's the bitter outrage??!!
The rest of us need to off these nuts to keep this sickness from spreading.
It's all President Bush's fault!/sarc
The past is the past. Indonesia now looks up to the "future". The curse of Islam.
To what Indonesia, with all its resources and harbours, might have come to, if Islam hadn't destroyed it, just look at neighbouring Thailand.
In fact, contrast the bulk of Thailand with its restive southern Muslim province, that neighbours Indonesia/ Malaysia. The reality is telling. Like Winston Churchill once said about Islam, it is truly the most retrograde force on earth.
Yes, and Thailand is now beginning to feel the full effect of islam from down south.
Sounds to me like they want some more big quakes.
God hates violence.
Hate and violence in the name of religion are particularly loathed by Him.
God is not mocked. People reap what they sow.
Often with interest.
You can thank our friend in fighting the war on terror, the saudis, for funding the hardline arabization of Indonesia.
Coming soon to Torontostan and Detrabia.
Who the F was saying that Indonesia is a beacon of 'moderate' Islam? Even Turkey, as secular as it is, is not 'moderate'. There is no such thing yet.
There is no moderate islam. There is only islam. Islam is bubonic plague spread by rats and vermin.
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