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Aceh's stoning bylaw draws more criticism from clerics
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Tapol
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Oct 08, 2009 00:43 PDT
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From Joyo
The Jakarta Post
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Aceh's stoning bylaw draws more criticism from clerics
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The debate about whether to review Aceh's bylaw that allows
adulterers to be stoned heated up Tuesday, with religious
leaders voicing their objection to the enactment of the law.
General secretary of the Indonesian Conference on Religion and
Peace, Johannes Hariyanto, said that the bylaw, which was passed
by the Aceh legislative council in September, went against the
constitution.
"The bylaw is not based on Indonesia's constitution, but on a
law that originated outside the country."
Eighty religious leaders, representing religions and beliefs
from around the archipelago, attended the conference held in
Jakarta from Monday to Tuesday, urging the President to review
the bylaw.
The leaders also demanded that other laws and regulations
hampering the freedom of religion in the country be reviewed.
Johannes said that although the constitution guaranteed the
rights of all citizens to choose and practice their religion or
belief, several laws and regulations stipulated otherwise.
He added the country had seen many instances of members of
religious sects depending on the mercy of certain individuals to
be able to practice their beliefs.
"One noteworthy case is that of the Ahmadiyah. The government
does not have the right to decide whether this religion is
wrong. The government has no authority on theological matters,"
he told The Jakarta Post.
Ahmadiyah is a religious sect the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI)
says is heretical. Members of the sect have been attacked by
various Muslim groups. Last year, the government allowed
Ahmadiyah members to perform their religious activities but
banned them from proselytizing new believers. Their decision was
based on the 1965 law on religious blasphemy.
Ari Dwipayana, a political analyst and lecturer at Gadjah Mada
University in Yogyakarta, said the blasphemy law was one of the
laws the President needed to review.
"The law has become the government's instrument to determine
whether a religion or belief is official, and allows the
establishment of bodies or institutions, such as the
government's Coordinating Body for Monitoring Mystical Beliefs
in Society, with the authority to dissolve sects," he said.
Ari said the 2006 law on administration discriminated against
religious groups other than those officially endorsed as state
religions - Islam, Catholicism, Protestantism, Buddhism,
Hinduism and Confucianism.
He added that before the administration law came into effect,
followers of unofficial religions had to declare themselves
believers of one of the official religions in the religion
section of their identity cards.
Johannes also highlighted President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's
recent speech made at Harvard University in the United States.
"He said Indonesia was the best example of Muslim tolerance,
that although it was a Muslim-majority country, we could still
live side by side and in peace. There are still Ahmadiyah
followers in Mataram, who were pushed aside just because they
have a different belief," he added.
Some 130 Ahamadiyah members are still living in a shelter in
Mataram after hard-line Muslims attacked their village in
February 2006.
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