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IHT/NYT in Banda Aceh: Strict Islam inches ahead in Indonesia
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Tapol
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Oct 15, 2009 00:13 PDT
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From Aceh
International Herald Tribune
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Strict Islam inches ahead in Indonesia
Creep of radicalism seen in Aceh's decision to add stoning law
for adulterers
By Norimitsu Onishi The New York Times
BANDA ACEH, Indonesia-- The headquarters of the religious police
here was a little tense Friday morning, with anticipation of the
week's most important Muslim prayer, when a text message popped
up on the police chief's cellphone.
It warned that a particular hotel here was "providing
prostitutes day and night" and demanded "firm action against the
owner and management." It was one of the 30 anonymous tips the
chief, Iskandar, received each day on his phone, alerting him to
suspected gambling, prostitution and illicit affairs.
Operating in what many here described as the "euphoria"
surrounding the adoption of Shariah, or Islamic law, a few years
ago, the religious police have pursued such tips to find and, in
some cases, punish violators with public canings. But under a
new Islamic criminal law that goes into effect this month, the
Shariah police will now wield the threat of a punishment new to
Indonesia - one more associated with countries that practice an
austere, literal form of Islam: death by stoning for adulterers.
How Aceh Province in western Indonesia went from carrying out
the basics of Islamic law to endorsing stoning in a few short
years offers clues to a creeping radicalization in Indonesia,
the world's most populous Muslim nation. Despite Islamist
parties' heavy losses in national elections this year, a small
radical minority has successfully pushed its agenda, in great
part by cowing political and religious moderates.
Although extreme, Aceh is not an isolated case. Scores of
municipalities in Indonesia have adopted Islamic regulations
regarding conduct and dress, rules that contravene of the
Constitution.
The government of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono - a former
general whose Muslim credentials have often been questioned by
political opponents - has looked away so far in all instances.
In fact, Mr. Yudhoyono has backed morality-based laws that
pleased Muslim conservative allies but angered advocates of
human rights.
The president has yet to comment on the stoning law, leaving it
to aides to quietly criticize it and clearly hoping that the
Aceh government will drop it from the criminal code. But if Aceh
fails to do so, the central government may be forced to
challenge - for the first time - the local application of
Shariah.
Even if a stoning is never carried out here, its inclusion in
the nation's laws risks tarnishing Indonesia's reputation as a
democracy practicing a moderate brand of Islam.
Just before the Friday noon prayer, which is mandatory for men,
the Shariah police's all-female brigade hopped onto a Toyota
pickup and began patrolling this city. Dressed in olive
uniforms, the officers hewed to the city center, away from the
areas worst hit by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. They urged
stragglers to hurry to the nearest mosque and exhorted the
recalcitrant to yield to Allah's authority.
"Dear followers of Islam, people of Banda Aceh," blared a
loudspeaker on the Toyota, "our city has applied Shariah. It's
almost praying time. Close all shops, stop all business
activities. No more buying and selling."
Aceh has long been known as "Mecca's veranda" because
Indonesians used to travel here to board ships bound for Islam's
holiest city on their hajj, or Muslim pilgrimage. Aceh's
self-identity, if rooted in Islam, was always somewhat apart
from the rest of Indonesia. Local forces fighting for autonomy,
whether from Dutch colonizers or Suharto's three-decade military
rule, always demanded the freedom to enact Shariah.
So as Aceh separatists and the central government forged a peace
agreement in the past decade, Aceh won semi-autonomy and the
right to Shariah. The authorities began putting Shariah into
practice in 2001, widening and reinforcing it every few years
with legal revisions. The Shariah police, officially known as
"wilayatul hisbah," or the "vice and virtue patrol," began
operating in 2005 with 13 officers and now has 62, including 14
women.
As Aceh's provincial Parliament began considering a more
comprehensive Islamic criminal code this year, politicians and
clerics agreed not to take up the issue of stoning this time.
Political and religious leaders interviewed here said they did
not necessarily oppose stoning, which they believe is a
punishment specified in the Koran for adultery.
"We just felt that we need to implement Shariah step by step,
and that we needed to have a full discussion about stoning,"
said Alyasa Abubakar, a professor at Ar-Raniry State Institute
of Islamic Studies here and an adviser on Shariah to the
provincial government.
With the parliamentary session scheduled to end last month, a
penultimate draft of the Islamic criminal law contained no
reference to stoning. But then some lawmakers, apparently allied
with radical clerics, pushed for its inclusion at the last
minute, former and current lawmakers said. Members of the
Prosperous Justice Party, Indonesia's largest Islamist party,
took the lead.
"We believed that it was time to really apply Shariah based on
the Koran and the Hadith," the sayings of the prophet's
contemporaries, said Bustanul Arifin, 32, a Prosperous Justice
member who served as a lawmaker until last month.
Afraid of being branded bad Muslims, even lawmakers with
reservations endorsed the law, lawmakers said. Six of the seven
parties represented in Parliament voted for the law. The holdout
- the Democratic Party, which is also Mr. Yudhoyono's - merely
abstained.
"We never openly said that we were opposed to stoning," said
Yusrizal Ibrahim, 49, a Democratic Party member who served as a
lawmaker until last month. "Stoning is part of Shariah, and by
voting no it would have made it look as though we were against
Islam."
But even the local members' abstention drew a rebuke from a
high-ranking party official in Jakarta, the capital. "He told us
that if there was no other party opposing it, we should have
gone with the flow," Mr. Ibrahim said.
He added he believed that "stoning was against human rights."
But he said he would have never "dared to say so explicitly in
Parliament" for fear of being labeled an "infidel."
Muhamad Nazar, Aceh's deputy governor, said he hoped that a new
Parliament - made up of more moderates - would revise the
criminal code.
But new lawmakers interviewed said they were reluctant to broach
the sensitive topic. Adnan Beuransah, 50, of the moderate Aceh
Party, now Parliament's dominant party, said the issue was a
"time bomb."
"We won't say whether we oppose stoning or not," Mr. Beuransah
said. "We'll just focus instead on education, health and more
important issues."
Now that stoning has become part of Shariah here, even religious
leaders fear that opposing it would raise doubts among their
followers.
"We can't tell them to follow Shariah, except this part about
stoning," said Faisal Ali, a cleric who is secretary general of
Himpunan Ulama Dayah Aceh, an organization representing 672
Islamic schools, and who said he believed that Aceh was not yet
ready for stoning. "If the people feel that we are not
supporting Shariah, they would feel that we are not part of them
anymore. That would be an even greater loss, because then they
wouldn't listen to us anymore."
People in Aceh's rural areas were said to be Shariah's
staunchest supporters, though even most people interviewed here
in the provincial capital said they backed stoning adulterers.
"If people are caught, they should be given a warning the first
time," said Fati Ibrahim, 43, a mother of four who was buying
dustpans at a large store here. "But if they're caught a second
or third time, they should be stoned. Otherwise, they'll give
Aceh a bad image. They'll embarrass us outside Aceh, that we're
not practicing Islam as it should be."
*
Porn star stays home
A Japanese pornography star has canceled a trip to Indonesia to
act in a no-nudity comedy after complaints from religious
groups, the movie's producers said Wednesday, The Associated
Press reported from Jakarta.
Maxima Pictures said it had dropped its plans to film
"Kidnapping Miyabi" in Indonesia and was scouting for an
alternative location, said an executive producer, Yoen K.
Maria Ozawa, 23, an adult film actress popularly known as
Miyabi, was to have arrived Wednesday.
One of the critics of her visit was the Indonesian Ulema
Council, a board of Muslim clerics, which said her appearance
would damage the country's image. The cancellation came a few
weeks after Parliament passed a law ordering filmmakers to
uphold "religious, ethical, moral, and national cultural values."
**
CAPTION
A member of Banda Aceh's Shariah squad reprimands a man for
eating during Friday prayers, the most important of the week.
Photo Credit: Ed Wray for The NYT
**
CAPTION
The market behind Banda Aceh's main mosque, in the most vibrant
area of the city. Now the Shariah police are permitted to punish
violators of Islamic law with public canings.
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