Bloomberg: Shariah's Spread in Asia Appeases Islamists, Threatens
Rights
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Tapol
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Oct 16, 2009 02:33 PDT
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From Joyo
Shariah’s Spread in Asia Appeases Islamists, Threatens Rights
By Daniel Ten Kate and Ranjeetha Pakiam
Oct. 16 (Bloomberg) -- A 32-year-old mother may soon be caned in
Malaysia as punishment for drinking a beer. Lawmakers in
Indonesia’s Aceh province last month approved the stoning to
death of adulterers and flogging of gays.
These are only the most recent signs of growing support among
local governments for Islamic Shariah law in two countries the
U.S. cites as models of moderate Muslim democracies. Clerics in
both nations have also sought to ban yoga, Facebook and concerts
by such artists as the Black Eyed Peas and Beyonce.
The spread of fundamentalist Islam across a swath of Southeast
Asia is testing the ability of policymakers to appeal to devout
Muslims while simultaneously protecting the rights of Buddhist,
Christian and Hindu minorities. Striking the right balance is
key to limiting tensions among religious groups, said Bernhard
Platzdasch, a visiting research fellow at the Institute of
Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore.
Governments can’t avoid allowing religious laws for Muslims
“where there is considerable pressure from the grassroots to
cater specifically to Muslim interests,” he said. Going too far
can lead “to segregation among the religious communities, and
segregation is very likely to lead to instability.”
Shariah, based principally on laws from the Koran, sayings from
the Prophet Mohammed and the opinions of Muslim scholars, is
followed by many Muslims in such areas as diet, alcohol
consumption, marriage and finance.
In Malaysia, Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno was sentenced in July to
six strokes of a cane for drinking beer by a Shariah court in
the eastern state of Pahang. While caning is used to punish at
least 40 crimes in the country, this was its first use for a
religious offense. That judgment was followed by three others at
the state level, with more pending.
Shariah Spreads
The growth of such cases hasn’t spooked investors. The Jakarta
Composite Index has risen 125 percent this year, making it the
fourth-best performer among 91 world indexes in dollars. That
may change if investors become concerned that Shariah’s spread
may touch company operations.
Indonesian lawmakers are considering a bill that would require
all food, drinks, drugs and cosmetics to be tested for
compliance with halal, or Islamic dietary rules. That would add
costs for companies such as Vevey, Switzerland-based Nestle SA,
the world’s largest food producer and Rotterdam-based Unilever
NV, the world’s second-largest consumer-products maker.
Since Aceh first introduced a limited Shariah law in 2003, at
least half of Indonesia’s 32 provinces have enacted their own
variations, including some that apply to non-Muslims, according
to Santa Ana, California-based Compass Direct News, a Christian
organization that monitors religious discrimination.
Stoning Favored
Attitudes among Indonesian Muslims have hardened with the spread
of Islamic courts, surveys show. A 2006 poll by the Indonesian
Survey Institute found 48 percent of 1,173 respondents believed
fornicators should be stoned, up from 39 percent in 2001.
Thirty-eight percent said thieves should have their hands cut
off, from 29 percent five years earlier. The margin of error was
3 percent.
In Malaysia’s northern state of Kelantan, where the Pan-
Malaysian Islamic Party has held power for the past 19 years,
the capital city of Kota Bharu has no movie theater.
Chief Minister Nik Aziz Nik Mat, who has governed the state
since 1990, said everyone should follow Shariah laws, no matter
what their religion. In Malaysia, 40 percent of the nation’s 27
million people are non-Muslim.
“People say it is violent to allow for stoning as a form of
punishment, but who says adultery is not violent?” said Nik
Aziz, also the party’s national spiritual adviser.
In Your Face
Lawmakers in Aceh on Sept. 15 approved Shariah laws that mandate
stoning to death for adulterers and 100 lashes for homosexuals.
Aceh’s implementation of “in-your-face Shariah” will “set a very
horrible precedent for the rest of the country” if not
challenged, said James Van Zorge, a principal at risk consultant
Van Zorge, Heffernan & Associates in Jakarta.
Mainstream parties also are taking on board Islamist policies.
The Malaysian state preparing to cane Kartika is controlled by
the ruling United Malays National Organization and is home to
Prime Minister Najib Razak. The government has declined to stop
the punishment.
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has been silent on
the question of whether Shariah conflicts with the country’s
constitutional guarantees of rights for the 14 percent of its
248 million people who are non-Muslims.
“We’ve seen a conservative wave being strengthened across
Southeast Asia,” said James Veitch, who lectures on Southeast
Asian security at New Zealand’s Victoria University of
Wellington. “Governments are making gains militarily but they
are not necessarily stopping the extremist elements.”
Terror Attacks
In July, bombs at Jakarta’s Ritz Carlton and JW Marriott hotels
killed nine people. Indonesian police on Sept. 17 said they
killed Noordin Mohammad Top, the alleged mastermind of the
bombings wanted for killing more than 300 people since 2002.
To be sure, the state governments enacting Shariah laws in
Malaysia and Indonesia are elected. Overtly Islamist parties in
this area three times the size of Texas and home to 260 million
people haven’t done well at the polls. Malaysia’s PAS has only
23 of 222 parliamentary seats; Indonesia’s four Islamic parties
collectively performed worse in April elections than in 2004.
That hasn’t stopped Islamic mullahs. In January, clerics on the
Indonesian Ulama Council followed their Malaysian counterparts
and issued a fatwa, or religious edict, banning yoga. In May,
they considered prohibiting Facebook, before issuing a ruling
forbidding flirting on the site.
Malaysian authorities initially banned Muslims from seeing the
singing group Black Eyed Peas last month because it was
sponsored by Guinness, owned by London-based Diageo Plc, the
world’s largest liquor maker.
Beyonce, due to perform in Kuala Lumpur on Oct. 25, has faced
objections from the PAS party over what an official called her
“skimpy outfits.”
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