Shariah police arrested for gang rape in Aceh

The Shariah police in Aceh who enforce Islamic law in Aceh gang-raped a 20 year-old undergraduate but are exempted from Islamic law because the sentence is deemed too “harsh.” It took this incident for authorities to question the legitimacy of the Shariah police. The travesty revealed the hypocrisy of the system.

In September, Aceh’s provincial parliament passed a law saying adulterers can be sentenced to death by stoning. The measure, which still must be approved by the governor, has outraged human rights groups here who say it will unfairly target women.

The suspects allegedly stopped a couple by the road near a plantation. In an interview, the victim’s father said his daughter’s friend was beaten and the two were taken to a Sharia police station.

The men later returned while off-duty and raped the woman, investigators say.

“She was treated like an animal, they suffocated and raped her,” said the victim’s father. “She’s in deep trauma.”

Marzuki Abdullah, head of the 1,500-member Shariah police force, said the case was not linked to the patrols because the officers were off-duty at the time of the alleged crimes.

Why it’s so hard for some to say no to Sharia

This NYT article implies that Indonesians believe the sharia, which is actually a practice and a process of deriving law, is a legal code – a single body of laws, take it or leave it, without any room for debate on particular issues. In this way, to say no to one thing would be to say no to all, and that would be difficult for most who are afraid of being branded “bad Muslims.”

Excellent article in Jakarta Post on Aceh

Jakarta Post today has a very interesting article, which is worth a read, debating human rights and shari’a by Jennie S. Bev, a refreshing change from the sharia-western law dichotomy in the media. The emphasis on separation of law and custom is also something that is not usually highlighted elsewhere.

Thus, adopting draconian inhumane measures for wrongdoings in various communities, such as stoning to death, giving away female family members as a restitution of murder, lashing, and mutilating limbs must not be transplanted to Indonesia simply because they have been labeled “sharia” by a few past clerics who resided in various Arab countries.

The writer provides three arguments why the caning laws should not be implemented in Aceh.

1. The first argument comes from the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the 1990 Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam, in which all human beings have the right to a dignified life.
2. Indonesia’s national laws, which include ratifications of international human rights conventions, overide the special autonomy region’s bylaws.
3. The third argument comes from questioning the definition of “sharia” laws themselves: which ones are Islamic and which ones are customary. This article tries to reach an understanding of the third argument.

While the Indonesian constitution and national laws are often cited by various influential parties in the debate, I wonder how often the 1990 Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam is referred to.

Stoning law in Aceh

Legislators in the special province of Aceh might overturn the law that allows adulterers to be stoned in the state of Aceh, the only place in Indonesia which incorporates Islamic law in legislation. A poll conducted recently indicated that there’s a marked increase in those who agree that stoning for adultery was preferable punishment. Whatever the case, it would be interesting to note how often the punishment is actually meted out.