In 2003, the Indonesian province of Aceh implemented sharia law. I.e., this is a new trend, not some ancient tradition that it is moving away form. It is moving in the wrong direction. (The rest of Indonesia does not currently enforce sharia law. Liberals hope that it is able to hold the line and push back against the fundamentalists — but unfortunately the rest of the country appears to be moving the wrong way, too.)
Although the center of Islamic thought is in the Middle East (Saudi Arabia, Iran), and the centers they fund (such as Al Azhar in Egypt), the largest Muslim-majority country is Indonesia, with 250 million people, of whom 87.2% (218 million) are Muslim. (10% are Christian, 1.6% Hindu, 0.7% Buddhist, 0.7% other.)
Here’s what sharia law looks like, in practice, in Aceh, Indonesia:
The “guilty” man and woman were publicly caned because they were alone together. That’s right, it’s a crime for an unmarried man and woman to be alone together.
A slight young woman screams in agony as she is thrashed repeatedly with a cane. Her face becomes a mask of pain and humiliation until she collapses forward on to the ground, clutching pitiably at her shoulder. Her ‘crime’ was to have been found in the company of a fellow undergraduate who was a man but was not a relation. Now, a cheering crowd of hundreds - including many women - watches her punishment, meted out by a huge hooded man. Some of the onlookers can be seen straining to capture the beating and humiliation on their smartphone cameras.
This barbaric scene, which took place on Monday, is the latest example of Sharia law as enforced in the Indonesian province of Aceh; a remote jurisdiction where this year’s Christmas and New Year celebrations have also been banned by the strict Muslim authorities.
The woman’s name is Nur Elita and she is 20 years old. It was alleged that she had committed khalwat (affectionate contact by an unmarried couple) with another university student.
After the fifth strike, she fell forward to the floor. In obvious pain and distress, she had to be carried -- by four uniformed women in headscarves -- from the scaffold and taken by ambulance to hospital.
Aceh, in northern Sumatra, is seen as the faith’s historic centre in the archipelago and is the only province to implement a Sharia-based legal system.
Sharia was introduced as the main legal system in 2003, after Aceh was granted special autonomy by the central government in Jakarta, in order to end decades of separatist violence.
The Aceh qanun (Sharia bylaws) variously forbid the drinking of alcohol, gambling, homosexuality, adultery and public displays of affection outside family or marriage. Women’s behaviour is particularly tightly restricted.Sometimes dozens of public canings are carried out in a single day.
An unrelated man and woman who had been seen alone together were caned in public in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, for violating Sharia law, a police chief said, who leads a unit charged with finding people who violate Sharia law.
The form of Islamic law is enforced in a very strict way in the area, including prohibiting unmarried people of different genders from being alone together.
Two months ago the woman and man were arrested after authorities said they were seen alone in a guest room, said the Sharia police chief Yusnardi. A judge sentenced the two to caning.