Indonesian law: Death by stoning for adultery

At first sight this law seems to be a sign of creeping (more like galloping) fundamentalism in Indonesia but as the article points out the context makes it clear this is not so at all. If anything it shows the defeat of fundamentalism. The law was passed primarily as a problem for an incoming group of legislators who defeated a more fundamentalist group of lawmakers. If the law is recscinded then the new legislators will be portrayed as not Islamic enough and if they don't they will find that the national government will disallow it again embarassing the new legislators and showing perhaps that Aceh is still not autonomous enough.

If the interviews are representative it seems that the population thinks other issues are much more important and Aceh is actually much more tolerant than many Arab areas where Sharia law is in force. This is from Globalpost.

""""Death by stoning in Indonesia

By Peter Gelling - GlobalPost
- Aceh, Indonesia's northernmost province, has this month been compared to Somalia, Nigeria and even Iraq. So it goes when lawmakers decide that death by stoning is an appropriate punishment for adultery.

The fact is the law goes much further than that even. It also outlaws homosexuality and refuses to consider marital rape a crime. But despite this, Aceh's controversial new law is not an example of "creeping fundamentalism" as the Wall Street Journal and other media outlets have suggested.

One must only walk through the streets of Aceh's capital city, Banda Aceh, to find out. These days women walk freely without their headscarves, girls and boys mingle at coffee shops and the so-called "Sharia Police" make up only a tiny fraction of the city's police force - and even then they are reluctant to enforce the province's smattering of religious-based by-laws.

"I don't think there is any chance of this law being enforced anytime soon," said Sidney Jones, a senior analyst with the International Crisis Group in Jakarta.

.... outgoing provincial lawmakers passed the so-called "stoning law," requiring harsh penalties for what they called "ethical crimes." This would include caning for premarital sex and homosexuality.

Residents of Banda Aceh cringed.

"This stoning bill only promotes violence in Islam, which is not what Islam is teaching us," said Fitri, a 25-year old university student in Banda Aceh who also said she didn't expect the law to be enforced, or even remain on the books much longer. "Sharia law is implemented in Arab countries, but in Indonesia we have different situations and cultures."

"There is a sense that the outgoing parliament deliberately left a 'time-bomb' for their successors," Jones said. "The next parliament will be open to criticism either way, damned for being insufficiently supportive of Sharia if they try and roll it back, damned for intolerance and cowardliness if they let it go ahead, even in a modified form."

If the new parliament doesn't rescind the law, however, Jakarta will. Andi Mallarangeng, an adviser to the president, said the central government would likely review the law's legality. Such an action could have interesting repercussions for the country as a whole.

Numerous Sharia-based regulations have been passed by local governments throughout Indonesia and so far, the Home Affairs ministry has not acted, even though the regulations are in clear violation of Indonesian law, which forbids local governments from enacting religious-based legislation.

The Acehnese themselves are also bewildered.

"Among so many aspects of Sharia Law, I don't understand why the Aceh parliament prioritized the stoning law, while corruption and social welfare are so much more critical," said, Jalil, 36, a male consultant working in Banda Aceh. """"