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Sharia Lite : Caning Free
Familiarity breeds content in Cianjur sharia campaignWest Java's Cianjur regency took a gradual approach to the introduction of sharia, with a five-year "familiarization", or information, program for residents. Kussoy, the former head of the Cianjur religious affairs office who was at the forefront of the sharia campaign, said the implementation of Islamic law in educational, cultural and social spheres would not take the hardline approach of another sharia area, Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam. "There won't be public canings and the like. We will only implement sharia through moderate approaches in order to change the habits and lifestyle of people in line with Islamic norms," Kussoy told The Jakarta Post recently. Sharia, a wide-ranging system of conduct regulating many aspects of life, is derived from the sayings of Prophet Muhammad, Islamic tradition and the Koran. Religious clerics in Cianjur, with Tasikmalaya one of two West Java regencies introducing sharia, say its implementation was justified because of the majority Muslim population. Kussoy defined several points of the draft bylaw, now under deliberation at the regental council, as the requirement for women to wear headscarves in public, as well as for Muslim elementary school students to earn a certificate attesting to their ability to write Islamic calligraphy and read from the Koran in order to graduate to junior high. The idea of implementing sharia emerged during a Muslim congress in Cianjur in 2001, after the introduction of regional autonomy, when local religious figures gave their input to Kussoy, then the religious affairs office chief. They agreed that sharia was the best system to halt declining public morals, but decided on taking a gradual approach to its introduction to the regency's two million Muslims before submitting a bylaw. "We started by asking people to perform congregational prayers and encouraged headscarf use among Muslim women," said Kussoy, who now heads the Cianjur Islamic Research and Development Council. Signboards were erected along main streets in the regency capital of Cianjur, with instructions from the Koran in the original Arabic calligraphy, including "Do virtuous acts, stay away from wrongdoing" and "The civilized woman is one who wears the headscarf", with their Indonesian translation below. Regent Wasidi Swastomo and local legislators also supported the move, although it was agreed sharia would not apply to the area's 16,000 non-Muslims. Despite the 2004 Regional Autonomy Law stipulating that religion is the domain of the central government in the officially secular state, Kussoy said sharia was not illegal because it was the public's wish. "As long as the people are not against the law, then they have the right to determine their own lives," he said. Posted by: Classer 2006-02-10 |
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