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| Southeast Asia |
| News, not nudes, in Indonesia's Playboy |
| 2006-04-09 |
| A local edition of Playboy went on sale for the first time yesterday in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country, pitting its tolerant mainstream against Islamic radicals. The magazine, which is devoid of nudity but carries an interview with the Indonesian author Pramoedya Ananta Toer and an article on the former Indonesian province of East Timor, sold briskly. As office workers in Jakarta passed it from desk to desk, one lamented: "It is too soft, no good at all. I thought it was going to be like the magazines in Europe and America." But while its content differed little from other publications already available in the country - which has an active sex trade - militant groups threatened to take action against it. "The magazine has no goodwill and is threatening the very life of our nation," said Usman Alwi, from the Islamic Defenders Front. "If it does not shut within one week, we are prepared to launch a physical war against it." Islam in Indonesia is proudly moderate. The vast majority of women go unveiled, even in the devout province of Aceh, often dubbed the "verandah of Mecca". The bombers of Jemaah Islamiyah, perpetrators of the Bali atrocities and attacks in the capital, are extremists with virtually no support among the population. No Islamic radicals stood at the last presidential election, in 2004. But some politicians are keen to burnish their Islamic credentials, typified by an anti-pornography law currently before parliament. In its draft form, among other measures, it would outlaw public kissing and the display of undefined "sensual body parts". It is intended to check moral decline. But the text has been condemned by women's groups and led to fears that sunbathers on Bali and elsewhere - which is majority Hindu - could face prison, putting Indonesia's tourist industry under threat. |
| Posted by:Theger Crinesing8777 |