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| Southeast Asia |
| Indonesian protesters demand Islamic law |
| 2002-08-07 |
| Some 700 protesters from a militant group which demands the introduction of Islamic law rallied Monday outside the building where Indonesia's top constitutional body is meeting. The protesters, from the Front for the Defenders of Islam, waved banners reading "Uphold Islamic sharia (law) in Indonesia" and "The country is sick and Islamic sharia is the cure". Talk about the cure being worse than the disease... "Islamic law must be imposed in Indonesia to eradicate vices," said one demonstrator, who refused to give his name. "And we'll define what vices are, starting with singing, dancing, and pretty girls..." Many of the protestors carried bamboo poles. Dozens of police, many of them women, stood guard to prevent them from entering the building. Why the poles? To whack people? The People's Consultative Assembly is holding a 10-day annual session to discuss constitutional amendments including a proposal to oblige Muslims to follow sharia. On Saturday about 5,000 members of Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia marched to demand legislators incorporate Islamic law into the constitution. Hizbut Tahrir, or the Party of Liberation, is They're pretending not to be wahhabis, because so many people have caught on. They claim not to be associated with the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan... Some Muslim parties have called for the inclusion in the amended constitution of a clause obliging Muslims to adhere to Islamic law. But the proposal seems certain to be rejected at the current assembly meeting. That's a relief to many, I'm sure... At its congress last month Indonesia's largest Islamic organization, Nahdlatul Ulama, opposed efforts to make Islamic law compulsory for Muslims. Indonesia is the world's largest Muslim-populated nation with more than 80 percent of its 215 million people following Islam. But it is not the state religion and other faiths are widely accepted. The Islamists are working on that, though... |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |
| #1 We said a 10-day Parliament was good...until we saw the laws that they passed! lol |
| Posted by: Anonymous 2002-08-07 18:23:51 |