Legislators in the devoutly Muslim province of Aceh have passed the Islamic criminal code on Monday, allowing adulterers to be stoned to death. Homosexuals (including lesbians) and those caught having pre-marital sex will face up to 100 strokes with a cane and a prison term of up to eight years, say media reports.
Top: The Baiturrahman Grand Mosque in Banda Aceh, the first mosque is said by some to have been built in the 13th Century. Aceh is believed to be the first place in Indonesia where Islam took root, brought by traders from the Middle East centuries ago.
According to The Jakarta Post, the ordinance will take effect within 30 days and will be applicable to both Muslims and non-Muslims. It further reports that the new bylaws did not include corruption, thefts and bribery as punishable crimes.
Located on the northern tip of the island of Sumatra, Aceh enjoys semi-autonomy from the central Indonesian government and one of 33 provinces in Indonesia to employ Sharia (Islamic law). A version of Sharia that was introduced in Aceh in 2001 already bans gambling and drinking alcohol, and makes it compulsory for women to wear headscarves.
Although the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami killed 130,000 there, the disaster helped trigger a peace agreement between the separatist Free Aceh Movement and the Indonesian government after three decades of civil war that claimed 15,000 lives.
The bill was passed despite strong objections from human rights groups and the province's deputy governor, who said the legislation needed more careful consideration because it imposes a new form of capital punishment.
Destika Gilang Lestari, a human rights activist, was quoting as saying by Al Jazeera: "There are much more important sharia laws we need, for example against corruption. Why is there no rule against corruption? Why do they only look into people’s private lives?"
The new laws also imposes sentences and fines, to be paid in kilograms of gold, for rape and pedophilia.
Indonesia is the the world's most-populous Muslim country, with nearly 90 per cent of the population following Islam.
Printable Version
RSS Feed: 
Reader's Comments
The hope for another tsunami to strike your province may be a tad too harsh, but I guess a big ass wave will tally with our level of frustration.
Well, at least I'm happy to be pretty sure I will never be able to see a peaceful, 'forward thinking' Indonesia in my time, & I do not wish to see it happen. YDI.
You dont need to destroyed gays/Lesbian, let it be God for destroyed not the Religion or Country to destroyed a gays or Lesbia also what a kind anything else..
so, it is mean Your Religion very killer man ,adultery
not religion to Punished but a God!!
if you believe it
Firstly, isn't the Indonesian Constitution secular?
Secondly, if point 1 is so, how can the Sharia be applicable to non-Muslims? Whatever happened to the injunctions in the Al Quran:
"To you be your Way, and to me mine.
Unto you your religion, and unto me my religion.
You shall have your religion and I shall have my religion."
http://majalla.org/books/quran/109.htm
"There is no compulsion in religion, for the right way is clearly from the wrong way.
And so, (O Prophet!) exhort them your task is only to exhort; you cannot compel them to believe.
And tell my servants that they should speak in a most kindly manner (unto those who do not share their beliefs)..."
http://www.themodernreligion.com/terror/terrorism_verses1.htm
Thirdly, is Acheh regarding itself as above the national constitution and the Panca Sila? Is might=right the current mindset now? Are they imposing the actual Sharia or their own tribal version of the Sharia like in some places elsewhere?
Fourthly, are some quarters confusing 'Muslim Majority' as an 'Islamic State'? The former merely meant that a large majority of the country are Muslims and the latter means that the Sharia is the supreme law of the land and the civil law is either suspended or made subservient to the Sharia hence giving rise to the notion of not 'Muslims living in Indonesia’, but ‘Indonesians as Muslims’?
Fifthly, my condolences to all GLBTI brethren who have to live under such conditions. Looks like it's gonna be a case of either fleeing that province or live in suppression under them...
Sigh...
Their motto is a JOKE. A BIG FAT JOKE.
My stomach flipped.
Do we fortunate people, from our generally more comfortable, safe lives really need to be even more unkind, uncompassionate, self-righteous, to be even more hateful as those elements? Clearly, the ultra-conservative religious and moral elements are not the sole domicile of Ignorance and Intolerance. Sadly, it appears Ignorance and Intolerance are to be found everywhere....
My problems pale into insignificance.
Sighs....
we were quick to judge and now the acehese are even quicker to effect their brand of God's law. malaysia is just a straits away and with strong familial roots with aceh; things are not looking up in malaysia for queers.
The existing perception that this religion is related to terrorist and extremist will be hard to be erased even more. More and more people around the world (non believer) will have bad perception and getting more confused about this religion. While they are trying hard to change the world perception after 9/11, this kind of actions totally sabotaj their hope. All the good things that they always proud of , will be ruined by such extreme action.
Why they bother on people private lives?They don' t have other things to do in their lives? Why they played God to punish people??Let God do his own job.
World should condemned such actions loudly and boycott whatever product produced by this province. From my observation, I think it is so common certain countries ask their citizens to boycott Western products when there is a conflict. May be the world can applied the same thing to send a strong message to Aceh.
so more or less similar to conditon, or maybe they do imitate the law from islamic country like iran
so, let them be lah, if any our homosexual frens there feel supressed and intimidated, just move to other regions, like here, and proudly being a homosexual person
thank god i'm from philippines
The irony of all religious hypocrisies that this part of the world was actually wiped out by a Tsunami. And aids from all over the world has poured in to rebuild Aceh while modern changes can make this place a truly livable province. That vision is overshadowed by a few religious zealots who expect everyone in Aceh to live in the dark ages.
It is sending us directly back to the middle ages! And yet there are more things that law can be improved instead of keep on meddling in our personal life.
I personally believe there is a reason for everything and there is a reason why God swept away Aceh with tsunami couple years ago. That is one place that really need to be mentally cleanse!
How lovely the government is to incorporate discriminations into the law.
I doubt the corruption there will cease in the near future but instead increase by a significant amount with the implementation of this law as it is probably easily abusable.
If they are moving in the direction that their Allah wants - more corruption, less justice and freedom - i can only pray that other Muslim countries/provinces wouldn't adopt the same mindset.
Oh by the way, another tsunami or natural disaster won't help change their mindset i guess, but i sincerely hope implementations would impact their economy and make it crash in the near future though.
I wonder who gets to pocket the gold? The f$*k lawmakers?
and shouldn't rapist and pedophiles get stoned and jailed? wow.. so i guess even in crime, "gay" crime gets the worst lashing?
Anyway, some analysts have said that this law will be toned down eventually, because the conservative Muslim parties will be replaced by a more moderate parliament in two weeks time following an election defeat.
secondly, i believe indonesia (apart form this screwed-up province) is far way better in terms of GLBT rights than malaysia or singapore. At least being gay in indonesia is NOT illegal and we can see quite a lot of GLBT movements in jakarta, surabaya, and other big cities. Beside that, we can see a lot of GLBT people in the entertainment industry, and most of them are well accepted by the majority of the Indonesians.
Lastly, as an Indonesian myself, I can only suggest you guys to avoid this province like plague, I've never stepped on that land and never will.
Acheh has always been the most conservative Muslim area within the entire nation of Indonesia. And considering some of the autonomy granted specifically to them by their government, one of the points of the cease fire with the Gerakan Acheh Merdeka (GAM), it's not exactly surprising.
Indonesia's a large country, and only the province of Acheh declares homosexuality a crime under their provincial law.
So if you must, head towards the isle of Jawa then, and avoid Sumatera. Not that hard.
Trust me, you're not missing much.
Stoning is so 1800s..next they will bring back the guillotine.
I can only hope that their god will forgive them.
there are more than the world 10% average of gays in indonesia
the real problem is religion so stop religions now
islam want us dead . i want all religions dead
not the poepple just the stupid system ruled by old perverted men
who impose their stupit thougts on women and othere they do not understand
I do not understant how a intelligent human can beleive in religious lies , there is not gods . at the time of the tsunami on memri TV the stupid old muslim preachers said it was gods way to puniosh the perverted gays.i not thisnk there was perverted gays there why did not god strike amsterdam or soho london . religious leaders are stupid and dengerous
for gay community there, should be more careful in sociality.
unity is always a great power where assemble strength throughout the
whole country.
gay community should build more clubs as a place to unite, solutions gradually will turn out there to be representatives like how politic parties advocate their rights to parliament...
Good ridence to control by force and fear!
Both I guess... because obviously the evils behind Aceh's new laws are basically the same as the ones which prompted 90% of these comments ie ignorance, intolerance, lack of education, intellectual and moral laziness, selfishness, fear and hate of what we don't understand, generalization, hypocrisy, to name but a few.
We're called "human beings" but we're born just "beings"... humanity is not a given, and for most it just never seems to happen.
"With only weeks to go before a new government led by a moderate party takes over in Aceh province, hard-liners still in control of the regional parliament yesterday pushed through legislation to impose steep punishments for adultery and homosexuality...."
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/devout-province-votes-to-stone-adulterers-to-death-1787657.html
There are at least three kinds of sex.
Religieus leaders and goverments have to deal with it.
The situation in Banda Aceh is for gay's like terror.
They are so scared.
In July 2009 a men named Ikbal almost killed his ex after a relationship of 3 years living together on a other place.
Ikbal get confused, he Moslim his partner was Christian.
He blamed his ex that he is like Satan and that he turned him into the bad person he is now. They made love for many years, licking, sucking and fucking.
Ikbal was 'a real men, and also fucked outside of his relationship what make his ex confused.
And why, THE FAMILY OF IKBAL WANT HIM TO MARRIED A LADY, a famely, children, being 'normal'.
Meaning NORMAL what ?
Making a women unhappy because she will never find out what real passion and love is. Everybody needs it, it's given in our instinct, we have to listen to that to feel happy and free.
And then Ikbal, have to lie, every day, for the rest of his life, terrible, thats not what that what created us wanted.
Also being gay is created.
Since the 22th of July, 08.35 Sumatera time a new Astrological period started. The period is named RENEWING.
Out of name of 'Bilangan Delapan',
Maarten
Now I'm wondering that since this is against the Pancasila (2,3,5), can the central government do something?
It would be the oridnary people of Aceh who would suffer from any natural disaster - gay people amongst them.
The purile attitudes displayed by some here is a really bad reflection of the intellectual capacities of some fridae users - who need to grow up and get real.
I know the Indonesian government has given Aceh some autonomy to enact sharia law, which has since promoted peace in the region, but I think they need to step in and override any laws that are discriminatory or anyway impede human rights.
Respect each other and let us be!
i was there
we defended a guy who ws urinated on in public and beaten
with the gay right group agus pelangi
it is severly entranched hatred of muslims againts gays we are talking about
and there are getting one step closer to killing us .
i cna understand the anger but wish peace for all
but cannot and will not respect the teachings of islam taht say stonne the gays to death.
NEVER.
As far as I know, there's no law/regulation against homosexuality whatsoever in Indonesia. It's not legal, yet it's not illegal either. Cases that I dealt with mostly were related to accepting themselves as gay men and how to deal with their families. Throughout those years, I only found one case of gay bashing, which I thought, it was also the gay guy's fault for wanting to get gangbanged by a bunch of straight guys. Based on my personal experiences and the research I did, I still believe that Indonesia is an adequate country for homosexuals. In this respect, Indonesia is still a better place to live for gays than a couple of its neighboring countries who have evident strict written law against homosexuality.
The central government has given a total autonomy to each province to govern its region since several years ago. Aceh has taken the opportunity by trying to pass the Islamic law for it is the most Islam province of all provinces in Indonesia. How this law treats homosexuals is as bad as it treats other human beings. Women, for example, will be detained in prison for wearing jeans and tight shirts. To put it bluntly, this law recognizes no justice or fairness for all. It only protects the religious ones, namely muslims. They believe it's the law of God that they receive.
The central government has never approved to pass the Islamic law. At least not yet, although it's been brought up over and over again for so many years. I believe, there's no chance that this law will become national. If it were, there would be no Indonesia for the Eastern parts of Indonesia would strongly oppose it. The risk, there would be no Indonesia for sure.
Aceh is indeed a place that all homosexuals on earth try not to visit. I have never been interested in visiting or doing anything there. In fact, I didn't really care of what happened there until the tsunami attacked. As a human being with a heart & a brain, I felt obliged to help "a little".
You can delete Aceh from your "gay map". You can totally ignore the existence of this small province. But you also have to know and remember that there are Islamic countries (bigger than a province) in this world with their strong, firm and strict Islamic regulations that treat homosexuals and people in general unfairly. I guess focusing your harsh thoughts to Aceh only is just not right. Wishing for another tsunami to strike Aceh is also too much. You have to remember (especially LOKIES), Aceh is way too close to your country. If the tsunami did strike Aceh, you would get the impact as well :-)) I agree with #72, you need to read, to learn, and to understand and to grow up.
Please guys, be careful of what you're wishing for.
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2009/09/18/aceh-govt-refuses-sign-stoning-bylaw.html
meantime, sisters keep you butts out of harms way
Please log in to use this feature.