Two Men in Indonesia Endure Public Flogging for Gay Sex

THE TELEGRAPH: Two men in Indonesia's Aceh province were publicly caned dozens of times on Tuesday for consensual gay sex, a punishment that intensifies an anti-gay backlash in the world's most populous Muslim country and which rights advocates denounced as "medieval torture."

More than a thousand people packed the courtyard of a mosque to witness the caning, which was the first time that Aceh, the only province in Indonesia to practice Shariah law, has caned people for homosexuality.

The crowd shouted insults and cheered as the men, aged 20 and 23, were whipped across the back and winced with pain. Many in the crush of spectators filmed the caning with mobile phones as a team of five robed and hooded enforcers took turns inflicting the punishment, relieving one another after every 20 strokes for one of the men and 40 for the other.

Sarojini Mutia Irfan, a female university student who witnessed the caning, said it was a necessary deterrent. » | Associated Press | Tuesday, May 23, 2017

On Patrol with the ‘Sharia Police’

SBS.COM.AU: Public caning for violating sharia law is now common in the Indonesian province of Aceh and the police chief wants even harsher penalties. Dateline’s Patrick Abboud gets unprecedented access to follow the sharia police on patrol.

Earlier this year international outrage was sparked after a horrific story of gang rape in the Indonesian province of Aceh emerged.

A group of men raided a woman’s home and found a 25-year-old woman with a married man.

Accusing them of adultery, the vigilantes, one of whom was a 13-year-old boy, gang-raped the woman, dousing her and the man with sewage before marching them to the sharia police.

Despite what happened and the trauma of gang-rape, the sharia police in Langsa insisted the woman would be caned for alleged adultery.

That story never left my mind.

Securing access to meet sharia police chief, Ibrahim Latif, I found myself in Aceh soon after. » | Patrick Abboud | Tuesday, October 28, 2014

5 Gamblers Caned in Indonesia's Aceh Province
MERCURY NEWS: LANGSA, Indonesia—Five Acehnese men convicted of gambling have been caned in public in the devout Islamic Indonesian province of Aceh.

They were flogged six times each Friday in front of hundreds of people at a field in East Aceh's district capital of Langsa. » | The Associated Press | Friday, March 09, 2012

Abu Bakar Bashir Terrorism Trial Begins in Jakarta
THE AUSTRALIAN: THE trial of alleged terrorist cleric Abu Bakar Bashir began this morning under massive security at South Jakarta District Court, only to be adjourned almost immediately.

Bashir, 72, who was convicted of conspiring in the 2002 Bali bombings but acquitted on appeal, faces seven terrorism-related charges stemming from his alleged role in organising an Islamic militant training camp in Aceh province that was broken-up last February.

The most serious charge, “planning or motivating others to commit terrorist acts carries a mandatory maximum penalty, either execution or life imprisonment.

More than 1500 police, including heavily armed rapid response officers, surrounded the courtroom and plainclothesmen moved among his supporters, who appeared to number about 300.

As Bashir was brought from a holding room to the court, the broadly smiling cleric said: “I feel as usual, the Prophet Mohammed also experienced this.” >>> Peter Alford, Jakarta correspondent | Thursday, February 10, 2011

Sharia Law: Tearing the West in Two
CBNNEWS.COM: Sharia, or Islamic law, is gradually working its way into public life in Islamic and non-Islamic nations around the world.

What is it and what does sharia mean for Christians and others forced to abide by it?

"Sharia law is a legal system on the teachings of the Qur'an, the Sunna and the Hadith of Mohammed applied into the community as the legal basis for life," Jeff Hammond, with Bless Indonesia, said.

Hammond is a Christian who has lived and worked in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, for 35 years. He says Indonesian Christians are concerned about creeping sharia law, now in place in half of the country's 32 provinces.

"It's going from one province to another, it's not something that's happening all at once, but step by step," Hammond said.

Cruel and Usual Punishment

For example: even Christian school girls are forced to cover their heads in Padang province. Elsewhere in Indonesia, children attending public schools are required to learn the Qur'an.

In Indonesia's Bandeh Aceh province, shariah police make nightly patrols to ensure that unmarried or non-related couples are not seen together in public.

"Christians are very concerned, not only because of what is happening here in Indonesia, they also see reports that are coming from other countries," Hammond explained.

In Islamic nations like Somalia, devotion to Sharia law caused vigilantes to behead a 25-year old aid worker for converting from Islam to Christianity.

In Iran, women are legally stoned to death for committing adultery.

In Afghanistan, prostitutes are executed for their behavior.

In Pakistan, the government apparently has accepted the imposition of sharia law in the Taliban controlled Swatt Valley of the northwest frontier province. It's a place where violators of sharia are often subjected to lashes.

Enforcement of Pakistan's blasphemy laws have led to the imprisonment of Christians, like 20-year old Sandal Bibi and her father Gul Sheer on charges of blasphemy against the Qur'an. Ripping the West in Two >>> By Gary Lane, CBN News Reporter | Thursday, February 19, 2009

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