After the wave subsides, sharia police force the women of Aceh to cover up

[rodeodance]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/12/23/wtsu123.xml


After the wave subsides, sharia police force the women of Aceh to cover up

By Sebastien Berger
Last Updated: 2:44am GMT 23/12/2006


Acehnese students listen to instructions during a tsunami training exercise Acehnese students listen to instructions during a tsunami training exercise provided by Red Cross officials on the outskirts of Banda Aceh

As a van-load of sharia police — men on one bench, women on the other — approached the burger stands of Banda Aceh, two girls in Islamic headscarves abandoned their meals and sprinted away.

At another table four more women hastily pulled on coverings to shield their hair from the eyes of men, but it was too late.

Surrounding them, officers lectured them on the need to cover themselves, as the girls bowed their heads in shame. "A woman who is not using a jilbab is showing her body parts, her neck and arms," explained Effendi, 33, one of the officers.

"It can make a man desire her. They are not good Muslims, they still don't want to follow Islamic rules..........

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. If they were good Muslims

they would know that BOTH men and women are told to dress modestly. And the Prophet, in a hadith, clarified what this meant: dress the way others around you are dressed, so as not to stand out in a crowd. Since the Qur'an teaches us to be merciful and compassionate towards each other, I don't get the need of such "police"--you want to know the truth, enforcing an interpretation of the Qur'an by force would, in my mind, make it more likely to NOT want to follow it.

[breakaleg]

2. Thanks so much for that explanation.

[rodeodance]

3. sharia law department is now proposing to introduce amputations

......."Will women wearing jilbabs and nobody dating solve the problems of Aceh? Of course not. What's happening in Aceh today is Arabisation, not Islamic sharia." Even so, the sharia statutes have become institutionalised, and the sharia law department is now proposing to introduce amputations for theft of goods worth more than 94 grams of gold.

Mohammed Nazir, the department's head, insisted: "This is a reaction because people are asking for more laws to be made, so that the law is more than small things. If we can handle the small things we hope big cases like corruption will not happen."

The deadline for responses from the public is Monday.

"If I have a chance to stop that I will," said Irwandi Yusuf, the former rebel spokesman who was elected as governor earlier this month. "We don't need that kind of law right now."

But he added: "We try to avoid talking about sharia law right now, it's so controversial. They put it in the name of Islam, and people are very reluctant to put themselves against it."

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

4. And the conservative so called "Christians" in this country,

by demonizing Islam and saying they want to convert all Muslims, are driving Muslims to a more fundamentalist position in reaction.

[pennylane100]

5. I do not think you can blame the christians for this one.

As an atheist/agnostic I have little tolerance for most organized religions but I think that the motive for muslim extremism is all about control and little about other religions. They are probably also very confused about their own sexuality.

[Bobbieo]

6. So it is all the women's fault that some Muslim men cannot

control their sexual desires when they see a woman's hair, face or a bit of her ankle. WOW!! What a copout!!!

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

8. Actually, this is a Wahhabist position

more than a general Islamic one. The fundamentalists also don't think a woman should drive, even though there is NOTHING in the Qur'an or the Hadiths to support this. Right now in Indonesia there is a drive by the fundamentalists to take over from the more moderate and progressive sects of Islam, like the Sufis. Note in the article where the chap says he feels its more an Arabization than anything? That's a code word for Wahhabism.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

7. I'm not blaming the Christians, but

I am saying that the fundamentalist Muslims are using the actions of the fundamentalist Christians to further their cause, just as the fundamentalist Christians point to the fundamentalist Muslims to further their cause. They are enabling each other.