JIHAD IN INDONESIA
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The terminology was carefully chosen by the Sharia-inclined parties pushing this law. After all, what kind of person, they could ask, would object to curbing pornography? What kind of religious group would object?
They can thus seize upon objections to portray their opponents as perverts and savages to an inattentive audience that projects their own understanding onto a term that is being used in quite a different context. It’s actually quite a common tactic, though usually employing ostensibly positive terms like “peace,” “justice,” “human rights,” “women’s rights,” and so forth.
The crucial difference occurs when Sharia is the framework in which such terms are defined. Hence, in this case, all freedom of personal and religious expression becomes subject to Sharia. As such, the “pornography” law threatens to become a vehicle for Islamic supremacism and the cultural genocide of non-Islamic traditions, whether Christian, Hindu, or other non-Islamic faiths in Indonesia.
“Christ on cross ‘could be porn under Indon law’,” from CathNewsAsia, March 29:
Even the naked body of Christ may be considered as pornography after Indonesia’s Constitutional Court approved a new anti-porn law, Catholics fear.
The fears arose after the Constitutional Court declared the anti-pornography law (enacted by the Government in 2008) to be compatible with Indonesian public policy, Fides reports.
Fides sources say that in Indonesian civil society, among moderate Muslims, Christians, and Hindu groups, as well as associations dedicated to protecting freedom and human rights – especially in eastern Indonesia- have challenged the document.
“It is not that we are pro-pornography,” explained Catholic sources of Fides, “but because it is feared that this law – accepting a controversial generic definition of ‘pornography,’ which includes ‘any attitude and any artistic-cultural form of communication that excites a sexual instinct or is contrary to morality,’ lends itself easily to exploitation: the fundamentalist Muslim fringe can use it to penalize non-Muslims and, ultimately, seek to impose strictly traditional customs, even the Sharia.”
“Our angels are naked,” an Indonesian priest told Fides ironically. “Will they be outlawed? This law comes at a time when the country is also debating the blasphemy law, which carries similar risks.
Many Islamic leaders and intellectuals have called for a review of the measure on blasphemy, saying it is the wrong weapon to leave in the hands of radical Islamic groups.
In the case of the anti-pornography bill, however, threats and insults have hit Catholic Judge Maria Farida, one of the nine judges of the Constitutional Court (the only woman and the only Catholic of the Court) because she courageously voted against this bill. We wish to express our support and our prayers for her.”
Even when the text of the law was drafted two years ago, the Indonesian Bishops expressed strong doubts and misgivings, in part because the rules that regulate public morality and decency in Indonesia are already contained in other legislation.
Just the other day, they also ruled that Sharia takes precedence over civil law. That paves the way for rulings like this, which uphold Muhammad’s example above those pesky modern Indonesian laws about child welfare and human rights.
“NU rules in favor of underage marriages,” by Muhammad Nafik and Andi Hajramurni for the Jakarta Post, March 27:
The minimum age of 16 years to marry under the prevailing 1974 marriage law is not a sharia-binding regulation for Muslims, according to Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) jurists.
The panel of sharia experts announced there was no age limitation for marriage under Islamic law.
They did not cite gender; but the law states that women must be at least 16 to marry, while the minimum age for men to marry is 18.
The experts said Muslim parents can marry off their underage children, but strongly appealed for marriages to only be carried out after the child has reached puberty.
Non-binding. Wink-wink.
The jurists underlined that couples in which both are underage must abstain from sexual intercourse until they are deemed physically and mentally capable of doing so.
In practice, the person making that call will all too likely be the randy old creep who just married a 12-year-old.
The edict was reached at a meeting of jurists at the national leadership conference of NU, the country’s largest Muslim organization, in Makassar, South Sulawesi.
“The majority of clerics are of the opinion that there is no minimum age limit in marriage under sharia law,” NU jurist Cholil Nafis told a press conference on the sidelines of the congress on Friday.
The edict to allow for underage marriages quickly sparked protests from human rights activists Friday.
“It’s a setback and contravenes the 2002 Child Protection Law,” National Commission for Child’s Protection (Komnas Anak) secretary general Arist Merdeka Sirait said.
Article 48 of the law requires parents to prevent their children from underage marriages, he argued.
“Underage marriages eliminate the rights of children, particularly to determine their future, and encourages sexual exploitation,” Arist said….
JIHAD IN IRAQ
Noting that Islamic law forbids musical instruments will bring you swift charges of “ignorance” and “Islamophobia,” but the “militiamen” in Iraq who believe that music is un-Islamic are not ignorant “Islamophobes”:
Hadith Qudsi 19:5: “The Prophet said that Allah commanded him to destroy all the musical instruments, idols, crosses and all the trappings of ignorance.” (The Hadith Qudsi, or holy Hadith, are those in which Muhammad transmits the words of Allah, although those words are not in the Qur’an.)
Muhammad also said:
(1) “Allah Mighty and Majestic sent me as a guidance and mercy to believers and commanded me to do away with musical instruments, flutes, strings, crucifixes, and the affair of the pre-Islamic period of ignorance.”
(2) “On the Day of Resurrection, Allah will pour molten lead into the ears of whoever sits listening to a songstress.”
(3) “Song makes hypocrisy grow in the heart as water does herbage.”
(4) “This community will experience the swallowing up of some people by the earth, metamorphosis of some into animals, and being rained upon with stones.” Someone asked, “When will this be, O Messenger of Allah?” and he said, “When songstresses and musical instruments appear and wine is held to be lawful.”
(5) “There will be peoples of my Community who will hold fornication, silk, wine, and musical instruments to be lawful ….” — ‘Umdat al-Salik r40.0
Sharia Alert from Iraq: “Oud maker labors in secret on Baghdad rooftop,” by Hamza Hendawi for AP, March 28:
BAGHDAD — In a tiny workshop on the roof of his home in a Baghdad slum, Farhan Hassan works in secret, lovingly curving wood and tightening strings to make his ouds — a traditional Arabic instrument.
Only close family and friends know what he is doing, because the militiamen in his neighborhood frown on such frivolities.
The oud’s angst-filled tunes define Iraq’s music, the same way the Tigris and Euphrates rivers define its landscape. But nowadays few in the country play or make the oud, a pear-shaped, deep-voiced cousin of the lute. Hundreds of artists fled Iraq during the violence in recent years — and continued instability and the power of religious hard-liners give them little desire to return.…
Now Hassan is also hoping to leave Iraq. Like many of the estimated 2.5 million Shiites who live in Sadr City, he has had to cope with some of the city’s worst living conditions. Militiamen have closed music stores, prohibited the mixing of the sexes, banned wedding parties, imposed the Islamic hijab on women and murdered gay men — all while making a living as hired guns….
“I could have gone out on the streets carrying an RPG or a machine-gun and people would either take no notice or commend me on my courage,” he mused. “But I would have probably been killed if I had gone out with an oud in my hand,” he said with a laugh tinged with bitterness….
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