15 September 2009

Indonesia's Aceh passes stoning law

This is coming from the horse's mouth:

Legislators in Indonesia's Aceh province have unanimously approved a law allowing adulterers to be stoned to death.

The regional parliament for the devoutly Muslim province on Monday passed the "qanun jinayat", or sharia law for crimes, also allowing for homosexuality to be punishable by long prison terms and people caught having pre-marital sex to receive 100 strokes with a cane.
It may be not that bad, actually, since:
Aceh's parliament is the only legislature in Indonesia - the most populous Muslim nation in the world - to employ sharia (Islamic law).
Thankfully, it's only a part of the country that will use this law - in thirty days (so you folks have some time for the last tryst or two). What can I say? Only a word of advice to that third category of offenders (the fans of pre-marital sex): just say that you never intended to marry in the first place, so it couldn't be counted as pre-marital sex. Otherwise, don't get caught in Aceh.

And one other thing: there is some hope still:
Out of 52 Muslim-majority countries worldwide, stoning is legally sanctioned in varying forms in Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and parts of Nigeria.
Which means, you can still indulge in these "offenses" in 44 Muslim countries. After that - there always will be Paris...

0 comments: