There are some who fear that an Indonesian Islamic state is imminent.

There is debate over whether Indonesian Playboy magazine can be considered part of the press or as something else.

The government appears willing to better deal with extremist thuggery.

Los Angeles Times' writer Richard C. Paddock produces an interesting article on the pornography law.

Sinta Nuriyah Wahid, the wife of former president Abdurrahman Wahid, is suing the Betawi Brotherhood Forum (FBR) for slandering women.

Expatriate pop singer Anggun visited Jakarta recently and left us with her opinions on the anti-pornography bill.

The Indonesian Ulema Council has issued 19 new fatwas.

Pressure on the government and police to disband the FPI, Islamic Defenders Front is growing as the FPI and parts of the Nahdlatul Ulama are engaged in a running battle.

The leader of Muhammadiyah says the members of his organisation are free to align themselves with political parties of their choosing provided such parties have shared values with Muhammadiyah.

News on a recent mini epidemic of raids by the Islamic Defenders Front, FPI, Front Pembela Islam.

A review of recent news on the pornography and morality bill as thousands of Muslims rallied in Jakarta in support of it yesterday.

Articles from the world's press increasingly focus on the lack of moderation in Indonesia and Indonesian Islam.

Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) is the largest Muslim body in the country and is chiefly responsible for the reputation of Indonesia as a place of moderate Islam. Its current leader, Hasyim Muzadi, gives his opinions on the sharia debate.

The campaign to make the island of Madura a stand-alone province, separate from East Java, continues to gather steam. It finds most of its support from conservative Islamic groups and figures.

Voices have been raised that the largest Muslim organisation in the country, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), is moving towards intolerance.

Muslims in the town of Manokwari in Papua can't get permission to build mosques, says a member of parliament.

The Islamic Defenders Front, FPI, are concerned about the problem of human refuse in the city of Depok, specifically dangdut dancers and singers such as Inul Daratista.

The Indonesian Ulema Council is in the process of creating an anti-sin ordinance for Jakarta.

A group of liberal Muslim leaders said at a conference on Saturday that the prevalence of mob rule threatened to cause the break-up of the country.

A demonstration today in Jakarta against draconian public decency laws with the marchers dressing up in traditional costumes of various regions in Indonesia.

The Islamic Defenders Front, FPI, have found new meaning in their lives with the publication of an Indonesian version of Playboy magazine.

The first Indonesian version of Playboy magazine came out today. Despite the fact that it does not contain nudity and is not any more raunchy than other established magazines its publication has met with much opposition.

Yoyoh Yusroh, a member of the Islamist Prosperous Justice Party, PKS, in supporting the proposed law against public indecency, says women need to be protected from globalization.

Picture from a rally in Surabaya, east Java, in support of the proposed anti-pornography law.

Amidhan, the chairman of the Indonesian Ulema Council and a member of the National Commission on Human Rights, gives his reasons for supporting the anti-porn and public indecency bill in an interview with the Jakarta Post.

The man in charge of the committee dealing with the anti-porn bill has said that the bill will likely be debated on in the parliament in June 2006 and then passed into law because the opposition to it is so insignificant.

The battle over the anti-pornography and public display of sexuality bill is far from over. Today tens of thousands of Muslims rallied in the capital of Lombok island, Mataram, and were addressed by the mayor of that fair city, who said that women who dressed sexy were asking to be raped.

We briefly mentioned in Porn Wars the attitude of the Indonesian Mujahadin Council, Majelis Mujahidin Indonesia (MMI), towards those in Bali who objected to some of the provisions in the anti-pornography and indecency law. Looking at what the MMI had to say in detail opens ones eyes to certain Muslim attitudes to Bali and the Balinese.

Tons of porn news today, get yer porn here.

About 300 people, mostly women, took to the streets on Saturday in a loud protest against the antipornography bill, which they said degraded women, insulted many local cultures and threatened tourism.

The religious leader and former president Gus Dur, and his wife Sinta, have come out against the proposed new law on pornography and indecency.

The hunt for blasphemers of Islam goes on, this time on Batam island, a favourite destination of tourists and foreign investors alike. But do the foreigners who plough their money into this place know what kind of system they are supporting?

The two largest parties in the parliament, Golkar and PDI-P, appear likely to push for changes to the anti-porn bill. The two parties between them have 237 of the 550 seats in parliament.

A good article in Tempo magazine appeared recently on the matter of the anti-pornography and indecency bill that framed the question in terms of a conflict between Arab cultural imperialism (Islam) and native Indonesian culture.

Muslim groups staged rallies yesterday at the Tangerang local council and the administration office in support of the pornography bill, which is being deliberated by the House of Representatives.

Hamzah Haz, the leader of the Islamist PPP and former vice president said that Indonesia is still in need of Islamic based parties because the majority of Indonesians are Muslims.

A roundup of some of the current opinions regarding the proposed new law against indecency and pornography.

The contradictions at the heart of the make up of the Indonesian nation are on display in a somewhat comical way presently in the attempts by Islamist lawmakers in Jakarta to enact a new, draconian law against pornography (pornografi) and supposed public indecency (pornoaksi).

The possibility of the publication of an Indonesian version of Playboy has all sorts of people hot and bothered, before they've even seen the thing, and some of this is played out online in the form of petitions supporting or opposing the magazine.

From the Jakarta Post (can't link to the page it's gone). Police on the island of Batam near Singapore went about shopping centers yesterday looking for girls in sexy clothes to warn them of the dangers of sexual assault. They caused quite a stir.

The Arab-Muslim culture that has been brought to Indonesia is doomed.

Stop Press! First edition of Playboy out!

Wer’e not big fans of pornography here but Playboy is typical of one kind of porn that is fairly innocuous. I’m sure someone could make a case that, in general, soft porn leads one to harder things but it never happened to your scribe.