Aceh Abominations
Aug 6th, 2007, in News, Opinion, by RossRoss asks whether the government is willing to bring some Muslims into the 21st century.
Last month, another disgraceful scene occurred in Indonesia, Islamic thugs wreaking havoc on innocent people going about their lawful business. The latest outrage took place in Aceh, where you get whipped for kissing and card-playing. But this time it wasn’t the official sharia goon-cops.
Some people were relaxing in a café, the Café SC to be precise, in front of Cut Meutia Buket Rata Hospital, in Blang Mangat District. A gang of young louts invaded the place and tired to spray paint on the clothing of some ladies there, the issue being that they were wearing trousers considered too tight by the thugs. The owner bravely resisted, and one lout was injured, and the police even caught up with the bad guys and arrested them later. (Though we don’t know if they were charged or held for long!)
Next day, three truckloads of scumbags arrived, described in an article in last Tuesday’s Jakarta Post 31/7 as “Islamic students”, who proceeded to attack the café, causing damage to its equipment and to a car parked outside. The café’s owner was hurt. serambinews
This wretched tale was reported in the Jakarta Post by a Muslim journalist who sensibly disapproved, but he offered an explanation for the scumbags behaviour, viz., that they were following the “hadith” of their Prophet.
Anyone of you who sees something unbecoming should change it with your hands, if you fail, change it with your words, and if you fail again, do it with your heart.
The Jakarta Post writer, Mohammed Yazid, says this should be interpreted as a suggestion to only guide people’s behaviour.
I object to various kinds of behaviour, such as spitting in the street, and queue-jumping, but I have yet to hit anyone who engages in such misconduct, which is much more objectionable than a pretty girl wearing tight jeans -that in fact is not objectionable at all, except to priggish preman like the “Islamic students”. We don’t have a license to prevent even misfits like them doing as they please, unless they break the law.
To any thinking person, enforcement of law is the province of the police. What these students were studying is not said, but obviously not a lot. And what are the rest of the “Islamic” people going to do about this? Some 90% of Indonesians, more like 95% in Aceh, are Muslims. It is surely their duty to bring these morons to heel, and since corporal punishment exists up there, why not put it good use? Flog ’em!
Aceh’s recently elected independent Governor, an ex-GAM freedom fighter, is a democrat, and enjoyed a good education in America , so we are told. It is about time that he put his foot down and redeemed the reputation of his province.
But maybe we’ll have to wait some time. Just across the straits, in Malaysia, the Prime Minister, Abdullah Badawi, likes to claim he is promoting his country as an example of moderate Islam. Yet a series of cases, reported recently in the press, indicates that his minions are doing just the opposite, allowing the bigoted sharia courts to persecute non-Muslims, and any Muslims who wish to convert, freely.
Luthfi Assyaukanie, in a Straits Times article reproduced in the same day’s Jakarta Post, says that: assyaukanie.com
it is common knowledge that many Muslims are against philosophy and speculative thinking.
In other words, they have closed minds and intend to keep other people’s minds closed too. Until they wake up to the fact that they are living in the 21st, not the 7th, century, it’s up to governments who care about humanity to prevent these primitives lashing out at more civilized citizens.
13 Comments on “Aceh Abominations”
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Ross says:
It is really sad to watch a nice country being undermined by this kind of Islamist (different perhaps from Islamic) nonsense.
Last month, in Cianjur Regency, less than a hundred miles from Jakarta, an international religious conference had to be cancelled after 1000 thugs were brought there by bigot groups to besiege a Catholic complex.
The menacing mob of ignorant savages outnumbered the police, and that may explain their cave-in, but there is absolutely no excuse for the lack of any follow-up action to hunt down and arrest the trouble-makers. Cianjur is in West java, a province nowadays notorious for its primitive brand of Islam. The area has a noisome history, for the Dar ul Islam insurgent movement thrived there in the Fifties, its aim being to create an Islamic State.
N article in the Jakarta Post 3/8 by a journo named Pandaya (many Indonesians only have one name) reminded readers that in 2001 West java elected a governor sworn to make the area more Islamic, but he failed to win-re-election in 2006 because ‘his supporters considered his policies a betrayal.’ These ‘treacherous’ policies included giving approval for the Catholic development in the countryside outside Cianjur city!
The complex, called Karmel Valley, comprises 13 hectares It is apparently resented not only because it is a non-Muslim ‘island’ in a hugely Islamic area, but because the locals are mired in poverty and dislike seeing prosperous people driving by on their way to observe their faith in a nice complex!
Pandaya has enough sense of civic responsibility to disapprove of the police’s failure to do their job and appears to disapprove of the evil sharia laws being introduced in West Java and many other local authorities, but he can’t resist the typical leftist Jakarta Post line that perhaps the Catholics ought not to be richer than the Muslims, or not obviously so. He quotes a Muslim magazine Sabili, whining about how ‘Christians stream to Karmel Valley in their shiny luxury cars’ to enjoy a weekend in the beautiful countryside. Such beauty is a sharp contrast to the ugly mentality of such Islamists. In West, and East, and Central Java, Muslims are an overwhelming majority. They control the provincial, regency and city administrations. Their leaders in these political positions have every opportunity to help the poor. As readers will remember, many of them prefer to provide themselves with classy lap-tops, inflated salaries and allowances, and have the brass neck to justify their tax-funded affluence by telling the media how many parasitic hangers-on they have to dole out their cash to. There are plenty of extremely rich Muslims in Indonesia (and plenty of poor Christians!) as we know from the recent reports about millions splashed out by would-be gubernatorial candidates in Jakarta. Since most politicians are of course Muslim, most of the corrupt politicians are Muslim, and most of them have yet to be arraigned, so their funds are available. Let them spend a bit, providing similar opulent facilities for their co-religionists and then there’d be no cause for resentment. But no, there would be, for Islamists simply hate anybody else worshipping God in ways different from their own. And the Government, at a much higher level than the hapless Cianjur Police, appears only to happy to sit back and let brutal fanatics run rough-shod over minority religions’ rights. Another article on the same page tells us that all those nasty sharia bye-laws could be quashed by the central government but the Home Affairs Ministry does nothing, while the President, without whose intervention they automatically become law within 60 days of promulgation, looks the other way. Maria Farida Indrati of the University of Indonesia is quoted as saying that the Ministry disallows ‘other illegal ordinances on tax or customs, but on religion they won’t.’
Expats who like living in Indonesia quite correctly have no way to interfere in these matters. But we can say what we think, and it has to be said that it’s tragic to watch the spread of the primitive thinking one associates with Afghanistan’s blood-stained Taliban or the psychos who operate under Al Qaeda’s satanic banner. Why don’t the decent Muslims
and up and fight back? (Yes, I know Gus Dur and some others say the right things, but where’s the popular support they need? -
Djoko says:
Why don’t the decent Muslims and up and fight back? (Yes, I know Gus Dur and some others say the right things, but where’s the popular support they need?)
Some are trying to open up people’s minds (for example Gus Dur and others within the quote-unquote liberal stream of Islam), but they suffer from two major problems.
(a) most of them are so full of themselves that theyre more interested in taking part in international seminars or writing in international publications and convincing foreigners that they are right rather than getting their hands dirty on the grassroots level and doing the tough work. Most of the conservative groups you see around today did not just spring up overnight but plied their trade working hard through mosques and at the grassroots level during the Soeharto period (which mind you they had to do carefully or else risk being shot or disappeared – see Tanjung Priok). Liberal groups are still very much at the discourse level at the moment and will remain there until they can start getting down to the grassroots level and talking their language (which means more effort needs to be put into making sense of western terms or westernised Indonesian terms either in Indonesian or using Islamic concepts).
(b) most of them in their own affairs aren’t nearly as democratic or open as they claim to be anyway. Gus Dur is the perfect example. When things started going sour for him in PKB he pulled all his weight to make sure that his personal choice of leader for the party got through. They are often open and democratic as long as you agree with what their definition of open and democratic is and as long as you are willing to submit to them.
Its not just a matter of some ‘good Muslims’ standing up, its going to take a long while. If we see that the current conservative groups were a result of the breaking up of things like Darul Islam and so on, it has taken them 30-40 years to develop into what they are now. If liberal groups start working at the grassroots level now you might only see the beginnings of change after a similar period of time. Either way its going to take the usual combination of hard work and patience over time.
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KSJ says:
Shariah law is an abomination and backward law. Poor acehnese. Hope Shariah law wont be spread out to other Indonesian regions, it’s just unacceptable to democracy and freedom.
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Arema says:
Why don’t the decent Muslims stand up and fight back? (Yes, I know Gus Dur and some others say the right things, but where’s the popular support they need?
Government Officials / people in power:
They need to sustain their position up there, and to do that they need as many support as possible, including these thugs. “Discouraging Islam’s advance” can end their seemingly-illustrious career almost immediately. So they just sit up there, and enjoy the moment while it lasts, while collecting as many riches as possible. Who cares about those down below. They can destroy each other. Indonesia has too many population anyway.Those moderates not in power:
They are powerless and helpless to resist the “march of the Jihadists” funded by the Arabs. They can’t use violence against violence because that is against what they preach and self-destructing. “Soft methods” don’t work because the opposition use violence. They have immense difficulty in explaining controversial verses in Quran, and explains that those controversies only applicable to Muhammad’s era. They can’t match the Arabs in terms of funding and brainwashing rate.Non-Muslims:
They are infidels, animals, deceiver, heretics, enemies of “God”, and their blood is halal. They have no right to live, killing them (especially in numbers) will give you virgin-buffet in “Heaven”, so why bother listening to them?I can’t blame Muslims / extremists, they have been indoctrinated that Islam is the truth since they were born, and also taught that everything else is satanic (therefore correction is almost unheard of). Since they only know that much, you’d expect them to behave that way. They are “just doing their best”, in that sense, of what they know best. I can only blame Muhammad for bringing this havoc upon the Earth.
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WP says:
It is really sad to watch a nice country being undermined by this kind of Islamist (different perhaps from Islamic) nonsense.
Yes sad, but it is the course Acehneses themselves have voted to choose. Even if you explain it to them a hundred times, they will vote hundred times the same. As foreigners, there is not much we can do than to accept this decision. But I suppose there will be times when foreigners can make a difference in tipping the balance; but for Aceh, now is not the time.
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Cukurungan says:
Arema Says:
I can’t blame Muslims / extremists, they have been indoctrinated that Islam is the truth since they were born, and also taught that everything else is satanic (therefore correction is almost unheard of). Since they only know that much, you’d expect them to behave that way. They are “just doing their best”, in that sense, of what they know best. I can only blame Muhammad for bringing this havoc upon the Earth.
Cukurungan :
Sound to me like General Motor blaming Toyota Motor because Toyota succeeded to deliver the better car and prices to market.
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Sputjam says:
Close the religious schools and mosques and banish the clerics.
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Petunjuk says:
Close the religious schools and mosques and banish the clerics.
Why does some people always resort to this extreme solution? “Close them all”, “banish them all”, etc. What next? “Kill them all?”
Seriously isn’t that behaviour just the same with those extremists you’re so eager to condemn?
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Agam says:
Guys, please understood that those Radical group were rose recently in Aceh after Helsinki’s Peace Agreement signed. I believe it was brought by those stupid Javanese. For the Acehnese, we believe in solidarity and respect others believe. That’s why our leader happily live in Sweden and doesn’t want to go back.
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inong says:
i believe that muslims must obey the islamic rules. however, islam teaches us not to use violence without any authority. yet, i think the youngsters should understand their duties as muslims. this is my suggestion for my brothers n sisters in islam: don’t follow other people’s style just because u think it’s cool. remember, life on earth is really short, then u’ll be back to Allah. what do u plan to bring when the time comes, guyz?sins? for non-muslim people: please, learn more about islam, do not look at islam just based on what media say
thank u, salam -
Bugger when you get back and find nobody is home…makes for a wasted life huh..
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ET says:
please, learn more about islam, do not look at islam just based on what media say
Sometimes I’d wish I’d never done that, learn more about Islam. Ignorance is bliss.
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I was going to write an article on this but Ross beat me to it. There was another related thing, the deputy mayor of Banda Aceh, Hj Illiza Sa`aduddin Djamal, complained recently that Acehnese people were increasingly ignoring the sharia:
He wished that people would obey sharia without having to be forced to, but if not they would have to learn the hard way: