The Jakarta Post continues its lone battle against sharia.

Despite the fact that the Indonesian language press have now largely lost interest in the sharia issue the Post keeps on battling, although since hardly anyone of importance reads the Jakarta Post the effort is of limited use. The Post yesterday quoted a number of parliamentarians and scholars who continue to oppose the appearance of strict morality laws in the provinces as evidence that the separation between the state and the majority religion of Islam is weakening.

Muslim scholar M. Dawam Rahardjo said people misinterpreted secularism as a principle that was opposed to religion. Instead, he said, it defined the separation of the state and religion but fully respected and protected the freedom to practice one’s beliefs.

Right now, there is no such thing as freedom of religion. People with different beliefs, like Lia Eden, are considered infidels and are tried and imprisoned. Secularism is actually the best solution for a multicultural society like ours.

He added that it was up to the central government to take action to end the chaotic situation.

The government must be firm not to allow any potential that can violate civil rights.

While politician Eva Kusuma Sundari, of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), warned that there was a highly systematic and co-ordinated movement behind the enforcement of a string of sharia-inspired by-laws and it was able to generate a lot of grassroots support.

It still needs to be confirmed, but in politics, there are no coincidences. There have been different groups with the same method, the same argument and the same agenda — that is to back the fundamentalist movement. These groups defended radical groups who have committed destruction, and backed sharia-inspired bylaws.

The divisiveness of the religiously charged issue also has been apparent among legislators. In June, 56 House members filed a petition against sharia-inspired bylaws in several regencies and municipalities that they deemed unconstitutional, gender-biased and a threat to splinter the country.

However, 134 legislators issued a counter petition, arguing it was up to the local administrations to decide their policies.

Eva said it would take a systematic, but peaceful, mechanism to counter the fundamentalist movement, such as through education and public awareness campaigns.

We need to be united, otherwise it won’t work. We need to remind people about the contract signed by the founding fathers about the form of the nation. We need to show them that there is no single country in the world which implements sharia law and at the same time succeeds in upholding democracy.

Christian scholar Benyamin Intan from the Reform Center for Religion and Society said the fundamentalist movement, which was against the separation of the state and religion, may create a backlash again formal religion that occurred in western Europe.

Some countries were ‘traumatized’ because religion is seen as the source of trouble.

Several regions continue to impose bylaws with a focus on morality and the conduct of women. The bylaws include a prohibition against women going out alone at night, or risk arrest for soliciting, and the obligation for women civil servants to wear Muslim attire.

Eva believed gender-biased bylaws would worsen poverty in the country, because international data showed a strong correlation between a low gender development index and the incidence of poverty.

In Cianjur, West Java, she said, home industries were on the brink of bankruptcy due to sharia-inspired bylaws and increasing unemployment of women.

In Tangerang, low-paid women teachers could no longer supplement their income by working additional hours into the evening for fear they would be arrested on suspicion of prostitution on their way home.