Sharia laws in Aceh on female dress.

Sharia alert from the province of Aceh. As of this month, January 2006, Muslim women in Aceh will be required to cover their heads and will not be allowed to wear tight-fitting clothes. These sort of laws have sometimes been promulgated before, on the local level, in other parts of Indonesia, and then widely ignored but in Aceh the religious authorities have the manpower and the will to enforce the new legislation.

Below is an article by a fellow in Aceh who makes some good points, bolded here.

This division [between moderate and conservative Islam] has given rise to an often hidden war between moderates and conservatives throughout the Muslim world. Sadly, this is increasingly the case in the devout province of Aceh. Healthy competition between conservatism and moderate interpretations is on the wane as Islamic conservatism gains ground. Moderates, conversely, are on the defensive, scared to speak out, and increasingly unable to get their voices heard.

If we take as an example a new qanun (local regulation issued by the Sharia authorities) implemented as of this month, the new prohibition legislates that Muslim Acehnese women must wear head scarves and may not wear tight clothes. The foundations of this ruling lie in extremely conservative interpretations of Islam. This is not the moderate Islam that has existed in Aceh for centuries. The majority of Acehnese have long believed — and practiced — a faith that is based on persuasion rather than top-down enforcement of a restrictive interpretation of the faith.

Historically, Acehnese Islam was a tool for combating injustice and oppression. If you look at pictures of Aceh’s heroine Cut Nyak Dhien, you see a women that took up arms against colonial oppression in defense of Acehnese cultural and religious identity, yet she did not wear a jilbab (head scarf). Historically, Islam in Aceh was about living by core values, not the superficial appearance of principle.

In contrast to their self-proclaimed agenda of defending Islam, in reality today’s conservatives are actually diminishing Islam, reducing it to small things that are inadequate or irrelevant in the face of the challenges of modern life or development. Ask the conservatives questions that reach beyond their favorite topics of gambling, alcohol and head scarves, for example about how their interpretation of religion can promote or support the reconstruction of Aceh, or Aceh’s political and economic development and they are unable to answer.

So how, given this lack of substance, have conservative interpretations of Islam come to dominate public discourse in Aceh, to the extent that conservative interpretations are being adopted in law and imposed on the majority — the moderate Acehnese? Why are the conservatives taking centre stage and representing themselves as mainstream Acehnese?

The rise of the conservatives can be attributed to multiple factors. One important element is that rising conservatism reflects national trends in religious and political discourse in Indonesia. This nation-wide trend is largely attributable to the dominant position given to Middle Eastern interpretations of Islam. What can be seen to be happening in Aceh, as well as other places in Indonesia, is not actually “Islamization” as it is often called, but actually “Arabization”. If we give them the space, Aceh’s unique experience of Islam is being subsumed by conservative elements of the Arab world. This conservative view is now even being challenged by moderate Muslims in the Middle East.

The dominance of this approach has, in the large part, been driven by the influx of outsiders entering Aceh with an agenda to promote Arabic interpretations of Islam. This agenda has been strengthened by local religious conservatives with an eye on the opportunity to gain political power for themselves and their allies. The central government’s tacit encouragement of these groups has also allowed them to flourish, thereby distracting attention from more important social, development and justice issues.

In Aceh the Islamic conservatives are setting restrictive limitations in all areas of discussion. They are ultimately closing the space for public debate about more important issues and damaging our ability and prospects for ijtihad (critical thinking mandated for Muslims in the Koran) about our own development and future.

It is important to help moderate Muslim voices in Aceh. Support must come from Indonesia’s other Muslim communities and other non Acehnese, given that the current conservatism in Aceh is an import, not simply a provincial issue. It is a problem for all of us, whether in Aceh, or elsewhere in Indonesia.

If conservative Islamic groups go unchallenged in Aceh, not only will this promote oppression of the Acehnese, particularly woman, but it will also prevent development within a cultural and historical framework that is appropriate to Acehnese Islam. Other Muslims in Indonesia should be aware that this imported, conservative view not only insults the Acehnese people, but our collective history and Islam itself.

He’s clearly pointing the finger at Saudi Arabia and saying the unique Indonesian harmonisation of Islam with earlier beliefs is losing out to the arid desert brand of Islam. Aceh, or ache as I keep typing it, was the first place in what is today Indonesia to be stricken with Islam. One wonders if what takes place in Aceh is the eventual future for all of Indonesia.