Investment and international relations could be harmed by sharia laws, says a Euro MP.

Hartmut Nassauer, who is a member of the Christian Democratic Union of Germany, which is grouped within the European People’s Party at Brussels, is heading a visiting delegation of eight European parliament members (MEP’s) in Indonesia. The member for Hesse said on the 24th that religiously based laws would harm Indonesia’s international reputation and might scare off investors.

Hartmut Nassauer.

Prefacing his comments with the statement:

Of course it’s a matter for the Indonesian people and society to decide on the law they have.

He went on to say that when religious laws become state laws followers of other faiths and non-believers are obliged to obey them. And then:

You cannot force a citizen to hold a certain religion, which is against his or her will.

And: thepeninsulaqatar

According to our conception of most fundamental human rights, the liberty of… faith is one of the most important ones. It includes the right to live without faith and consequently you do not have to obey a faith which is not yours.

He made special note of laws that attempted to regulate womens’ behaviour, such as the law in Padang that restricts womens’ movements after dark.

From our point of view it’s not acceptable to forbid women to leave the house alone after eight o’clock in the evening.

Finally he warned of consequences:

What I would like to say is such a development has an impact on relations to other countries. It could burden the situation if there is a kind of religious law having consequences for state partnerships.

While Europe, he said, had strong Christian traditions, it was not a Christian continent but a collection of secular states.

However, Nassauer noted that the largest Muslim organisation, Nahdlatul Ulama, was opposed to the introduction of formal shariah law.

It was good to hear from representatives from Nahdlatul Ulama, for example, that this important and largest Muslim organisation, not only of Indonesia but of the world, is obviously against the implementing of Shariah law.