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.

The provincial government of South Sulawesi has decided that ability to read the Koran is a must for Muslim citizens.

Mardiyah Chamim, an Indonesian journalist, writes about her experiences of the application of sharia, or syariah, law in the province of Aceh in northern Sumatra.

Two leading Islamic intellectual figures discuss sharia, and the nature of Islam in south east Asia as compared to the middle eastern form. They raised interesting points but failed to logically carry through their arguments or look too deeply into the issue.

It’s common practice for analysts of Indonesian politcal affairs to divide parties into two groups, Islamist, and secular, but this is an over-simplification.

The municipality of Tangerang, an industrial satelite city of Jakarta with about 3 million unfortunate inhabitants, has passed a number of draconian laws against prostitution and drinking which have caused more than a few complaints.

The Indonesian Survey Institute has released the results of a survey that gauged the prevalance of support for ideas associated with hardline or fundamentalist Islam among Muslims and others in the country. Behind the moderate mask it seems there may be a harder faced complexion among Indonesian Muslims.

A picture from late January 2006 of a man who had been caned 40 times.

One small step at a time the administration of Tangerang, a satellite city of Jakarta, seeks to implement sharia law. The latest foray in this area sees the local government attempt to ban the selling of food during Friday prayers.

The Constitutional Court President speaks on the sharia issue.