Posted on 12/22/2005 8:21:24 AM PST by LM_Guy
Religious extremists are using last year’s storm to oppress the survivors
MARLUDDIN JALIL, a Sharia judge who has ordered the punishment of women for not wearing headscarves, was uncompromising: “The tsunami was because of the sins of the people of Aceh.”
Thundering into a microphone at a gathering of wives, he made clear where he felt the fault lay: “The Holy Koran says that if women are good, then a country is good.”
A year after the disaster which many see as a divine punishment, emboldened Islamic hardliners are doing their best to eradicate sin — and women are their prime targets.
With reconstruction slow, irrational fears of a second tsunami high, and nearly 500,000 still homeless along 500 miles of coastline, the stern message falls on fertile ground. A Sharia police force modelled on Saudi moral enforcers enthusiastically seeks out female wrong doers for public humiliation.
The Wilayatul Hisbah, which loosely translates as “Control Team”, has arrested women, lopped off their hair, and paraded them in tears through the streets while broadcasting their sins over a megaphone.
More than 100 gamblers and drinkers — men and women — have been caned in public and some clerics are calling for thieves’ hands to be amputated.
The Islamic law introduced without popular enthusiasm in 2002 has been implemented rigorously since the tsunami, especially in towns such as Lhokseumawe, where Fatimah Syam, of Indonesian Women for Legal Justice, knows of 20 women who have fallen foul of it.
She said: “They seek out women without headscarves or unmarried girls meeting boys in private and parade them through the streets in an open car. I’ve seen the police laughing and boasting, and the girls in tears. The Sharia police say the tsunami happened because women ignored religion. We never heard of this parading..
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
I'm just glad we have the definitive answer regarding the tsunami. Headscarves.
If only this were christians, the media would have a field day with it. But since it's the religion of pieces, we have to be "tolerant".
So I don't expect to read any of those editorials expressing outrage like we do when some christian preacher suggests that a natural disaster might be God's punishment for something.
My money stopped very quickly after the muslims began shooting at aid workers. There are good people there, really good, but the muslims screwed the pooch on a good hopeful end to the pain.
I believe the donation amount raised by private individuals in the US for tsunami relief was over $1.8 BILLION! Very impressive.
Oddly enough, less than half of that has been spent so far. One report that I heard on NPR indicated that the "agencies" have big plans -- but need MORE money to put their plans in place.
Far as I'm concerned, the "agencies" are focused on what THEY want more than what the people need.
The media DID have a field day when a couple preachers said that Katrina was God's will. Remember?
A fellow villager [SNIP] said: “The Sharia police are good Muslims doing an excellent job. We must listen to them and follow God’s rules. Otherwise the tsunami will happen again.”
Good Muslims run amok through refugee camps and bully female victims of the tsunami??? I'd hate to see the bad Muslims. My nominees for f****n' cowards of the year! Let's see them try their "Sharia police" shtick...oh...at a NASCAR race.
I don't know about you, but I have MUCH HIGHER expectations for the stuff that comes out of the mouth of "some christian preacher". I expect ridiculous backward thinking from those supporting sharia.
and rightfully so.
What a bunch of cretins - with planks of wood in their eyes, so to speak.
agreed.
Hey ignorant iman, the way your religion treats women, I don't blame them for not following it.
Never sent any money and never will to that part of the world.
They are the first to cast stones, they think they are without sin.
What a jerk.
How does he explain the bazzillions who would rather swallow tacks than listen to Allah?
I sent some money to Xstian orgs only. No UN or any secular ones. I've heard even the Red Cross uses the red crescent when they work over there. So no money for them either.
Agreed. If another tsunami comes-not one cent. A natural or manmade disaster where the majority of the people follow a "religion" which gives its adherents the right to enslave, mutilate, or murder me, my family, the overwhelming majority of my countrymen-why would I be stupid or masochistic enough to send them money?
What a bunch of cheapskates!
Blame the victims and don't help them..
Islam is a disease.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.