Tsunami was God's revenge for your wicked ways, women told

TimesOnline.UK ^ | 12/22/2005 | Nick Meo

[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..

[khnyny]

The rampant child sex trade which attracts pedophiles from all over the world would be more credible as opposed to the "women without head scarf" thing, don't you think?

Sex slavery and child sexual abuse are the main issues, but I guess there's too much money to be made for the spotlight to shine on these dirty deeds.

[khnyny]

BTW, natural disasters are not God's "justice" in action. To a religious person, they can be, in some instances, but it is not for people to make that determination.

[FroedrickVonFreepenstein]

You’ve got to change your evil ways... baby
Before I stop loving you.
You’ve go to change... baby
And every word that I say, it’s true.
You’ve got me running and hiding
All over town.
You’ve got me sneaking and peeping
And running you down
This can’t go on...
Lord knows you got to change... baby.

When I come home... baby
My house is dark and my pots are cold
You’re hanging ëround... baby
With jean and joan and a who knows who
I’m getting tired of waiting and fooling around
I’ll find somebody, who won’t make me feel like a clown
This can’t go on...
Lord knows you got to change

[Gingersnap]

Is there anything women aren't responsible for in Islam?

[BenLurkin]

"Thai hostesses dressed in Santa Claus stocking hats, wait for customers at a Patong Beach nightclub in Phuket, Thailand, Saturday, Dec. 24, 2005. year ago on Dec. 26th, 2004, much the area around Patong Beach was heavily damaged following a massive Tsunami that struck the area." (AP Photo/David Longstreath) Email Photo Print Photo