Posted on 06/25/2008 4:56:11 PM PDT by forkinsocket
A majority of Indonesians would like to see Sharia law implemented in their country, a new poll shows, although only a minority favour the harsh measures sometimes associated with the system.
The poll of 8,000 people in the world's most populous Muslim country, home to 200 million Muslims, found that 52 per cent favoured some form of Islamic legal code, such as religious arbitration in family disputes.
Asked if women should be made to wear a head scarf 45 per cent said yes, while 40 per cent favoured chopping off the hands of thieves.
"A lot of people think the idea is very good, but when you start talking of every day implications, the number dropped," said Ira Soekirman of Roy Morgan Research, an Australian company which conducted the survey.
Indonesia has traditionally practised a tolerant brand of Islam, although there are some trying to pull the country in a more conservative direction.
The government was recently forced to ban an unorthodox Muslim sect by violent street protests staged by hardline groups.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
What about cartoons?
Don’t trust them polls in Muslim countries. Answering wrong could end up putting you on some terrorists’ “Moderate Muslim watchlist” or maybe on the “Heretic Watchlist.”
The penalties for being outed as a moderate or even liberal Muslim in a country where extremists can get away with rape and murder can dampen the reliability of surveys and polls.
Guess I won’t go there on vacation this year....
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