Islam in Action: Pregnant woman to be beaten for violating Shari’a…
Most Westerners have at least a vague recollection to a certain area of the world known as Aceh. For those that may have forgotten, Aceh was the region of Indonesia that received roughly half a billion Yankee dollars in the aftermath of the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami disaster.
Other than the Western World overall pumping billions of dollars to Aceh after the 2004 catastrophe, the Sumatran province is also renown for its hyper-adherence to Islam’s Shari’a Law.
Case in point would be reports from Britain’s The Independent as well as Indonesia’s Jakarta Post which detailed 13 individuals, aged 21 to 30, sentenced to a public caning for violating Islamic law. Dependent on the severity of the infraction, each individual received anywhere from nine to 25 strokes to their back.
Specifically, the youths were found guilty of “inappropriate acts, including khalwat (affectionate contact by an unmarried couple) and ikhtilat (intimacy or mixing) in violation of Islamic bylaws.”
Appropriately, the public floggings were held in the main courtyard of the Al Ikhlas Mosque located in a suburb of the provincial capital of Banda Aceh.
Of the seven men and six women found guilty, one of the unfortunate women took her beating for the high crime of “standing too close to her boyfriend”.
Also noted, “Another man was caned for allegedly ‘spending time with a member of the opposite sex in a hidden location in a fashion that could lead to adultery.'”
As reported by the Jakarta Post;
Banda Aceh deputy mayor Zainal Arifin and hundreds of residents witnessed the public punishment, which was conducted at 11 a.m. despite the rain, albeit an hour later than scheduled.
However, The Independent noted that the crowd as “jeering” at the convicted individuals.
A 14th individual was also slated for the day’s beatings, but as cited;
Only one of the group due to be flogged, a 22-year-old woman, was granted a temporary reprieve, because she was pregnant.
Aceh Deputy Mayor Zainal Arifin said she would still be caned, but her sentence would be suspended until after she had given birth.
