Islamic Hardliners Rattle Their Sabres in Aceh, Indonesia and the West Listens Attentively

Recent reports of the legislative passing of hardline Islamic laws in the Aceh province of Indonesia, including the punishment of stoning for adultery, have unnerved Western observers who believe that basic human rights will be ignored under such a system. While the laws are severely flawed, a closer look at Acehnese and Indonesian political and legal structures reveals that such strict punishments under the system are legally impossible to achieve.

Indonesia is a country of over 230 million people, spread out amongst 17,000 islands and islets along an archipelago that stretches for more than 5,000 kilometres. The province of Aceh, lying at the archipelago’s most westward tip, is itself a diverse region, where some fifteen languages are spoken, and where, for the better part of 150 years, conflict and outright war have been the norm.

Islam came to Aceh in the 9th century. It has long been a unifying force throughout the country, but the Acehnese people in particular focus on Islam as a defining characteristic of their identity. As such, the creation of a system of Islamic law (Syariah in Bahasa-Indonesia) was a central factor of the peace plan agreed to by the Acehnese liberation group Gerakan Aceh Merdeka (GAM). However, it must be noted here that GAM was a purely secular movement, and that the achievement of Syariah was just one of many negotiation goals –…

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