Religion Dispatches
…s degrees of uselessness. There is a political angle to Obama’s support of Indonesia, as he attempts to set-up rival powers with China; Indonesia’s close relationship with Australia makes them a credible power center. Just as important, Obama recognizes that democracy is messy, painful, and not the same everywhere. Indonesia carved out its own understanding of democracy that recognizes its cultural past and desires for the future. There is a chall…
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…sauna were arrested and images of their faces were disseminated online by Indonesian police. Homosexual sex is not illegal in the majority of Indonesia, except in the extremely conservative province of Aceh. Jakarta is not part of any province; it is controlled by the central government. One week ago, West Java Police Chief Anton Charliyan announced that he would create a special taskforce to crack down on LGBT people. “They will face the law and…
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…nesia this week, but was forced to cut his trip short. As of this writing, Indonesia’s Mount Merapi is still spewing clouds of ash into the sky, and the death toll from the eruptions that began two weeks ago has grown to 191, with more than 350,000 people displaced. Gunung Merapi (“The Mountain of Fire”) is the most active volcano in Indonesia and one of the most active in the world. Merapi is located approximately 30 kilometers north of Yogyakart…
Read More…mander of the local police subdistrict, told BuzzFeed News. (He, like many Indonesians, uses only one name.) Tegeswetan, like Indonesia as a whole, is overwhelmingly Muslim and they were worried, the local police’s public relations director said, that a same-sex wedding would create “social unrest.” “For a man to marry a man … is haram. Allah created only male and female.” Since that March day, this tiny village has been sucked into a moral panic…
Read More…said “publicly and definitely” that transsexual Catholics are ineligible. Indonesia: ‘When sexuality meets faith’ Diego García Rodríguez, writing in the current issue of Inside Indonesia, speaks with members of the Youth Interfaith Forum on Sexuality (YIFOS), which was created in the wake of two incidents in 2010. In one, a group of conservative Muslims occupied the hotel where an international LBGTI conference was scheduled, and in the second, c…
Read More…aria regulations imposed by the Aceh provincial government in northwestern Indonesia. Aceh is the only one of Indonesia’s 34 provinces that can legally adopt bylaws derived from Sharia… On September 27, 2014, Aceh’s provincial parliament approved bylaws that extend Sharia to non-Muslims, criminalizing consensual same-sex sexual acts as well as all zina (sexual relations outside of marriage). The criminal code permits as punishment up to 100 lashes…
Read More…d transphobia. The fact remains that there are prominent Muslim figures in Indonesia and overseas such as [Indonesian women’s rights activist] Dr. Siti Musdah Mulia and [Mayor of London] Sadiq Khan who strongly support LGBT+ rights.” Australia: Marriage mail ballot advances; Christian lobby, Muslim leaders urge no vote The long and ongoing political battle over marriage equality continues. Opposition leader Bill Shorten said he would hold Prime Mi…
Read More…LGBT people is unprecedented, Tang writes. Homosexuality is not illegal in Indonesia, though some politicians have called for criminalization of gay sex. Sexual and gender minorities in Indonesia have historically lived amid a tense calm, with tolerance and pluralism protecting them from violence and a sense that discretion brought safety, said Kyle Knight, LGBT rights researcher for New York-based Human Rights Watch. “What we’re seeing now may be…
Read More…nwhile, a school for trans women, which had “made headlines as a symbol of Indonesia’s religious pluralism,” has been shut down after protests by the Islamic Jihad Front. More from Feder and Hindryati: Until last month, anti-LGBT rhetoric was not a major feature of politics in Indonesia, which is home to more Muslims than any nation in the world. The country has long been home to a community of transgender women known as waria, and the school — wh…
Read More…g the ceremony. Bali is a popular wedding destination among Westerners but Indonesian law defines marriage as between a man and woman. According to a story from Australia’s News.com, In Indonesia, where marriage between couples of differing religion is also banned, many couples marry outside the law, meaning their union is not legal but is legitimate in the eyes of their families and friends. The controversy in this case is not the marriage itself…
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