Indonesian Lesbian Couple Forcibly Separated

By Trudy Ring

Sharia police

In the Indonesian province of Aceh, authorities have forced a lesbian couple to have their marriage annulled and sign a separation agreement — but their local police chief told them they really deserve beheading.

The women, whose names were not revealed, were married legally by an Islamic cleric a few months ago, with one of them passing as a man, the BBC reports. Neighbors suspected they were both women, however, and reported them to police in the province, which enforces some aspects of Muslim Sharia law.

The two are now living with their families and under surveillance. The local police chief told them that Islam called for them to be beheaded and burned, but the province has yet to put such penalties into law.

While Indonesia has the world’s largest Muslim population, Aceh is the only province that is allowed to implement Sharia, the religion’s legal code. It has yet to adopt any provisions dealing with homosexuality, which is legal but frowned upon in the nation. Two years ago the provincial parliament passed legislation authorizing the death penalty for adultery and caning for homosexuality, but the governor refused to sign it.

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Reader Comments

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Name: Matt
Date posted: 8/28/2011 5:49:35 PM
Hometown: Denver

Comment:
@Joseph; I whole heartedly agree that no religion should be in control of government. Separation of church and state is essential to having a decent life for anyone, religious or not. However, there is a still a fundamental difference. Particularly in Christianity, when someone commits a heinous act of judgement against another they are not acting in accordance with actual historical doctrine but the misinterpretation of it. This is a significant reason Europe rose out of the dark ages and some other nations are still in it, and want to drag the rest back with them. As the educational system improved in Europe so did more intelligent behavior, that was actually in accordance with actual doctrine. One of the reasons we have so many nut jobs in this country masquerading as Christians lately only proves what studies have shown, they actually do not know anything about the religion they pretend to represent. But not a big surprise after decades of educational budget cuts. No religion is good, they are all based on more fancy than fact, but pretending there is no difference is inviting problems as Europe is learning very rapidly. Tolerance only works on those that can actually practice it in return. At least with Christians you can argue with them based on their own religion and likely win the argument if they are willing to learn.
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Name: Joseph
Date posted: 8/27/2011 2:59:14 PM
Hometown: Montgomery, AL

Comment:
@Tom: Stop the Islam-bashing. The US and Canada wouldn't fare any better under the "caring" guidance of a Christian theocracy. The only difference is that the Christian theocrat wannabes know they won't get any mainstream support if their true feelings about LGBTs were publicized. But once they get into power, they wouldn't hesitate to institute "round up the gays" policies. (It's also worth noting that there doesn't seem to be any Jew-bashing, even though Orthodox Jewish in Israel worked WITH Muslim leaders to fight LGBT rights.) It never ceases to amaze me how the biggest Islam bashers invariably are the biggest supporters of "America is a Christian nation" nonsense. Tolerance does NOT exist anywhere that religion is in control.
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Name: Tom
Date posted: 8/26/2011 6:06:19 PM
Hometown: Winnipeg

Comment:
Those sick, primitive religious zombies! Unfortunately, every civilized country is allowing them in. They will sooner or later find out what a terrible mistake they have made.

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