Indonesia, the largest archiepelago in the world

(photo by Karen Liao, Common Language China)

With an estimated total of 17,508 islands, Indonesia is the largest archiepelago in the world; with a population of around 238 million people it is also the fourth most populous country in the world. And to add record on record, the country is also host to the biggest Muslim population on the planet. Although Indonesia is broadly considered a moderate Muslim country and religious freedom is enshrined in the country's constitution, there is apparently a trend towards adopting laws inspired by Sharia at a local level. In addition to this there is one province, Aceh, on the island of Sumatra, which is totally governed by Sharia law.

Aceh became the theatre of a most vile violation of human rights in 2007 when a gay couple had their lodgings stormed into and was verbally abused and beaten by its neighbours who then proceeded to call the police to get them arrested. Once at the police station the nightmare reached higher levels when thy were submitted to torture at the hands of the very law enforcement officers.

In March 2010, an lgbt conference organized by ILGA Asia in Surabaya, East Java, had to be cancelled following threats from Islamic fundamelist groups coordinated by the Islamic Defenders Front. These protests apparently led to the Indonesian police denying permission for the conference, rather than safeguarding basic civil liberties and protecting the delegates' right to freedom of assembly and safety from harm. The hotel where the lgbt delegates were originally supposed to stay reneged on their word, following threats from the fundamentalists and a second hotel where the conference was moved to had the lobby invaded by protesters shouting abuse and threatening violence (see photo above). After fearing for their lives the delegates had to leave the hotel in small groups so as to avoid detection and stay in the city as tourists waiting for their flight back.

The Islamic Defenders Front hit the headlines again in September 2010 on the occasion of a gay film festival taking place in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta. It wasn't the first time the festival had been organized, but this time the increased publicity was possibly at the root of the unwanted attention, i.e. homophobic abuse and threats of burning down the venues where the films were being screened, had the festival not be cancelled. Some foreign cultural centres like the French and Japanese ones bowed to pressure and halted further screenings, whereas the German Goethe Institute apparently expressed the intention to go ahead with the schedule.

That an otherwise moderate Muslim country should be run by a group of Muslim hardliners who seem to call the shots and decide which cultural or social events should take place is a disgrace. These people should be treated like the thugs that they are for disrupting what may be controversial (in their view) but otherwise completely legitimate events. Police should have the obligation to safeguard organizers and public and secure the normal running of events and not be complicit with protesters/radical groups as was apparently the case in the protest against the lgbt conference earlier in the year (where policemen were seen conversing amicably with protesters). Indonesia need to prove that it is indeed a secular country not run by Sharia law and whose democratic life is not swayed by radical Muslims.