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Life no better with sharia bylaws: Survey


Most Indonesians support the enactment of sharia bylaws even though they know ordinances already in place in several regencies have failed to improve social welfare, a survey has found."People's welfare remains the same as it was before the sharia bylaws were enforced," said the survey report. The survey and its report was being discussed in a workshop in Cisarua, Bogor, West Java, on Thursday. Some regions have enacted sharia bylaws despite warnings the legislation deprives the civil rights of women and non-Muslims.


In cooperation with Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, the research was conducted by the Center for the Study of Religion and Culture (CSRC) under Jakarta's State Islamic University in six regencies. Each regency had implemented sharia-inspired ordinances between August 2006 and October 2007, including Bireun in Aceh, Tasikmalaya and Indramayu in West Java, Bulukumba in South Sulawesi, Bima in West Nusa Tenggara, and Tangerang in Banten province. The survey involved 1,000 respondents including 200 non-Muslims and showed 44.5 percent of Muslims said the bylaws did not improve the economy of regional populations, as it had been intended to.


"In Bireun, the tourist sector has been drastically declining after the local authorities enforced canning punishments for adultery and alcoholism," CSRC researcher Syukran Kamil said. Some 27.7 percent of the Bireun respondents said their economy had worsened but 26.4 percent said their welfare had improved thanks to the bylaws. However, the ordinances received the support of 94.7 percent of respondents, who said they believed said bylaws were needed as a "way-out" from the numerous problems facing the nation.


Support also came from almost half (46 percent) of non-Muslim respondents. "The main reason for their approval is because (Muslim and non-Muslim) respondents said they believed sharia is part of a religious duty," Syukran said. The findings confirmed an earlier survey by the UIN's Center for Community and Islamic Studies conducted between 2001 and 2004, which recorded an approval rate of more than 70 percent for sharia laws. Political Islam scholars Azyumardi Azra and Noorhaidi Hasan said they were not surprised with the high approval rate for the ordinances. Muslims in general would say "yes" if asked whether they agreed sharia should be enforced in the country, Azyumardi said. But he said if respondents had been asked specific questions, including if they would support hudud (harsh Islamic criminal law), which is part of sharia, "their answers would be totally different". He said those in support of sharia bylaws believed sharia was "a panacea for social ills including gambling and prostitution".


Azyumardi, Noorhaidi and Catholic scholar Daniel Dakidae said the survey was "comprehensive" . The survey also found Indonesian non-Muslims are more tolerant than Muslims. Most Muslim respondents would reject churches and other un-Islamic places of worships built in their neighborhood and refused to send their children to non-Muslim schools. But most non-Muslim respondents were found to have no problem with the establishment of mosques at their doorstep.

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