Aceh, Indonesia's famously fundamentalist Islamic province, is known for the devastating tsunami of December 2004 that swept away the political past, and for a separatist civil war. But a new wave is heading for the beaches. Miss Aceh, Qori Sandioriva, born in Jakarta but with a mother from Aceh, has just won the Miss Indonesia contest and is going on to try for Miss World --in a bikini. But the headlines in the BBC and the Jewish and Israeli Blog Network "Qori Sandioriva Outrages Muslim Prudes" are based partly on hogwash, spin, and political opportunism that bring Islam into ridicule.
The Jakarta "concession" that introduced sharia law into Aceh during the separatist civil war was an unrequested political diversion from the anger of Acehnese at the way Jakarta stole their money, whilst Aceh stayed poor. This was the root. Not religion.The attempt to bring in stoning for adultery in Aceh was a belated act of political revenge in the last two weeks of a defeated parliament, using Islam to throw a spanner in the works of the incoming Aceh government and the second five-year term of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.The people who did this were undermining Aceh and Indonesian economic and social ambitions by playing political games with Islam to the detriment of the province, the nation and Islam itself. This was politics not piety. But the ulama, the Muslim scholars who interpret Islam's science, doctrines and laws, need some training on how not to fall down the political holes prepared for them, like the great hairy mammoth in history.
Those who relish in portraying the clash of civilizations in Aceh and bashing Arabs dug up the compliant cleric Teung-Ku Faisal Ali, secretary-general of the Ache Ulama Council, quoted by the BBC and by visiting Australian freelance journalist Antony Loewenstein. The unclever cleric dutifully said Qori should wear a veil during the beauty competition or "she would betray her Acehnese roots and bring shame to the province." Of course women in Aceh do not wear veils. He knows that. There must be better ways to make Islam more relevant in the modern world. Some of those who claim to be fundamentalists but are unconvincing, need more education to stop them letting Islam and Muslims down in this way. If they want more morality or social responsibility then they have to tackle corruption and poverty, and not divert attention by falling into sensationalism on other people´s terms.
Of course Qori could wear a veil with her bikini. Her smart mother, who already got her this far, might well come up with a nice design. Since she already used the Aceh issue, to get where she is going.Most provinces in the world would be overjoyed at the positive impact on tourism and inward investment if a local girl makes it to a world class beauty competition..Just after the recent attempt in Aceh at introducing stoning to death for adultery by the outgoing provincial parliament, the West Aceh Regent Ramli M.S, based in Meulaboh, then revealed his desperate urge to remove women's trousers by issuing a regulation that women found wearing tight trousers such as jeans will have them cut by sharia police and forced to wear loose-fitting attire as of January 1. Aceh politicians should stop kicking Islam around like a political football. And stop pretending they are wanting to do what Arabs do, since most Arabs don't do these things.
Indeed most Muslims don't wear veils, don't stone people to death and don't stop women from wearing jeans, so why pretend they are somehow copying global Islamic and Muslim culture to introduce these things into Indonesia ? And then allow others to mock Islam and Muslim culture as if these ideas were generally supported in the Muslim world, which they are not? There is no need to be the clown in some else's circus.
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