Punk Rockers In Indonesia Detained For Rehabilitation Have Mohawks Shaved

Who would have thought Indonesians were into punk-rock and mohawks.  I certainly had no idea that you could find a punk-rock concert in a country with the world's largest population of Muslims. Granted, most of Indonesia is considered to be relatively moderate and secular, with a constitution that allows for freedom of religion- though only 6 major religions are actually recognized by the government and persecution of non-Muslims is still rampant.  But there are provinces in Indonesia that are ultra conservative, like Banda Aceh, where punk rockers might exist, piercings and all, but they're definitely not tolerated, and often harassed. Here, in Banda Aceh, many modern Western things are considered un-Islamic, including body piercings and mohawks. 

Now, I find excessive body piercing unappealing and mohawks gape-worthy, but the Shariah police in Banda Aceh decided they needed to take action against a bunch of punk rockers at a concert they raided on Saturday. Out of a 100 or so fans, they singled out 59 male and 5 female punk rockers who were taken to a police detention center where the police shaved the mohawks off the men, chopped off the women's hair, confiscated their piercing bling, and stripped them of their "disgusting" clothing. They were then shoved into water for "spiritual" cleansing. According to police chief Iskandar Hasan, they were also given a tooth brush and were told to "use it". What for? Who knows.

The poor kids will spend 10 days at the center,

 for rehabilitation, training in military-style discipline and religious classes, including Qur'an recitation.

Of course, Hasan sees nothing wrong with his actions.

"We're not torturing anyone," the police chief said. "We're not violating human rights. We're just trying to put them back on the right moral path."

Nur Kholis, a national human commissioner would beg to differ, since no crime had been committed, and he insists that the police explain what laws might have been broken.

"Otherwise, they violated people's right of gathering and expression," Kholis said, promising to investigate.

When Shariah is the law of the land, as it is in Aceh, the police don't have to prove anything, and people's rights will continue to be violated.

Was There Really A Muslim Fatwa Aimed At Women Against Bananas and Cucumbers?

There have been some pretty asinine fatwas issued over the years by Muslim imams who have never evolved out of 6th century-thinking.  I've made fun of them all, but I questioned the most recent one allegedly made by some European cleric who said women should stay away from cucumbers, bananas and any other phallic-shaped fruits or veggies, for the rather obvious reasons. Admittedly, I groaned at first even though the source was the mainstream though non-liberal Fox News, but they too had questions about its validity. As it turns out, after a little research, the veracity of the banana ban is questionable, at best. 

Muna Khan over at al Arabiya claims that the information regarding the origins of said fatwa is unverifiable. It seems it's a question of one news site referencing another, with no verifiable source.  According to Khan:

"Egyptian newspaper Bikya Masr on Thursday which was quoting the website El-Senousa in which an unnamed cleric in Europe said that women shouldn’t touch fruit/vegetables like bananas, cucumbers, carrots and courgettes because they resembled male genitalia.



The only way women could eat these fruit was if there presented to them by “a third party, preferably a male related to them such as their father or husband should cut the items into small pieces and serve it to them” the newspaper quotes the cleric as saying. "

The problem is, no-one knows who this bozo cleric is nor can they find the original article on El-Senousa that Bikya Masr used as its source. 

This kind of  nonsense isn't beyond the realm of believability, considering past religious fatwas, but until we get a definitive source behind the ban, I'll just thank someone for the good laugh. Although I wouldn't be at all surprised if it were true.

UPDATE:
I think this might be the source article on assawsana.com but it's in Arabic, and the bing translator doesn't clarify much.

Photo source: Banana Museum

Australian Man Sentenced to 500 Lashes and Jail For Blasphemy In Saudi Arabia

So 45-year-old Australian Mansor Almaribe took the mandatory pilgrimage to Mecca this past November to fulfill one of the five pillars of Islam. Every good Muslim is expected to take that trek (Hajj) at least once in his/her lifetime as long as he/she is physically able to, and can afford to spend those 6 days away from home.

Now, one would think as a devout Muslim (and he appears to be if you look at the photo of his hijab-covered daughter) that this would be the highlight of his spiritual life, but his journey to Mecca turned out to be a nightmare when he was arrested in Medina for, of all things, blasphemy.  He was accused of  "...insulting companions of the prophet Mohammed", whatever the heck that means, since no-one is acknowledging what exactly it was that he said or did to warrant being charged.  But Almaribe was arrested by those infamous religious virtue and vice police on November 14th while reading and praying with a group of other pious ones. Perhaps he was the 'wrong kind' of Muslim, which can land you in trouble in any Muslim-majority country, but I can't begin to imagine what else it might be, since he was doing what all good Muslims do, praying. 

So, for all his efforts to fulfill one of his Islamic duties, traveling almost 8,000 miles from Shepparton, Victoria  to Makkah, Almaribe was just sentenced to 500 lashes and a year in jail. Originally, he was to spend 2 years in prison, but out of the kindness of  the Saudi court's heart the sentence was reduced to a mere one year for this terrible thing he said or did that was deemed blasphemous.

The father of five (from 2 to 24) has some major health issues and his family doesn't " think he'd survive 50."  Apparently the Australian Embassy will try to intercede on his behalf.  Good luck with that.

I wonder what he thinks of Saudi Arabia and his religion now?

Sources:  The Australian, BBC