Under the new bylaw, homosexuality is also punishable by lengthy prison terms.

The controversial ordinance will take effect within 30 days for both Muslims and non-Muslims.

Your comments:
I thought sharia only applied to Muslims. That's what we were informed by Muslim leaders. Perhaps the law of contradiction does not apply when we talk about Islamic things. Or do these leaders operate with different laws of contradiction, which are not laws of contradiction?

Ma Kuru
Kupang

Death penalty by bylaw. That is taking autonomy too far. Aceh is no longer part of Indonesia. When are we going to see border posts and fences? Actually Indonesia as a unitary state no longer exists, with creeping sharia bylaws here, there and everywhere. I wonder if anyone has noticed.

Rafiq Mahmood
Bogor

Such a disgrace, this is worse than the New Order.

J.C.
Jakarta

A very sad day indeed for Aceh. This re-enactment of a medieval law in the name of religion is a step backward from a civilized world. However, the bylaw (jinayat) does not include theft, bribery or corruption as punishable crimes.

Instead adulterers, homosexuals, showing affection in public between unmarried couples become serious crimes punishable by death.

Are these religious hypocrites delirious? This is truly a religion rewritten by a few men with an agenda for their own benefit.

Religion should progress with time, but instead it has shifted into reverse gear.

The irony of all religious hypocrisies that this part of the world was actually wiped out by a tsunami. And aid from all over the world has poured in to rebuild Aceh while modern changes can make this place a truly livable province.

That vision is overshadowed by religious zealots who expect everyone in Aceh to live in the dark ages. Welcome to Little Saudi Arabia!

A.K.
Los Angeles, CA

First, Wahabi sharia laws in more than 40 regencies; then the outburst of joy when somebody told the Wahabi audience that there were no churches in Cilegon anymore; then the violent attacks on minorities with the authorities watching; then the absurd fatwa of the Wahabi-infiltrated MUI against yoga and pluralism, but none against corruption or Wahabism.

Followed by clerics who "understand" bombers and condone violent jihad but are free; then Wahabi groups terrorizing normal people; then Wahabis joining the government; then more than 50 million jilbab already across the whole archipelago; and finally the icing on the cake: stoning for adulterers in Aceh, the first huge step to the Stone Age for a future Wahabi Indonesia.

And nobody is going to the streets to protest against such an appalling involution toward a Taliban state. Never ever again dare anybody to tell me about peace and tolerance. Never!

Edo E.
Jakarta

Thank God! If hudud (fixed punishment) is practiced in Aceh, I want to migrate there!

Aatif
Perak, Malaysia

What a surprise: corruption, theft and bribery are excluded from this local ordinance.

So while ordinary people have their attention focused on the minutia of other people's private lives, they will be too busy to notice what their leaders are up to.

David
Jakarta

I told Indonesians, the country is being eaten by religion. Stop religions now, they are lying to you. Religion should be about love. If it is about hate, stop religion now.

John Sharp
Bangkok

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