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Sharia bylaws illogical, unnecessary: Experts
The enforcement of many sharia-based ordinances in the country has been denounced by several legal experts as a violation of basic human rights
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The enforcement of many sharia-based ordinances in the country has been denounced by several legal experts as a violation of basic human rights.
Expressing support for new Constitutional Court chief Moh. Mahfud M.D., law experts on Sunday called for the revocation of the bylaws, saying they breached human rights articles enshrined in the Constitution.
Constitutional law expert Irman Putra Sidin said the ordinances were against the Constitution not because of their Islamic values, but because they restricted the basic rights of citizens.
"The sharia-based ordinance prohibiting women from going outside at night in Tangerang, for instance, has clearly limited women's rights to conduct activities," he said.
The court, however, ruled in favor of the Tangerang mayor after a woman arrested under the bylaw challenged the ordinance.
Last Friday, Mahfud, in his second day on the job, said the sharia-based regional ordinances were a threat to national integrity and discriminated against minority groups.
Irman said not only did the bylaws go against the Constitution, but most of them were also adopted without proper research on whether the public needed such ordinances.
"In the Tangerang case, we don't know if it's really urgent for people there to have a bylaw prohibiting women from going outside at night," he said.
"Did the administration conduct research to prove incidents of rape increased if women went out at night? Do they have facts to support the bylaw? Isn't it true rapes occur mostly in broad daylight rather than at night?"
The truth was, he said, many bylaws were not supported by sufficient data or even any data at all, and hence were illogical from a legal standpoint and completely unnecessary.
Law expert Frans H. Winarta supported Mahfud's statements on the danger of sharia-based ordinances to national integration.
"We are a pluralist nation. It is ironic to see discrimination within our territory, because we fought together for independence and national development," he said.
He called on the Justice and Human Rights Ministry, Home Ministry and Religious Affairs Ministry to conduct hearings to consider immediate revocation of the bylaws.
Constitutional expert Romli Atmasasmita, however, argued the government studied the bylaws case by case before deciding to revoke them.
"Only bylaws deemed a violation of human rights can be scrapped. In this case, a sharia-based bylaw which affects non-Muslims goes against human rights and should be revoked," he said.
Dozens of regions have enacted sharia bylaws despite warnings the ordinances could deprive women and non-Muslims of their civil rights.
The government has pledged to review 37 sharia-based ordinances in force in several regions across the country which have been dubbed discriminatory and in violation of higher existing laws.
These bylaws include requiring Koran literacy for students and brides, enforcing Islamic dress code on Muslim women and skewed anti-prostitution regulations that punish only women and not men.
Critics say many of the ordinances were drafted by unqualified people, with no transparency or public participation, and aimed solely at wooing Muslim voters.
