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Rape case puts sharia police in difficult position
A group of sharia police personnel unusually just sit in the back of a pick-up patrol vehicle while making the rounds in downtown Banda Aceh, Aceh province, on Monday
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group of sharia police personnel unusually just sit in the back of a pick-up patrol vehicle while making the rounds in downtown Banda Aceh, Aceh province, on Monday.
No raid is conducted that day at beauty salons or other public places considered prone to sharia (Islamic law) violations. No stern actions are taken or arrests made that day.
“We are decreasing the intensity of raids these days,” Aminah, the spokeswoman for the Banda Aceh female sharia police force, said.
The credibility of sharia police in the province has been completely, and rightly, destroyed following the rape of a university student by three sharia police officers last week.
“Because of this case we don’t dare warn or advise people in violation of sharia law. They will fight back and insult us if we do so. It’s better to keep a low profile at the moment,” Aminah said.
The student was raped on Jan. 8 when she was detained at the sharia police’s detention center in Langsa. The Aceh police have arrested two of the rapists. The third suspect is still at large.
Aminah said the rape case had put the sharia police in Langsa in a difficult position, especially when they had to deal with violators. “We’re seen as hypocritical when we ‘give advice’ as we cannot even control our own morals,” she said.
Critics have called on the provincial administration to dissolve the sharia police, arguing the force’s existence only destroyed and damaged the good image of the implementation of Islamic law in Aceh.
“It’s a waste of money. We’re not even sure why the sharia police was established in the first place,” Taf Haikal, an activist in Banda Aceh, said.
He said sharia police only had the authority to monitor the implementation of sharia law and advise violators.
“If the [provincial] administration is serious about implementing Islamic law, they should let the [secular] police do the monitoring,” he said.
This, he added, could be done by recruiting police personnel who have a background in sharia. Such personnel, he said, would more effectively monitor the implementation of sharia as they had a strong legal basis in upholding the law.
The same demand to abolish sharia police has also been expressed through Internet social networking sites such as a Facebook page to ban sharia police in Aceh that has gathered support from more than a million armchair activists.
The alliance of community caring for woman’s rights strongly condemned the rape, calling it torture and a crime against humanity.
Norma Manalu, the head of the women and children’s division of the coalition of Aceh human rights NGOs, said sharia police did not have the right to detain anyone.
Quoting an article from the 2002 Qanun (bylaw) on the implementation of Islamic sharia, Norma said if a violation of sharia law occurred, the sharia police only had the authority to warn and advise violators.
If no change in attitude is shown by the violators, the sharia police can, at most, refer the case to the police. “They don’t have the right to detain violators,” Norma said.
“This means that detention by sharia police of a person alleged to have violated sharia law is against prevailing laws, which take precedence,” she added.
