‘Creeping Shariah,’ Warns Prof. Muhammed, As Jakarta Dims!


‘Creeping shariah!’ 

That’s how an Indonesian Professor of Islamic Studies, named Muhammed Ali, describes the demented decree against beer sales in minimarts, which we have railed about before.

Bali Beer Ban Looms – Why Pander to Intolerance? 

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Luckily for the Prof, he teaches at the University of California. Otherwise he might be at risk of unwelcome attention from the IslamoNazi thug gangs. The same sectarian louts we’ve shown you before but show you again today.

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  • The same bigot hoodlums whose violence taints both the creed they claim to represent and the reputation of this otherwise lovely country. Their hooligan antics were mentioned by one of Jakarta’s senior Islamic ‘scholars,’ Amidhan, when he said –

Islamist ‘Scholars’ – “Don’t Complain if You’re Attacked!” 

Amidhan-MUI-2011 Amidhan

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Nor is Amidhan the only one of his kind who thinks like that.

Islamist ‘Scholars’ Disown Thuggery – But We Gotta Behave! 

Thanks be the real Muslim scholar-man in California takes a more perceptive view of what’s going on. 

“This is creeping shariah, slow but steady, using legal and constitutional means,” said Ali. 

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  • The Jakarta Globe blames President Jokowi, since this intolerant diktat runs counter to the pro-business messages he presented while campaigning for office last year.

But it’s not only intolerant!

It’s heedless of its consequences, driving otherwise law-abiding people to seek out more accessible, and cheaper, alternatives, the hooch that kills, sold in back-street dives. The Jakarta Globe quotes Diageo chief executive Ivan Menezes – “There is also the risk of illicit alcohol growing again, and that is in nobody’s interest.”

But who’s concerned in the corridors of power?

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Rachmat Gobel

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The above very well-fed man is the Minister who issued the diktat, and it sounds like he has a low opinion of us foreigners –   “Tourism is not a problem. Do we want to protect Indonesian citizens or tourists?”

A rational government would wish to protect both, I’d have thought.

Anyway, Gobel evidently has not much interest in giving his fellow-citizens the right to shop for a cold beer on a hot day! Like today, tonight even, and I have just finished the second bottle whilst relaxing at home – no need to go out, after two seriously enjoyable parties during the week! 

We can still go shopping for our ale, to the big hypermarkets, but that can be a lengthy trek. It’s much easier to walk five mins to Indomaret or Alfamart.

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bc4fa-malciputragrogol Mal Ciputra aka Citraland

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Curiously, I was in Mal Ciputra earlier today, searching vigorously in the Hero store for a couple of bottles to enjoy with my tv viewing tonight. It used to be found beside the soft drinks and similar stuff, but no longer.

I had to ask an assistant. She pointed to the area behind the cashier in the corner, and there was the beer, segregated beside the cigarettes, a sanctum of sin. 

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prohibition_

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Thus the bright, lively city of Jakarta grows dimmer.

Hard to understand why the government wants to make a cheerful nation gloomy, but I guess there are electoral debts owed.

However, there are grounds for optimism, albeit in unsatisfactory ways, according to an English academic, who of course doesn’t live here in Indonesia, and, while aware of the vigilante terrorism, perhaps underestimates its pervasive nature. He reckons that old-fashioned sloppy enforcement and corruption will see us through. 

“This is purely the politics of symbols,” he said.

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  • But in most cases, the poor little minimarts have already stopped selling. I tried three minimarts along Fatmawati a month or more ago, to get a carry-out for a party – no joy!
  • Scared of raids by rabids?
  • The white-shirt boot-boys are rarely arrested by the cops – inexplicably, after around twenty officers were injured in an IslamoNazi riot in downtown Jakarta late last year – and there are a lot of those white-shirt rats crawling around the city gutters.  .

Those of us who had hoped SBY’s departure from the State Palace and the inauguration of Jokowi would mean an end to IslamoNazi intimidation are undergoing an agonising reappraisal of our optimism.

http://thejakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/business/beer-today-gone-tomorrow-indonesia-targets-sales-ale/