On June 20, there was a rally in London opposing the increasing use of sharia law in the UK. Sharia law poses a grave threat to all the freedoms that have been won through a long and hard struggle for democracy, social justice and equality.
In Indonesia, the abdication of civilian rule and constitutional rights in Aceh and the growing sharia-ization through bylaws in various regencies and municipalities in the rest of the country threatens all we have won through our freedom struggle, through revolution and through the democratic reformation post-Soeharto with a new Dark Age of bigotry and tyranny with men usurping the supposed authority of God.
The nightmare of Pakistan with its mass murder of "deviants" and the hangings in Iran for "crimes against chastity" should be warning enough for us to stop this slide into barbarity.
Rafiq Mahmood
Bogor, West Java
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