Tag Archives: Indonesia

Reuters reports: Police in Indonesia’s most populous province plan to deploy a taskforce to investigate lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) activity, a move likely to fuel concerns of a widening crackdown on the community in the Muslim-majority country. West Java police chief Anton Charliyan disclosed the plan on Tuesday as two gay men in the province of Aceh were …

ABC News reports: Two men in Indonesia’s Aceh province were publicly caned dozens of times Tuesday for consensual gay sex, a punishment that intensifies an anti-gay backlash in the world’s most populous Muslim country and which rights advocates denounced as “medieval torture.” More than a thousand people packed the courtyard of a mosque to witness the caning, which was the …

The Associated Press reports: Indonesian police detained dozens of men including several foreigners in a weekend raid on a gay sauna in the capital, another sign of growing hostility to homosexuality in the world’s most populous Muslim nation. Police spokesman Argo Yuwono said 141 men were detained for questioning in the raid Sunday evening on the gym and sauna in …

The Jakarta Post reports: Along with a group of hard-liners, the Pancoran Police arrested 13 men on Saturday night at an apartment block in South Jakarta for allegedly holding “a sex party”. Despite no strong evidence that the men had committed any crime, around 50 members of the Islam Defenders Front (FPI) barged into an apartment in the Kalibata City …

J. Lester Feder reports at Buzzfeed: A group of academics and activists urged the Constitutional Court of Indonesia to criminalize fornication and homosexuality on Tuesday in the latest hearing of a lawsuit that began earlier this year. The suit, which has been brought by 12 academics and activists, has already had several hearings, but captured international attention earlier this month …

From the Jakarta Post: Apparently under pressure to take preventive measures against the spread of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) propaganda through the internet, the Communications and Information Ministry is drafting a bill to ban websites that promote such activities. Ministry spokesperson Ismail Cawidu said the ministry had set up a panel that would meet to discuss the matter …

Indonesia’s crackdown on its LGBT population continues. Gay Star News reports: Indonesia has banned men from behaving effeminately or dressing in women’s clothing on TV. The Indonesian Broadcasting Commission (KPI) issued a directive Tuesday (23 February) after receiving complaints from viewers. The directive specifically banned: Men wearing feminine fashion. Men wearing feminine make-up. Feminine body language exhibited by men, including, …

Things just continue to get worse in Indonesia. J. Lester Feder reports at Buzzfeed: On Friday, Indonesia’s former Information and Communications Minister Tifatul Sembering, tweeted, “A saying of the Prophet [Mohamed]: Whomever you find committing the acts of the community of Lot (homosexual) should be put to death.” Sembering is now a member of Parliament from the Islamist Prosperous Justice …

Coconuts Jakarta reports: We seriously do think that Indonesian politicians are competing to see who can say the craziest, most scaremongering thing possible about LGBT issues. After Defense Minister Ryamizard Ryacudu recently declared that the pro-LGBT movement was more dangerous than nuclear warfare, today we have Tangerang Mayor Arief Wismansyah saying that feeding your baby canned milk and instant noodles …

Coconuts Jakarta reports: The climate of moral panic over LGBT rights in Indonesia is really getting scary now. With messaging app LINE having been intimidated into pulling their pro-LGBT stickers in Indonesia and the government pushing Whatsapp and Facebook to follow suit, several prominent Indonesian politicians are now pushing for the government to block all websites containing pro-LGBT content. “As …

Last fall Russian police launched an investigation into whether Apple’s so-called “gay emojis” violate the national ban on gay propaganda. Yesterday Indonesia asked Facebook to block them entirely. TIME reports: Indonesian authorities on Thursday said they would ask Facebook and its popular messaging service WhatsApp, to block subscribers from using emojis and stickers with LGBT themes. Ismail Cawidu, spokesperson at …

The Jakarta Globe reports: The country’s LGBT community has long faced discrimination, and even physical violence. New to that list, though, is the threat of death sanctioned by the Indonesian Council of Ulema, or MUI, the country’s highest Islamic clerical body. On March 4, the MUI issued a fatwa, or edict, proposing punishments ranging from caning to the death penalty …

(Via Christian Nightmares)

Via the Los Angeles Times: Searchers recovered bodies from the Java Sea on Tuesday and found what officials said wreckage from Indonesia AirAsia Flight 8501 as the three-day mystery over the plane’s whereabouts reached a heartbreaking resolution for the families of 162 people aboard. “I am absolutely devastated,” Tony Fernandes, AirAsia’s chief executive, said in a statement. “This is a …

Via USA Today: The fate of an AirAsia Indonesia jet that disappeared Sunday over the Java Sea with 162 people aboard remained a mystery more than 16 hours after it disappeared in violent weather, authorities said.Flight QZ8501 was bound for Singapore from Surabaya, Indonesia, when it lost contact with air traffic control at about 7:24 a.m. (6:24 p.m. ET on …

The provincial legislature in Aceh has approved the bill calling for 100 public lashes with a cane for those convicted of homosexuality. Aceh is the only part of the majority-Muslim nation that is allowed to implement Islamic sharia law and already carries out public canings for gambling, drinking alcohol and fraternising with the opposite sex outside of marriage. The law …

In May 2013 the deputy mayor of the capital city of Indonesia’s Aceh province proposed criminalizing homosexuality with a punishment of one hundred public lashings with a cane. Yesterday that law was presented to the provincial legislature. Aceh is the only part of the world’s biggest Muslim-majority nation to enforce Islamic sharia law and has been slowly implementing it since …

The deputy mayor of the capital city of Indonesia’s Aceh province has called for criminalizing homosexuality with a punishment of one hundred public lashings with a cane. The Jakarta Globe reports: Banda Aceh Deputy Mayor Illiza Sa’aduddin Djamal called homosexuality “a social disease that should be eradicated,” as she pushed for harsher bylaws against sexual behavior that runs counter to …

The government of Indonesia has told local pharmaceutical companies that they may ignore international patents on several HIV medications. Reuters reports: President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono quietly issued a decree last month authorizing government use of patents for seven HIV/AIDS and hepatitis B medicines held by the likes of Merck & Co, GlaxoSmithKline, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Abbott and Gilead. The international trade …

CNN reports: Islamists and conservative Muslims have decried Lady Gaga’s upcoming concert, saying her revealing costumes and sensual dance moves are forbidden by Islamic law. The chairman of the Islamic Defenders Front, Habib Rizieq, said his group could not guarantee security if the concert were held. Indonesia has the largest Muslim population in the world. In March, the pop star …