Indo punks targeted by religious police

From the ABC News Website

Punk's not dead, it's just gone to moral rehab

December 15, 2011

Photo: An Indonesian police woman cuts the hair of a

detained female punk. (AFP: Chaideer Mahyuddin )

Indonesian sharia police are "morally rehabilitating" more than 60 young punk rock fans in Aceh province on Sumatra island, saying the youths are tarnishing the province's image.

Since being arrested at a punk rock concert in the provincial capital Banda Aceh on Saturday night, 59 male and five female punk rock fans have been forced to have their hair cut, bathe in a lake, change clothes and pray.

"We feared that the Islamic sharia law implemented in this province will be tainted by their activities," Banda Aceh deputy mayor Illiza Sa'aduddin Djamal, who ordered the arrests, said.

"We hope that by sending them to rehabilitation they will eventually repent."

Hundreds of Indonesian punk fans came from around the country to attend the concert, organised to raise money for orphans.

Police stormed the venue and arrested fans sporting mohawks, tattoos, tight jeans and chains, who were on Tuesday taken to a nearby town to undergo a 10-day moral rehabilitation camp run by police.


Full Story:   http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-12-14/punk-rockers-rehabilitated-under-islamic-law/3731442

The right thing to do

From the ABC News website


Bishop overturns school snub of lesbian couple
By Natalie Whiting

Updated December 14, 2011 11:47:38


A bishop has intervened to overturn a Catholic primary school's decision to refuse to enrol a lesbian couple's daughter.

The couple, who do not want to be identified, had tried to enrol their child at Sacred Heart Primary School at Broken Hill in far western New South Wales.

They say the principal told them their relationship was the reason the application had been turned down.

The acting bishop for the Wilcannia-Forbes diocese, Kevin Manning, says he is appalled by that decision.

"There's no way in the world one can penalise a child for what his or her parents do," he said.

"To penalise a five year old child because her parents are living in a homosexual relationship is just quite wrong and I've been in touch with both the school principal and also the parish priests."


Full Story:   http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-12-14/bishop-overturns-school-snub-of-lesbian-couple/3730738


Unfortunately, the bishop responsible for the change isn't clearly identified in the story.


15% percent of the funding of a school doesn't "buy" you the right to inflict your own personal or religious bigotry onto others. And if you think that whole concept of "buying" an opportunity to discriminate is abhorrent in the first place, you're not alone.

Evolution of an intersection

Submitted by John

From the World Policy Blog

The Long and Winding Road to Secular Democracy

By Nick Danforth

December 9, 2011 - 11:15am 

Following the electoral success of Islamist parties in Tunisia and Egypt, a vexing question is once again in the news: how can Islam and democracy healthily coexist? Unfortunately, debates over the importance and difficulty of separating "mosque and state" often become confused by the obvious (if seldom stated) comparison: the evolution of secularism in Christian Europe.

After a decade's worth of arguing, everyone seems happy to stick to their rival assumptions about Christianity and Islam— Some people take it for granted that Christianity was always more secular, some find this idea too ridiculous to even discuss.

But assumptions have dangers. Those who only see the fundamental differences between Islam and Christianity too often conclude that if democracy cannot prevail in the Muslim Middle East, autocracy might be a safer choice. Those who follow their (usually reliable) instinct to focus on the similarities, however, often cannot explain the success of Islamist parties as anything other than a reaction to secular autocracy. Seeing the counter-intuitive chain of events that led to secular democracy in Europe will help both sides better appreciate the challenge facing the Middle East.

There really was an important historical difference between church-state relations in the Christian and Islamic worlds— but certainly not because Christianity itself was any more secular than Islam. Rather, the separation of church and state in Europe took shape from the unique institution of the Vatican, and its millennia-long fight against the separation of church and state. In fact, for years the only thing church leaders and their monarchical counterparts agreed on was that church and state should be united. They just disagreed over who should be holding the reins. And this fight for power kept church and state at odds.


Full article:   http://www.worldpolicy.org/blog/2011/12/09/long-and-winding-road-secular-democracy

One step forward

From the ABC News website

Queensland passes civil unions bill

Updated December 01, 2011 07:45

'Blow against prejudice' - Anna Bligh addresses a gay rights rally

before the vote (AAP: Toby Mann)

The Queensland Parliament has joined Victoria, Tasmania and the ACT in passing legislation recognising same-sex civil partnerships.

As expected, the Opposition voted against the bill as did most independent MPs.

Labor MPs were allowed a conscience vote and four voted against the legislation, but the final result was not as close as expected with a margin of 47 votes to 40.

Inside Parliament, Premier Anna Bligh reflected the views of a majority of her party.

"The bill that is before the Parliament is a bill that seeks to strike a blow against prejudice and strike a blow against discrimination," she said.

Health Minister Geoff Wilson, who initially said he would support the bill, was one of the Labor MPs who voted against the bill.

"The more I have thought about it, about what I personally believe according to my faith, unfortunately I can't support the bill," he said.

Another Labor MP, Michael Choi, was the first to tell Parliament he would not support the legislation.

"This is by far the hardest legislation for the last 10 years I've had to work on," he said.

"I struggled and have argued with myself over and over, but at the end I could not support this bill.

"My conscience does not allow me to go further. I wanted to but I could not."

Mr Choi also thanked Ms Bligh for allowing MPs to make up their own minds.


Full Story:   http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-12-01/queensland-parliament-passes-same-sex-bill/3705444


Congratulations, QLD ! The spotlight on bigotry just got considerably brighter. Well done.

Perhaps Health Minister Geoff Wilson and those other community representatives that voted similarly, need to consider that their government positions aren't pulpits, and the work they do in those positions is not an acceptable opportunity for them to legislate their personal beliefs onto others. Politicians need to represent all of their constituents, not just the majority of them, and so should act accordingly.