Jakarta – A perception that local governments in Indonesia have been introducing sharia or Islamic laws at an escalating rate is misplaced, an expert on political Islam said here Thursday.

International and national fears have flared in the past year over what has been portrayed as a proliferation of restrictive Islamic local laws in the world's most populous Muslim nation.

No comprehensive data exists, but political Islam expert Robin Bush, from the Asia Foundation, said her own research found just 78 regulations in 52 districts or municipalities were in force.

Nearly half of those fell into a category of "anti-vice", covering issues such as prostitution, gambling and alcohol that were "morality" laws most Indonesians support, she said. The remainder covered strictly Muslim issues such as wearing Muslim clothing, studying the Koran and alms-giving.

Twenty-three of these bylaws were passed in 2003, down to 15 in 2004, six in 2006 and none this year, Bush said. "The idea of a creeping 'sharia-isation' is just not being borne out," Bush told a panel discussion on political Islam.

A few years ago, bupatis (local district heads) and governors were "playing the Islam card" by passing restrictive laws, but ahead of 2009 elections, "the political winds are moving in the opposite direction now," she said. "You'll find mayors and bupatis backpedalling off support" for such laws, she added.

Yenny Wahid, secretary-general of Indonesia's largest Islamic party, the National Awakening Party (PKB), agreed that so-called "sharia-isation" was "not as dangerous as perceived in the beginning of the process."

But she said she still believed there was a shift towards conservatism, with "more and more people (outside Jakarta) donning or taking the identity of being a pious Muslim."

Wahid said that Islamic parties in Indonesia, where nearly 90 percent of the population of some 232 million people practise a very tolerant form of Islam, were at a crossroads.

"The way I see it is there is some kind of ambiguity among the Islamist political parties – at least this is what's happening in my party. We are at a juncture at which we have to decide which way we go," she said. She said there was a push for the parties "to come more into the middle ground rather than staying on the right, and we see this from the rhetoric of the leaders of the parties." But she said some voices within her own party were urging it to "go back to the right rather than staying in the middle."

The Asia Foundation's Bush also cited data showing that Islamic parties had not fared well at hundreds of local elections held since 2005 as part of a process of decentralisation, unless they formed coalitions with other parties. "The take-home message is the sky is not falling," Bush said.