Abdul Khalik, Jakarta – A Canadian Muslim intellectual has questioned whether the rise of sharia-based ordinances in Indonesia has been driven by a desire for harmony and people's welfare or political gain.

Anver M. Emon, a sharia and law expert at the University of Toronto in Canada, who is visiting Jakarta as part of a tour of Southeast Asia, said Thursday that while in a democratic country like Indonesia voice for sharia should be accommodated, its application brought questions, such as whose sharia interpretations should be used, and whether it was necessary for the people as a whole or just being used for narrow political purposes.

"Should we just take the old sharia, and apply it directly? And if we should adapt it to a pluralistic society like here in Indonesia, how can we do it? Is it necessary at all for raising harmony and people's well-being?" he said in an interview with The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

Due to endless disputes over the concept of sharia, there is no single, united perception among Muslims of what sharia is, what its content is or how it should be applied, Emon said. He said that he was afraid that sharia was only used by certain politicians or groups to attract voters in regional and national polls.

Since the fall of Soeharto and the passage of the autonomy law, a number of regencies have fully or partly adopted sharia-inspired bylaws, and several others have indicated that they plan to follow suit.

Most of these bylaws are to be found in regencies in provinces such as Aceh, West Java, West Sumatra and South Sulawesi. Other provinces where bylaws might be passed at the regency level are Banten, East Java and South Kalimantan, where Islam has a strong cultural foundation.

Many have raised concerns that the passage of sharia-inspired bylaws will be a threat to social harmony, create tension among Muslims and non-Muslims and violate human rights.

Emon, who has talked with religious and political leaders in Jakarta and Tangerang, said that the application of sharia also brought complications, as while certain groups among Muslims wanted the application of sharia, other Muslims preferred secular legislation, and rejected a rigid application of the laws.

Emon said that beside relations among Muslims, the application of sharia also required a decision on the place of non-Muslims in the legislation's framework so as not to sideline their basic rights and create social disharmony.

"In Tangerang, for instance, they said that they wanted to apply sharia primarily to guard their children's morality. But how can you legislate morality? It should be done through education," he said.

Emon said that the aims of sharia are to uphold justice, promote equality and bring about the well-being of the public, stressing that if these aims can be advanced through secular or national legislation, then there is no need for the application of sharia.