Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Police in Indonesia's westernmost city have thwarted the caning of a police officer and two other people convicted by Aceh's morality police of gambling, high

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – The Aceh Legislative Council (DPRA) is mulling a Shariah bylaw that would mandate tougher sentences for convicted rapists than those doled out under the Indon

Thirty-five women in Aceh's city of Lhokseumawe have been let off with a warning after the Shariah police caught them straddling a motorcycle and not wearing appropriate Islamic dress.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – The Bireuen Legislative Council in Aceh are preparing a draft bylaw on how Islamic men and women in the district should dress as Muslims.

Ezra Sihite & Nurdin Hasan, Jakarta/Banda Aceh – Military chief of staff Adm.

The head of the Lhokseumawe Public Order Agency (Satpol PP) and Shariah Police in Aceh has tested positive for marijuana use after slamming his car into a tree and a house on Sunday nig

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – The Aceh government has removed a provision for the stoning to death of adulterers from its draft of the Qanun Jinayat, a set of bylaws that replaces elements

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Authorities in Banda Aceh rounded up dozens of people over the weekend, mostly women, for allegedly violating the province's ultraconservative Islamic bylaws

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – After it was revealed that a group of young married women in Aceh had met to raffle off young men to sleep with, an ulema in the conservative province urged r

Kusumasari Ayuningtyas, Surakarta – Nearly 500 elementary school students in Surakarta, Central Java, joined a march to the city's Manahan Stadium on Wednesday in protest against Muslim

Couples across Indonesia had their pre-Valentine's Day plans interrupted on Wednesday as police and public order officers raided parks, hotel rooms and cemeteries in a campaign against

SP/Lawrence Dami – The deputy mayor of Depok has called on residents, especially younger people, to not celebrate Valentine's Day on Thursday, as he believed people misinterpret the mea

James Balowski, in Jakarta – Ignoring outrage and mockery at home and overseas, a town in Indonesia's northernmost province of Aceh is pressing ahead with a by-law banning female passe

Aceh Governor Zaini Abdullah declined to comment when asked about the bylaw that bans women from straddling motorbikes in Lhokseumawe.

A network of women's and human rights organizations has called upon women living in the Aceh city of Lhokseumawe to ignore a bylaw banning female passengers from straddling motorcycles.

Ayi Yufridar, Lhokseumawe, Indonesia – Authorities in Indonesia's Aceh province are pressing ahead with a proposed Islamic law that would ban female passengers from straddling motorbike

The head of Indonesia's most influential Islamic organization has come out in support of a bylaw banning female passengers from straddling motorcycles in the Aceh city of Lhokseumawe.

Feri Fernandes, Lhokseumawe – A local government circular banning women passengers from straddling motorbikes has been posted at public locations in the northern Acehnese town Lhokseuma

Feri Fernandes, Lhokseumawe – The administration of the northern Acehnese town of Lhokseumawe has officially issued a circular banning women passengers from straddling motorbikes.

Arientha Primanita, Bogor – The Indonesian government will review a plan to introduce a bylaw banning female passengers from straddling motorcycles in the Aceh city of Lhokseumawe.

Margareth S.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – The number of incidents of violence as a result of Shariah law in Aceh increased in 2012 from a year earlier, a rights group noted on Thursday.

Bagus BT Saragih and Hotli Simanjuntak, Jakarta – The administration of Lhokseumawe, Aceh, is planning to issue a bylaw banning women from straddling motorcycles, arguing that the pract

Nurdin Hassan, Banda Aceh – The plan by the administration of the Aceh town of Lhokseumawe to issue a regulation that will ban female passengers from straddling motor bikes has sparked

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – The administration of the Aceh town of Lhokseumawe is set to issue a regulation that will ban female passengers from straddling motor bikes.

Irman I.P, Lhokseumawe – Ulema Consultative Assembly (MPU) chairperson Tgk H Asnawi Abdullah from the Northern Acehnese city of Lhokseumawe supports the plan by Lhokseumawe Mayor Suaidi

Michael Bachelard – Indonesia will consider banning all alcoholic beverages and putting drinkers in jail for two years.

Markus Junianto Sihaloho – Indonesia would introduce stiff penalties for the consumption of all alcoholic beverages under a controversial bill drafted by the Islamic United Development

Islamic leaders on Monday called on police to arrest a group of young people who attacked Shariah Police officers in Aceh after their music event was disbanded.

Banda Aceh – Three men accused of violating Shariah law were flogged on Friday at Al-Munawwarah Mosque in the Aceh district of Aceh Besar.

James Balowski, Jakarta – A suicide in Indonesia's northernmost province of Aceh by a teenager who was publicly humiliated by the province's abusive sharia police has again put the spo

Hotli Simanjutak, Banda Aceh – Local journalists want the Press Council to investigate reports that Aceh's media reported unconfirmed allegations voiced by local sharia police that led

Ismira Lutfia – The suicide this week of a teenage girl in Aceh after she was arrested and apparently humiliated by the province's Shariah police has again put the spotlight on laws tha

Jakarta – The apparent suicide of a teenage girl in Aceh should prompt officials to rethink harsh penalties imposed by sharia, a member of the National Commission on Violence against Wo

The Padang chapter of the Indonesian Council of Ulema (MUI) have said that they support the local government's plan to issue a bylaw banning adultery and prostitution.

Aceh's Shariah Police continued their crackdown on punks on Tuesday, arresting five youths in a raid on an internet cafe in the provincial capital that had allegedly become a hangout fo

Zakir Hussain – The mayor of Tasikmalaya, which made headlines this month for reportedly proposing a bylaw that would require all Muslim women to wear headscarves, on Monday said the re

Jakarta – In a country where opposition to Lady Gaga forced the provocative pop star to cancel her show this month, Indonesia's home-grown stars are also raising the ire of religious au

Markus Junianto Sihaloho – The Home Affairs Ministry says it will summon the mayor and City Council speaker of Tasikmalaya to explain controversial shariah-inspired bylaws issued in the

Indonesian publisher Gramedia Pustaka Utama burned hundreds of copies of a book that called the Prophet Muhammad a pirate and a murderer on Wednesday following protests by the hard-line

The administration of North Maluku's Tidore island and its surrounding archipelago has declared the district a nightclub-free zone, saying it will rely on other sources of revenue bette

Ulin Yusron – Defending a plan in Tasikmalaya, West Java, to establish Shariah-inspired bylaws, the Islamic Defenders Front defended the constitutionality of the proposal on Friday and

Yuli Krisna, Bandung – The top legislator in Tasikmalaya said on Wednesday that the headscarf requirement stipulated in the soon-to-be-enforced shariah-inspired bylaws in the West Java

Yuli Tri Suwarni, Bandung – The planned enactment of a bylaw on obligatory headscarves in Tasikmalaya municipality, West Java, has drawn criticism from activists and a lawmaker but a ha

Ezra Sihite & Yuli Krisna – Shariah-inspired bylaws due to be enacted in the West Java city of Tasikmalaya have been condemned by Islamic leaders, locals and politicians, with one e

Jakarta – Governments have no right to control the domain of morality and should not create and enforce laws that control the way people dress, according to a researcher at human rights

Jakarta – A lawmaker is criticizing local legislators in Tasikmalaya, West Java, for drafting a regulation that would require all Muslim women, including visitors, to wear headscarves.

Yuli Tri Suwarni, Bandung, West Java – Tasikmalaya, West Java, will soon require all Muslim women, residents and visitors alike, to wear veils to enforce its sharia ordinance.

Bagus BT Saragih, Jakarta – Religious Affairs Minister Suryadharma Ali has played down the suggestion that regional sharia-based bylaws have the potential to trigger social conflicts de

Langsa, Indonesia – Sharia police in Aceh, the only Indonesian province to practise the Islamic law, caned a homeless "punk" couple nine times Friday after they were caught having pre-m