‘Flog Them Harder’ Crowd Chants • Anti-LGBT Sentiments Increase in Province That Observes Islamic Sharia Law
Two gay men were each whipped 87 times for engaging in consensual sex with each other in the Islamic Sharia-ruled Indonesian province of Aceh, Reuters reports.
The barbaric and inhumane punishment (video below) was carried out after Friday prayers, in public, outside a mosque, as hundreds of locals and tourists came to view the assault. Some brought their children to watch.
“Hopefully the flogging we’re witnessing today will serve as a lesson for people not to violate sharia (Islamic law),” a Banda Aceh official, identified as Tarmizi Yahya, said.
“Few in the crowd appeared to have much sympathy,” Yahoo’s Singapore news reports.
“I don’t think they’re being serious about the flogging — it looks like they are just playing around,” said Bukhari, a fisherman who came to watch with his wife.
“The sharia officer should have flogged them as hard as he could.”
The couple had been “apprehended by a vigilante mob” and handed over to police.
In total, 15 people were flogged Friday, others “for crimes including drinking or selling alcohol and showing affection in public.”
Aceh’s governor Irwandi Yusuf has called “criticism of flogging criminals as ‘Islamophobic.'” He is described as a “law and order champion,” who “was arrested last week on corruption charges.”
CNN adds that ” last May two men were lashed 83 times for the same offense.”