Video footage of mob enforcing Islamic law by pouring buckets of sewage on couple accused of extramarital affair, sparks outrage
A furious mob was seen pouring buckets of sewage over a young Indonesian couple after dragging them into the street as "punishment" for engaging in extramarital sex. In the disturbing video, a member of the mob is seen taking buckets of sewage from an open sewer and pouring it over the couple who are forced to crouch down.
The unsettling incident took place in Indonesia in a city called Langsa, located in the country's Aceh province. It is one of many areas where local Islamic Sharia law imposes a parallel civil code on its populace. Sharia law forbids sex before or outside marriage. That said, the couple, only identified by their initials TSF and DK, are reportedly in their 30s.
According to Daily Mail, TSF is a public servant, working as the head of Langsa city's Regional Development Planning Board. The woman is allegedly his employee.
Ibrahim Latif, the local Islamic Sharia Agency head, told reporters: "So the culprit (TSF) often went to the house of the woman, according to locals. Maybe, after a long time of peeping on them, the locals got angry because they were deemed to have engaged in immoral acts. The locals were angry because, when the couple was interrogated, they could not keep their answers straight. It has become a norm in villages like that."
Interestingly, TSF and DK had already performed a "nikah siri" or a religious marriage and the man tried to placate the angry mob by showing them a certificate for the same. Nonetheless, the frenzied mob did not accept the validity of the document and called for the punishment.
Currently, the couple has been taken into the custody of "religious police" who will take it upon themselves to investigate the authenticity of the marriage proof.
That said, both the man and the woman could be given additional punishment by being publicly caned if the certificate is found to be a counterfeit, as per Islamic Sharia.
It is highly unlikely that the fanatic mob who carried out the atrocious acts will face any disciplinary action.
Religious laws were enforced in the province of Aceh after it was granted "special autonomy" in 2001 when the central government was attempting to repress a longstanding separatist insurgency in the state.
In Islamic Sharia controlled states, public flogging is the go-to punishment for a long list of "offenses" including drinking alcohol and having homosexual relations.
An anthropologist from Aceh’s Malikussaleh University, Kamal Fasya, gave his two cents on such vigilantism: “It has happened again and again. Young people, especially uneducated young people such as in Kayee Lee, shaming them, hitting them in public. It’s like an infection,” he added. “It’s contagious."