Indonesian Muslim clerics who claim to be protecting vulnerable women by backing a new anti-pornography law have come out in defence of a fellow preacher who married a 12-year-old village girl. The issue of child brides for religious men has fuelled national debate in the world’s largest Muslim country since little-known cleric Pujianto Cahyo Widiyanto, 43, married junior high school student Lutfiana Ulfa in August. Passed in October with the backing of the very clerics who are now defending Widiyanto, the anti-porn law criminalises all movements and works, including poetry and music, deemed obscene and capable of violating public morality.
Child Protection Commission head Seto Mulyadi said there were “thousands of cases like Widiyanto’s” in Indonesia and described the clerics as hypocrites
Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, said that he hopes to visit Taiwan in 2009, in what would be his first visit in seven years and an apparent reversal of a policy of avoiding the island for fear of angering China. The Dalai Lama praised Taiwan’s democracy in a televised interview. “What is most precious about Taiwan is Taiwan’s democracy. China kept talking about liberating Taiwan, but in fact, it is not unlikely that Taiwan might liberate China’s dictatorship with Taiwan’s democracy,” he said.
Lockheed Martin, USA, will supply upgraded F-16 jets, C130 transport planes and P3 Orion surveillance aircraft to Pakistan armed forces. These fighter jets were upgraded and overhauled in Pakistan as well as in the US. “We are also supplying equipment and parts to Pakistan for F 16s overhauled in Pakistan. Similarly we are also upgrading F-16s in USA for supply to Pakistan,” said Lockheed Martin, adding that the company was also upgrading a number of C-130 for Pakistan Air Force.
The trial of a Russian businessman charged with sexually abusing 18 underage girls began last week after a series of delays in getting legal representation for the defendant. Alexander Trofimov, 41, was arrested in 2007 on charges of abusing the girls while working in the coastal town of Sihanoukville, The Phnom Penh Post reported. Trofimov, was convicted in March this year of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl and is currently serving a 13-year sentence in a Phnom Penh prison. If convicted of the remaining charges, Trofimov could face a further seven to 15 years in prison, the newspaper reported.
The youth wing of Malaysia's hardline Islamic opposition party on has criticized government approval for a concert by Indonesian songstress Inul Daratista, saying her performances were unacceptable for Muslims. Dangdut, which is extremely popular among many Malaysians, is a genre of Indonesian popular music that incorporates Arabic, Indian, and Malay folk music with fast-moving dancing. Malaysia is a secular state under its constitution, but Islam is the country's official religion.
Inul Daratista gyrating moves have incensed some hardline Muslims.
The European Court of Human Rights has dismissed a case brought by a French Sikh man who wanted to wear a turban on his driving licence photograph in breach of French rules. Shingara Mann Singh, 52, a French national, fought the French regulations, which said motorists must appear "bareheaded and facing forward" in their licence photographs. Baptized Sikhs wear a turban at all times. The court noted that Muslim women had to remove their headscarves for some identification purposes.
SINGAPORE
A Singapore Court jailed three opposition-linked activists for contempt of court for donning identical T-shirts with a picture of a kangaroo wearing judge's robes during a politician's hearing. The sentenced was meted out after the trio refused to apologize for their actions for wearing the T-shirts in the Supreme Court from May 26 to 28 inferring Singapore's judicial system was characterized by kangaroo courts. The court proceedings were initiated by the Attorney General's Chambers against the defendants for having "scandalized the Singapore judiciary."
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