Young couple among 18 publicly caned in Indonesia's Islamic Aceh

"Eighteen people were publicly caned Tuesday for breaking Islamic law in Indonesia’s Aceh province, including a young unmarried couple who were caught spending time alone together."

The horror!

I'd put money on the 'hooded man' slobbering like a St. Bernard under that hood. Sick, barbaric, primitive nonsense which belongs in the Bronze Age. I suppose the only consolation is they weren't executed.

That'll teach 'em!

Oppressive, foolish, and downright 1800's!

"caned for breaking Islamic law"

How come we never hear about canings for breaking Catholic law or Baptist law or Buddhist law or Hindu law, just Islamic law?

And what's up with people being "legally" punished for refusing to follow some religious group's edicts?

"downright 1800's!"

You gotta go back another thousand years, lol.

When in Rome...

The proof is in the pudding. Once again, Islamic ideology promotes this kind of religious "political" way of "thinking".

Brings to mind, "Let he who is without sin, cast the first stone...."

"When in Rome..."

When in Rome what? Cane someone like a slobbering sadist or accept a caning for having a glass of Campari?

This is really sick. But European countries have similarly sick medieval laws.

This is really sick. But European countries have similarly sick medieval laws.

Really? Name the last law they've had that allows people to be publicly caned, and how recently such punishments were carried out.

I'm intrigued about these "sick medieval laws" too and when they are implemented.

Name the last law they've had that allows people to be publicly caned,

Not caning, but they do have long prison sentences for thought crimes.

One could argue whether caning is better or worse than a 5 year prison sentence. But I consider both as sick, punishing people for doing something that free people should have the right to do (think, drink alcohol, ...)

@Wakayama Mama

Could you be a bit more specific? Are you talking about Holocaust denial?

"This is really sick. But European countries have similarly sick medieval laws"

Medieval Laws in Europe? I am sorry, but I beg to differ on this matter. Throughout the years, Europe has implemented a legal framework that some have dubbed 'liberal'. The so called 'gay marriage', 'abortion' and the legal of consumption of drugs (marijuana, cannabis) doesn't sound medieval to me at all. If we were to label today's Europe as 'Medieval', we should assume that the legal framework of most European countries should be in communion, at least partially, with Catholicism, that is, ideally, a combination of Faith and Reason/Rationalism. But no, most European countries have shunned Catholicism and have fostered secularism to the utmost. Along with this, most European citizens don't consider themselves Catholic at all or are 'non-pracitising catholics'. As a result, church attendance has plummeted over the past decades and many churches/monasteries are being sold off as offices, bookstores, luxury hotels or even turned into mosques (I disagree completely with all of these actions, but I'll talk about that elsewhere). Even so, now, Europe boasts about having the most 'liberal' legal framework in the world; most Europeans, viewing their own legal system, are the first to criticise other 'conservative' countries because they don't offer the same 'liberties' as they do. At least for the time being, that is; the European Birth rate, in average, has already passed the point of no return, while the birth rate of Muslim couples is thriving. I don't intend to be rude or to offend anyone, I just to view this reality in the most objective way possible. If this trend continues, perhaps, in the future, the majority of the population will be Muslim, for the reason mentioned above. What are the chances the Sharia Law might be implemented? Sharia Law has coexisted with other normative legal systems in Muslim countries, but the extent to which this might happen in European countries is uncertain. What portions of Sharia Law will be applied and which won't, that, we don't know today. It would be a paradox if Secularism is shunned by Sharia Law in the future, if we assume that it is applied completely. Again, I don't mean to be disrespectful, this is only my opinion.

More than 90 percent of Indonesians describe themselves as Muslim, but the vast majority practise a moderate form of the faith.

Pffft!! They still cover up. They still cannot do this or that. It must really suck to be a "moderate" muslim.

This is really sick. But European countries have similarly sick medieval laws

Wrong. But hippy-liberal Merkel has invited the islamic refugees into Germany. Germans don't want Sharia Law anymore than Americans do . .this is what's sick. Sharia has no place in western society. Keep out, stay out, Do Not Pass Go, Do Not Collect $200.

Aid agencies should be reminded of this disgusting law . Banda Aceh After The Tsunami Disaster 10 years ago , 163,000 people dead or missing, including 60,000 in the capital, Banda Aceh Young people !!! Leave that hell hole en masse and let the old whip themselves to death.

Reza Aslan's model "moderate" Muslim State, ladies and gentlemen!

As repellent as it may be to us.... their house, their rules.

Savages. That country will never knowingly get my money.

Barbaric.

"When in Rome".....I'd prefer to leave Rome right where it is. Not in northern Europe or the Americas.

This story will not get much air time in the USA, since one of the candidates wants to halt letting Muslims in from contested areas until we get a better screening process of finding out who is going to do bad things and who is just a normal person who practices their religion on their own. We keep hearing from those who oppose him that the USA should be more tolerant and accepting and understanding, and that our way is not the right way. Yet, no word from those same people who bash the USA from saying the same thing about these people.

Aceh began implementing sharia law after being granted special autonomy in 2001, an effort by the central government in Jakarta to quell a long-running separatist insurgency.

One thing to take away from this, Jakarta allows this to happen so they are not too up in arms about this since they see it as a measure to keep the peace. That tells you where there feeling are in regards to Sharia, something that they can put up with rather then face the problem and work with them in trying not to do these types of things and bringing them into the 21st century. To think the USA and other allies have helped quell some of the disturbance in the Aceh region.

"When in Rome..."

So, if you're born in a country with an Islamist government, you just follow everyone else, practice Islam and shut up?