Apologists like Reza Aslan always point to Indonesia as an “enlightened” Muslim country, and it is less repressive in some ways than places like Saudi Arabia. Still, the country has a blasphemy law, which Wikipedia characterizes like this:

Indonesia prohibits blasphemy by its Criminal Code. The Code’s Article 156(a) targets those who deliberately, in public, express feelings of hostility, hatred, or contempt against religions with the purpose of preventing others from adhering to any religion, and targets those who disgrace a religion. The penalty for violating Article 156(a) is a maximum of five years imprisonment.

That article gives lots of examples of punishment for blasphemy; here’s one:

On 28 June 2006, the Polewali, South Sulawesi state court sentenced Sumardi Tappaya, a Muslim and a high school religious teacher, to six months in prison for heresy after a relative accused him of whistling during prayers. The local MUI declared the whistling deviant.

As for homosexuality, it’s legal in most of the country but not in the province of Aceh, which has officially adopted sharia law (the preferred law of Linda Sarsour). From the Times of London:

Two gay men were among ten people flogged in the Indonesian province of Aceh yesterday in an atmosphere of growing religious intolerance.

A crowd of 1,500 people jeered as Muhammad Taufik, 23, and Muhammad Habibi, 20, were each given 83 lashes of the cane in front of a mosque in the provincial capital, Banda Aceh.

Eight others were also punished under the sharia codes that apply in Aceh. Among them was a heterosexual couple; each received 27 lashes for extramarital relations.

The punishment was administered by hooded men wielding 3ft rattan sticks who took it in turns to deliver blows to the back of those convicted in shariah courts. The two men convicted of homosexuality grimaced but did not cry out.

They were tried and convicted last week after a group of vigilantes broke into their rented room and attacked them in an incident filmed and posted on the internet. Their assailants were not charged.

Those were only two of ten people publicly flogged; the others included that heterosexual couple.  All told, 336 people were caned in Aceh in 2016 for violations of “morality”. The Times adds that non-sharia regions also have some morality policing:

Homosexuality is not illegal elsewhere in the country but in Jakarta this week 141 men at an alleged gay sex party were arrested under loose laws against “pornography”.

This month the governor of Jakarta was sentenced to two years in prison for blasphemy, an unexpected verdict that represents a huge victory for conservative Islam. Basuki Tjahja Purnama, an ethnic Chinese Christian best known by his nickname Ahok, announced yesterday that he was dropping his appeal against the sentence, which stemmed from a speech he gave last year.

Finally, the New York Times reported that extremist Islam seems to be spreading in Indonesia, as it is in Turkey (my emphasis):

Aceh is the only province in Indonesia that has formally adopted Shariah, and homosexuality is legal in most of Indonesia.

But a nationwide campaign by conservative civil society groups against homosexuality culminated in a major case now before the country’s Constitutional Court, which will decide whether sex outside marriage should be banned throughout Indonesia. A ban on sex outside marriage would effectively ban homosexual sex, as gay marriage is illegal in Indonesia.

It is not known when the Constitutional Court will issue a ruling, though there have already been numerous hearings for the case, including one at which a witness suggested that an increased focus on gay rights was the result of a Jewish conspiracy.

. . . Until this year, the national government had the right to unilaterally cancel discriminatory local legislation, but the Constitutional Court took away that power this year, arguing that it was excessive.

Activists say the court decision will make it much more difficult for the national government to repeal discriminatory local laws like ones in Aceh.

The Indonesian government granted Aceh a special right to impose a legal code based on the Quran in 2001, as part of a long-term effort to make peace with the leaders of an Islamic insurgency there.

Does anybody really think that the demonization of gay and transgender people in Muslim countries (the only countries applying the death penalty to homosexuality) has nothing to do with Islam? Is that just a coincidence? Or, if you’re going to maintain that this isn’t religion, but simply cultural opprobrium, then at least you can’t lay it at the door of the West. It’s shameful that some gays. transgender people, and feminists continue to support Islam and those Muslims who follow or advocate sharia law.

Here are some photos of the gay couple. This one’s from the NYT, which adds:

News reports said that vigilantes had caught the two men naked in bed, and that the two had pleaded not to be reported to the Shariah police. The two were then beaten, an attack recorded on video, and were later taken to a local police station.

“So you don’t like women? Not interested in them anymore?” Marzuki Ali, chief investigator for the Shariah police, asked the men, ages 20 and 23, shortly after they were taken to the police station in March. Cameras recorded his comments.

And from the British Times:

Now some of you may say, “well, maybe it didn’t hurt much, and they weren’t killed“. But imagine the shame attached to the public flogging, and the lifelong ostracism that these two men will face! They’ll surely have to leave Aceh.

It is reprehensible to outlaw sexual behavior between consenting adults: it hurts nobody except the “feelings” of those adhering to a medieval code of conduct. But that’s religion, Jake.

What do you say now. Dr. Aslan?