Riding a tsunami of moral conservatism and anti-gay prejudice, Indonesia’s Islamic political parties appear on the cusp of a major victory: outlawing all sex outside marriage. Those changes would also criminalize gay sex, the bugbear of Indonesia’s Islamic and secular political parties. One of the obstacles in the way of the Islamic parties is President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s power of veto. They have typically commanded far less votes than secular parties, but their concerns resonate with a broad cross-section of Indonesians. While many speak out online, that has little impact compared with the ability of Islamic groups to summon tens of thousands for mass protests.

Source: Egypt Independent February 02, 2018 01:18 UTC