We have yet another example of the brutality of Islamic Sharia law from Indonesia where a woman was savagely flogged publicly for spending time with a man who was not her husband, including an allegation of sex outside of marriage. The flogging occurred in Banda Aceh on the Island of Sumatra.
The woman was flogged 26 times as people watched the medieval scene unfold. The man may also have been flogged. Islamic justice imposes such floggings for a variety of offenses including gambling, and drinking alcohol.
The imposition of such punishment in the name of Islamic justice defies not only basic principles of due process and equal protection but religious freedoms. Obviously, these areas reject such legal notions as Western values. They are however human rights that should not denied to any person in any country. There is a tendency to adopt a legal and moral relativism over such abuses — dismissing the issue as purely a matter of local or national determination. Some basic rights must transcend national borders as based not on any given government but the very essence of being human.