Monday, September 15, 2008

Anti-porn bill sought to be as Ramadan present

Reuters,Arabnews
JAKARTA: An Indonesian Islamic party is hoping an anti-pornography bill that has been in Parliament for over three years will be passed within a few weeks as a “Ramadan present” for Muslims, a newspaper report said yesterday.

Lawmakers in the world’s most populous Muslim nation have so far stopped short of passing the bill, which aims to shield the young from pornographic material and lewd acts, because of criticism it would threaten Indonesia’s tradition of tolerance.

“It will be a Ramadan gift,” Mahfudz Siddiq, a Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) member of parliament was quoted by the Jakarta Post newspaper as saying. He said the bill was urgently needed because of widespread moral decadence in Indonesia.

The fasting month of Ramadan began on Sept. 1 and ends with Eid-al Fitr celebrations a month later.

The Jakarta Post said a parliamentary committee deliberating the bill is set to table the final draft in parliament in the next few weeks.

A politician from Golkar, the main party in the ruling coalition, said the passage of the bill was inevitable, given the unwillingness of groups supporting it to seek a compromise.

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