Christian Woman Caned Under Indonesia Sharia Law

Ten years ago, police found 50 bottles of alcohol at a stall run by a 60-year-old Christian woman from Takengon. Her sentence was 30 lashes, trimmed to 28 for time already spent in detention, which is the most careful arithmetic I've seen out of a government. She took the caning over prison, and the Daily Mail describes those conditions as poor, so I can't say I blame her. Aceh is the only Indonesian province running Sharia law, so it's a club with one chapter. The Mail is marking the tenth anniversary, and I didn't just fall off the turnip truck. A government that writes religion into its penal code has its priorities backwards. Keep the state off the pulpit and off people's backs, is all I'm saying.