Thanks for the link.

Apparently this province is already officially under Sharia though no enforcement/application has begun.

The way this came to be blows my mind: it was a tactic.

>>>"Islamic law was bestowed on Aceh last winter – though the province didn't ask for or want it – by Indonesian President Megawati Suk-arnoputri, according to a plan by former President Abdurrahman Wahid.

>>>But the imposition, supposedly an attempt to end a 30-year-old insurgency there, was a bizarre choice, as Islamic law wasn't on the agenda of the rebel forces. The goal of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) rebels, who have said they oppose the decision, is to establish an independent Sultanate governing the island of Sumatra.

>>>The GAM's opposition to the imposition of sharia has led some to ask whether the central government is using the laws to paint the Acehnese as fundamentalists in the eyes of the international community.

>>>"We encourage people to be good Muslims, but we don't think it's something for the state to decide," says GAM spokesman Amni Ahmad Marzuki. "We feel Jakarta is using sharia to distract people from the real issues here."

And the rebels don't like it!!!! This is just so weird a story.

I don't agree with you that it's a bad thing for the US to foster debate. The only downside I can see is that it may hamper the perception of legitimacy of the results of the debate, if the US is involved.

An interesting editorial about Islam in Southeast Asia implies that it is applied in a more pragmatic and modern way. This is a good trend, I think. We should encourage it.