THE chanting of takbir (recitation of praise to God) was resounding as a young man ascended a stage in the yard of Banda Aceh’s Lamgugop Mosque on Tuesday noon last week. Amid the takbir, a few people in the crowd jeered insults at Mahmud (not his real name) as he ascended the platform to be caned.

On that day, the number people watching the punishment being enacted on two young men was larger than usual: some 2,000 spectators packed the mosqu