The Anonymous Widower

A Very Dangerous Religious Law

This story on the BBC’s web site, just shows that religious zealots are alive and well and living in Indonesia.

They want women to sit on a motorcycle side-saddle.  What about women, who want to actually drive the bike?

Incidentally, I know several women, who’ve been on the back of motor-bikes side-saddle, as it was seen occasionally in the 1960s.

I think we’d all agree it’s not a sensible idea, but then in India and I suspect Indonesia, you see  lots of people riding motor-bikes in unusual and to us dangerous ways.

The interesting last word is these paragraphs from the article.

The regulation has been met with criticism from well-known Muslim activists like Ulil Abshar Abdalla, who is based in the capital, Jakarta.

“How to ride a motorbike is not regulated in Sharia. There is no mention of it in the Koran or Hadiths,” he said on his Twitter account, referring to the second most sacred text in Islam after the Koran.

You could also ask, how crash helmets fit in with Muslim and other religious views. I think for instance in the UK, that male Sikhs who adhere to their religious views, also follow the crash helmet law or don’t ride motor-bikes. Or at least, I haven’t seen a Sikh in a turban riding a motor-bike in years. Perhaps, they wear a patka underneath like some Sikh sportsmen do.

January 4, 2013 - Posted by AnonW | Transport/Travel | Health and Safety, Islam, Motorcycle, Sikh