British Tabloid the MailOnline is at it again, this time beating up an 14-month old video of a public caning at the Baiturrahim Mosque in Ulee Lheue, Meuraxa subdistrict, Banda Aceh, Indonesia in which five men and one woman were publicly caned in accordance with the autonomous-states’ Sharia sentencing code

Shot by Aceh media company Serambi On TV, the public caning was conducted on December 28, 2015, and as can be seen, was a very public event with no restrictions on media coverage.

The video opens with a woman being escorted onto the stage, her head covered in a peach-coloured head scarf. A long white shirt covering from her neck to her feet. In the background the sentence is publicly read. A prayer is invoked as the woman kneels before the administer.

The administer raises his arm parallel with the ground and then lets it fall, the bamboo cane ‘no thicker than the small finger’ flexing as it strikes the upper shoulder and back of the criminal.

From first blow to last, the five-stroke punishment is over in eight seconds. The prisoner collapses on receiving her final stroke, female medical personal and Indonesia police rush to her aid, carrying her away from the stage. Then follows the caning of the five men, who receive their blows standing up, and with considerable more force.

‘Indonesia’s Brutal Sharia law’

Wade in with an Islamophobic, racist-based beat-up of a long dead horse, England’s MailOnline. ‘Screaming in pain in front of a cheering crowd before collapsing in agony, a woman is lashed with a cane in rare footage of Indonesia’s brutal Sharia law (sic) punishment’ the screaming headline reads.

Breathlessly the writer continue: ‘A video has emerged… Indonesia’s brutal Sharia law (sic)… The woman can be heard screaming in pain…’

Admitting further down the story that the ‘vision’ was filmed in 2015 and released by a Sharia critic, the tabloid fails to mention that vision of public canings in Aceh is not unique.

Transparency dictates that the verdict of the Court be carried out publicly so that no accusations of penalties not being applied can be levied against it. As such a search on any video-hosting website will find many video clips of public canings in Aceh.

Neither is a woman being caned unique. In 2009 Muslim model Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno was the first woman caned in Malaysia, after being caught drinking beer in a beach resort. In her case though the Malaysian implementation of Sharia sentencing dictated that the cane ‘cannot be lifted so high the arm is away from the armpit’.

Non-Muslim Woman Caned in Aceh

And while submission to Sharia is mandatory for Aceh’s 4.7 million majority fundamental Muslim population, non-Muslims can also submit to it if they choose. Last April Remita Sinaga, a 60-year-old Protestant woman was the first non-Muslim to be caned after being convicted of selling alcohol in the province. She received 28 lashes.

Although Aceh’s Qanun Jinayat for selling alcohol does not apply to non-Muslims, Aceh’s Sharia Department chief Syahrizal Abbas told the La Times at the time that: ‘”The woman voluntarily submitted to the punishment because she thought the alternative was worse: a jail time under the national law.”’

Attempting to beat a long-dead horse into life, the MailOnline then goes on to cite alleged enraged posters on its website calling for protests against the “cruel practice”. Amongst the choice comments from the MailOnline‘s educated readers are: ‘what a sick world!’, ‘where the hell are the protests over this then?’, and ‘appalling brutality, Vile people’.

The Sharia requirement that the cane used to inflict the sentence should be ‘no thicker than the small finger’ seems remarkably more lenient than the ancient Welsh ‘Laws of Women’ which stated ‘a man may beat a woman with a stick or rod as thick as his middle finger’.

For such heinous crimes as insulting a man’s beard, wishing dirt on his teeth, unfaithfulness, or giving away property that was not hers to give, a man was allowed to hit her three times anywhere on the body, but not on the head, with a rod as long as his forearm. Similarly an old English Law allowed ‘domestic chastisement’.

How Malaysia Canes Prisoners

For brutality and rare vision the MailOnline needs to caste its net back a bit further in time. This very rare vision below of a convicted drug trafficker being caned at Malaysia’s Sungei Buloh Prison in Selangor was uploaded to LiveLeak in 2007. Since then it has garnered more than 95,900 views. Considerably less than the 808,773 views the Aceh public caning of a woman in 2015 has received since it was uploaded.

No doubt the MailOnline and its highly informed readers will be along to beat this up also… as soon as they discover where Malaysia is… and that it also a predominantly Muslim country.

A convicted drug trafficker is caned at Malaysia’s Sungei Buloh Prison in Selangor, Malaysia.

Video uploaded to LiveLeak by: Citizen1961

Feature video uploaded to YourTube by: Serambi TV