Death to Christian schoolgirls! Death for drug possession! 20 years for Islamic militants!

Filed under: Asia

If my calculations are correct, this could prove to become ever the popular chant among those in the Islamic militant community.

This story is in our news feed, but I found it so absolutely insane that I had to post it directly to the main page. The Jakarta Post reports that Islamic militants who were caught following the beheading of three Christian schoolgirls in 2005 have been sentenced to death... just kidding! They're getting 14 to 20 years in prison.

AKARTA (JP): Panel of judges in Central Jakarta District Court Wednesday sentenced Muslim militants between 14 and 20 years in prison for beheading Christian schoolgirls in Central Sulawesi's town of Poso in 2005.

Hasanuddin was found guilty for masterminding the beheading, buying the machetes and leaving a handwritten note at the scene vowing more killings to avenge the deaths of Muslims in an earlier conflict on Sulawesi island.

Judge Udar Siregar was quoted by Elshinta news radio as saying that Hasanuddin's action can be categorized as terror crime, which could spark fresh religious violence in the Central Sulawesi towns.

Meanwhile, two other conspirators Lilik Purnomo and Irwanto Irano were handed 14-year jail terms in a separated hearing.

Religious conflict in Poso had left at least 1,000 people dead from both Muslims and Christians from 1998 to 2002.

You've got to love Indonesia. Islamic militants who behead schoolgirls, paving the way for even more inter-religious carnage, get maybe 20 years in prison. Meanwhile, you may remember that an Australian women got the same sentence for trafficking drugs, though we can hardly know if they were planted on her person. Six other Aussia men are getting the death penalty on similar charges, in which the debate over their sentences is not even whether or not they will receive capital punishment (for they have been assured of that), but whether or not foreigners even are allowed to receive constitutional protection at all!

It makes you wonder. Is there a bias here?

WELCOME MICHELLE MALKIN READERS: Publius, one of the blogosphere's best-respected foreign affairs and democracy blogs, is newly redesigned and offering more content than ever before. Please feel free to look around, subscribe to our RSS feed, and use our social bookmarking capabilities. We appreciate your responses. And thank you, Michelle, for the link!