Belial,

While obeying the laws of a country one visits may not be the primary, overarching requirement to living justly, doing so is traditional. I expect visitors to my home to accommodate my norms. That’s pretty standard, at least in my experience. If the limits I place upon my guests’ behavior are too onerous, I suspect they won’t return. That is what Bali risks if Indonesian law appears draconian to too many people.

The Koran is the primary source of Islamic law, the Sharia. It contains the rules by which the Muslim world should be governed, and forms the basis for relations between individuals, whether Muslim, or as in the case of the unlucky Ms. Corby, non-Muslim. The Sharia expresses the rules by which a Muslim society is organized and governed, and it provides the rules to resolve conflicts among individuals and between the individual and the state.

Indonesia is, I believe, the most populous Islamic nation in the world. It can be difficult for those who draw upon a secular background to appreciate how inseparable religion is from the daily lives of many, if not most Muslims.

In re Loulabelle’s comment on crime in Bali; having lived for a few years in Jeddah, I can attest to a similar absence of crime there. Yes, their vision of what is “just” is different from ours.

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Eudaimonia