The Mark Steyn interview on Hot Air continues today. Note how Steyn describes the recent emergence of sharia in the Muslim world and how absent it was in many regions only decades ago. Here is a good example of that:

Mr Musdaruddin is the overseer of something that for the time being remains unique in Indonesia. Aceh - where more than 160,000 people died as a result of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami - has in the past 18 months become the only one of Indonesia's 33 provinces to enforce Koranic law, or Sharia. Some people fear that makes it the potential vanguard in a movement to bring Taliban-style law to the world's largest, and still overwhelmingly moderate, Muslim nation.

It is believed that the Indonesian government has allowed the implementation of sharia as part of its settlement with rebel forces from Aceh, an area which has through the ages always been quite restive. So, the question now is if with this form of domestic appeasement the Indonesian government has created a beachhead for an ideology that runs counter to the moderate way in which the nation has historically been practicing Islam. There are enough regional differences within Indonesia to thwart any rapid spread of this phenomenon, but the vigor with which sharia is now being enforced in Aceh is reason for deep concern.