Brunei - Limb-Severing, Flogging, and Stoning to Death

[Johnny Canuck3]

The sultan of oil-rich Brunei on Thursday announced the start of a new criminal code based on sharia law that will eventually prescribe punishments that include amputation and stoning, the first of Southeast Asia's predominantly Muslim countries to impose the harsh form of Islamic law.

Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah celebrated the new legal code as obedience to "God's command, as written in the Koran." Human rights advocates around the world have criticized the action as "draconian" and "medieval."

Under the first phase, fines and jail terms were introduced Thursday for offenses that include failure to attend Friday prayers, indecent behavior and pregnancies outside of marriage, the Star Online regional news site reported.

The law applies to those of all religions in the sultanate, where Muslim Malays constitute a 70% majority of the country's 400,000 citizens, the news agency reported. Non-Muslim Chinese account for about 15% of Brunei's population.

A second phase of the law, which will come into force later this year, provides for severing of limbs and flogging for property crimes. A third phase set for late 2015 will allow the justice system to sentence offenders to death by stoning for crimes including adultery and gay sex.

http://www.latimes.com/world/asia/la-fg-wn-brunei-sharia-law-20140501-story.html

A big setback for worldwide gay rights, amongst other things.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

There's an interesting hierarchy of acceptable topics here: gay rights is usually acceptable; but in a clash between not saying anything negative about sharia, and protecting gay rights, abstaining from saying anything negative about sharia will win out.

If I was gay person, that would make me none too happy.

 

[skyscraper101]

It's one rule for him and another for everyone else.

I was reading this today as it goes: How the Sultan of Brunei Violated His Sharia Law With Me

 

[hipipol]

Not a big setback for the world but a hellish nightmare for the people of Brunei
An absolute Monarch with no sense of how others will suffer from his guilt driven desire to make up for his past "sins"
Osama bin Laden was another mega rich boy who, regretting his past behaviour found religion and decided to make others pay

 

[pogo 10]

Why dont they catch that bastard in nigeria and stone him to death, sex outside marriage[ffs].

 

[youngian]

There's an interesting hierarchy of acceptable topics here: gay rights is usually acceptable; but in a clash between not saying anything negative about sharia, and protecting gay rights, abstaining from saying anything negative about sharia will win out.

He argued on a thread entitled: "Brunei - Limb-Severing, Flogging, and Stoning to Death"

You're not even allowed go out without wearing a hi-viz jacket these days in case it offends the Muslims. Its political correctness gone mad.

It's one rule for him and another for everyone else.
I was reading this today as it goes: How the Sultan of Brunei Violated His Sharia Law With Me

When I got the job, I learned that the job wasn’t in Singapore at all. Instead, it was an invitation to be the personal guest of the notorious playboy Prince Jefri

This is beginning to write itself.

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

I'm sure Johnny Canuck3 will be pleased to learn that there is a groundswell building to boycott Dorchester Collection hotels and I'm pretty sure most urbanites are avoiding them like the plague.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

There's an interesting hierarchy of acceptable topics here: gay rights is usually acceptable; but in a clash between not saying anything negative about sharia, and protecting gay rights, abstaining from saying anything negative about sharia will win out.
.

Who exactly are you talking about here?

 

[hipipol]

Which other mega upmarket businesses does he own?
I want to feel virtous on discovering that I have already been boycotting them for years

 

[pinkmonkey]

I'm just relieved he doesn't own Lidl.

 

[xenon]

There's an interesting hierarchy of acceptable topics here: gay rights is usually acceptable; but in a clash between not saying anything negative about sharia, and protecting gay rights, abstaining from saying anything negative about sharia will win out.

If I was gay person, that would make me none too happy.

You seriously think that's why not many people have commented? Rather than say, the bleeding obvious difficulties commenting in detail on a place I suspect not many of us know all that much about.

Other than saying I think the world would be better off with out extremist Islamists and their fucked up anti-human practises, whether they're permitted in a book or not. Bit simplistic and what's the point of stating that. So we can feel self righteous. Bad things are bad.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

You seriously think that's why not many people have commented? Rather than say, the bleeding obvious difficulties commenting in detail on a place I suspect not many of us know all that much about..

Current P and P thread titles and topics:

Ukraine

Zionism

Kidnapping in Nigeria

Executions in Oklahoma

Montana Gun Nuts

Norwegian Mass Murder

Many of these threads run to hundreds if not thousands of posts - even though the same difficulties you mention pertain to those topics as well.

 

[xenon]

Well you can't have it all. You haven't said anything about Thailand or the latest in Syria.

 

[albionism]

I'm sure Johnny Canuck3 will be pleased to learn that there is a groundswell building to boycott Dorchester Collection hotels and I'm pretty sure most urbanites are avoiding them like the plague.

It's not a laughing matter, but mate, i was well in need of a laugh tonight.

 

[Cid]

Current P and P thread titles and topics:

Ukraine

Zionism

Kidnapping in Nigeria

Executions in Oklahoma

Montana Gun Nuts

Norwegian Mass Murder

Many of these threads run to hundreds if not thousands of posts - even though the same difficulties you mention pertain to those topics as well.

Well maybe you should have tried posting this thread in the relevant forum and with a more informative title.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

It's not a laughing matter, but mate, i was well in need of a laugh tonight.

The Beverly Hills Hotel is being boycotted as well.

The City of Beverly Hills will vote on Tuesday on whether to pressure the government of Brunei to divest the Beverly Hills Hotel, the pink-hued haunt of the Hollywood set, after the small country's enactment of sharia law prompted protests.
Comedians Ellen DeGeneres and Jay Leno and British entrepreneur Richard Branson have been the most prominent figures to advocate shunning the hotel and its bungalows, a favored locale for the Hollywood elite since it opened a century ago.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/05/06/us-usa-brunei-hotel-idUSBREA450QO20140506

I suppose it is elitist; but if these people care enough to do something, even if the effect will be small, they probably don't deserve really harsh criticism.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

Interesting; not one of the recent spate of posters to this thread make any comment on the fact that as of next year, homosexual people having sexual relations in Brunei will be committing a crime that can have as a punishment, death by stoning.

 

[Cid]

I'm sure Royal Dutch Shell will take a stand against any human rights abuses that may occur.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

People didn't seem to have too much trouble deploring an anti gay law when it wasn't a predominantly Muslim country involved:

http://www.urban75.net/forums/threads/uganda-anti-gay-law.321093/#post-12963915

 

[andysays]

Interesting; not one of the recent spate of posters to this thread make any comment on the fact that as of next year, homosexual people having sexual relations in Brunei will be committing a crime that can have as a punishment, death by stoning.

OK Johnny, just for you, I'll take the no-doubt controversial step of saying that I personally deplore the fact that as of next year, homosexual people having sexual relations in Brunei will be committing a crime that can have as a punishment, death by stoning.

As I've said before, I deplore the fact that anyone, anywhere might be subject to execution by any means, and whether the justification for that execution is religious or otherwise.

Now, can you explain why you've taken the rather strange step of focusing entirely on the (admittedly serious and deplorable) effects of these measures on gay people, and not commented at all on its effects on those found guilty of

failure to attend Friday prayers, indecent behaviour [non-homosexual], pregnancies outside of marriage... ...extramarital sexual relations, insulting verses of the Koran and murder

all of which are also mentioned in the article you link to?

 

[DotCommunist]

JC actually deliberately started this thread to make out nobody here ever criticizes islam and extremes thereof. Cheap really,to use such a horrible thing as a point scoring exercise

 

[littlebabyjesus]

Interesting; not one of the recent spate of posters to this thread make any comment on the fact that as of next year, homosexual people having sexual relations in Brunei will be committing a crime that can have as a punishment, death by stoning.

Nah, not interesting.

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

The Beverly Hills Hotel is being boycotted as well.



http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/05/06/us-usa-brunei-hotel-idUSBREA450QO20140506

I suppose it is elitist; but if these people care enough to do something, even if the effect will be small, they probably don't deserve really harsh criticism.

The Bel Air Hotel around the corner is one of his too. Stayed in both of them in October, won't be doing so again.

or should I?

Seeing as I didn't pay, but ate their food and drank copious amounts of their booze.

Boycotts are tricky fuckers.

 

[butchersapron]

Oh god is he sulking again - and using a rather serious issue on which to piggyback. Grow up Johnny, this shit is getting tired.

 

[Jeff Robinson]

If I was gay person, that would make me none too happy.

I wonder if any gay contributors to the board would like to comment on this. Do you regard Urban as too cravenly pro-sharia to take gay rights seriously?

 

[likesfish]

The defence of beverly hills hotel was " I dont see anyone boycotting saudi owned hotels"
My hotels owned by a wouldbe murderous fuckwit but you not boygotting over murderous fuckwits its discrimination.

The intresting fact is the koran does list all these murderous punishments but the next sentence usually severly limits if you can carry out said punishment adultery needs various witnessess to the actual act nor hearsay etc etc a d always suggests mercy is a much better idea.

But religious fanatics never seem really keen on mercy or forgiveness funny that

 

[Casaubon]

Not a big setback for the world but a hellish nightmare for the people of Brunei
An absolute Monarch with no sense of how others will suffer from his guilt driven desire to make up for his past "sins"
Osama bin Laden was another mega rich boy who, regretting his past behaviour found religion and decided to make others pay

In ’95 or ’96 I went to Brunei to work on the Sultan’s daughter’s 18th birthday party.
I reckon they must have spent somewhere between 5 and 10 million quid, for one evening, for 50 or so guests (with no booze served).

A state-of-the-art audio-visual recording suite was built to record the event, and all the equipment was discarded after the gig. (The installation company was very happy to take it off their hands).
The huge stage and set were built from scratch by a massive team from Singapore, from lovely tropical hardwood, and all thrown away at the end of the night.
We used 4.7 km of silk (140 cm wide) to drape the ceiling and walls – all of it thrown away at the end.
Entertainment was provided by the Gypsy Kings, Bryan Adams and Sting.

This was typical entertainment for the royal family. They’d thrown so many parties that they were getting bored of the available acts – it’s hard to get excited about Michael Jackson playing your party when you’ve had him twice before.

All or most of these events were produced by UK promoter Harvey Goldsmith. A huge number of UK and US entertainers have taken the Sultan’s shilling for performing at his events (and for gob-smacking fawning and toadying from the stage).
It would be very interesting to see exactly who’s played for the Sultan, and other despots, over the years.

At that time the Sultan was still the richest man in the world. He operates a ‘bread and circuses’ policy, giving the (tiny) population just enough to keep them compliant and keeping the rest for himself.
The royal family’s lifestyle really is mind-boggling.
The 14-yr old prince had a stable of 200 supercars (McLarens etc.), all in his favourite shade of yellow.
The Sultan had an underground polo field built, so he could play out of the rain.
Sitting at the airport, unused, was a new 747 that the Sultan had bought to allow him to fly to London without re-fuelling. They put so much gold ornamentation inside that the extra weight prevented it from reaching London non-stop, so it was rusting on the tarmac.
The list could go on and on.
And, surprise surprise, they’re all bored out of their minds…………………………….

I think that the ennui, on top of ‘guilt driven desire to make up for his past "sins"’ has a lot to do with this reassertion of ‘Islamic’ identity.

I must say, though, that the Bruneians were lovely to work for, we were looked after really, really well.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

Now, can you explain why you've taken the rather strange step of focusing entirely on the (admittedly serious and deplorable) effects of these measures on gay people, and not commented at all on its effects on those found guilty of



all of which are also mentioned in the article you link to?

Because a religion having penalties for not attending prayers, while not to my personal liking, at least is somewhat understandable. So is punishment for murder.

Discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, gender or ethnicity/race, isn't defensible, imo.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

JC actually deliberately started this thread to make out nobody here ever criticizes islam and extremes thereof. Cheap really,to use such a horrible thing as a point scoring exercise

Sorry, not right. To my way of thinking, intolerance practiced against gays blacks women etc, is unacceptable whether it arises from social legal or ecclesiastical sources - and needs to be excoriated no matter what the source.

 

[butchersapron]

And you, U75, turn your back on this because of your overwhelming pro-sharia views and moral cowardice. You make me sick. I'll be in my room. Not sulking.