Law Mandating The Stoning Of Gays To Death To Begin

A law implementing Islam’s sharia penal codes — including stoning to death of gay people — is set to begin in Brunei on Thursday. Brunei is one of the smallest countries on earth, with a population of less than a half-million people, located on the tiny island of Borneo in Southeast Asia. It boasts “one of the wealthiest rulers on earth.” 

“Brunei Darussalam’s new Penal Code legalizes cruel and inhuman punishments. It makes a mockery of the country’s international human rights commitments and must be revoked immediately,” Amnesty International’s Rupert Abbott said. He added, the “new code even permits stoning to death for acts which should not be considered ‘crimes’ in the first place, such as extramarital sexual relations and consensual sex between adults of the same gender.”

LOOK: Welcome To Brunei, Where Being Gay Can Literally Get You Stoned To Death

“Today… I place my faith in and am grateful to God the almighty to announce that tomorrow, Thursday May 1, will see the enforcement of sharia law phase one, to be followed by the other phases,” Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah said, according to a report at Al Jazeera.

Islamic law penalties would be introduced over time and would eventually include flogging, amputation and death by stoning for various crimes.

Those “various crimes” include homosexuality.

The United Nations has denounced the move as a violation of international law.

The new laws also include stoning to death for rapists, adulterers, blasphemy, insulting the Prophet or the Qur’an, and for making false charges of rape. Other punishments include amputation and whipping for lesser crimes. They will be phased in over a two-year period.

Meanwhile, in the U.S. and around the world, celebrities are attempting to shine a spotlight on these heinous acts. 

 

Image, above Brunei in red circle 

The Sultan of Brunei, Hassanal Bolkiah (image, left) owns the Dorchester Collection, a chain of 10 luxury hotels.

Ellen Degeneres last week posted this to Twitter:

I won’t be visiting the Hotel Bel-Air or the Beverly Hills Hotel until this is resolved. http://t.co/RqQrLBK4EJ — Ellen DeGeneres (@TheEllenShow) April 22, 2014

Stephen Fry made clear where he stands:

Not that you were necessarily going to stay there, but time to boycott the Dorchester Group http://t.co/r0wq1iVxUZ – Send them a message — Stephen Fry (@stephenfry) April 25, 2014

Earlier this month the Washington Blade announced the OutGiving conference, a high-dollar LGBT fundraising event, was pulling out of one of the Sultan’s hotels. The Gill Action Fund, the “LGBT rights group behind the secret conference for high-dollar LGBT donors announced … it has cancelled plans to hold the event at the Beverly Hills Hotel following news that its owner, the Sultan of Brunei, would institute a policy in his country to punish gay people with death by stoning.” 

Image, banner via Getty Images

Image, center, of Sultan of Brunei via Wikipedia and the Kremlin