The sultan of Brunei is going ahead with the introduction of ferocious punitive “sharia” despite objections from people who aren’t savage theocratic monsters.
“With faith and gratitude to Allah the almighty, I declare that tomorrow, Thursday 1 May 2014, will see the enforcement of sharia law phase one, to be followed by the other phases,” the absolute monarch said in a royal decree on Wednesday.
Plans for the sharia penalties – which will eventually include flogging, severing of limbs and death by stoning – triggered condemnation on social media sites in the tiny sultanate earlier this year.
Well, Mohammed didn’t say anything about social media, so fuck all that.
67-year-old Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah – one of the world’s wealthiest men – said in his decree that the move was “a must” under Islam, dismissing “never-ending theories” that sharia punishments were cruel in comments clearly aimed at detractors.
“Theory states that Allah’s law is cruel and unfair but Allah himself has said that his law is indeed fair,” he said.
Imbecile. How does he know that? It’s in a book. In other words he doesn’t know it, but he’s too stubborn and pious to realize he doesn’t.
The initial phase beginning on Thursday introduces fines or jail terms for offences ranging from indecent behaviour, failure to attend Friday prayers, and out-of-wedlock pregnancies.
Oh, brilliant – you’re not even allowed to not go to Friday prayers in Brunei.
A second phase covering crimes such as theft and robbery is to be implemented later this year, involving more stringent penalties such as severing of limbs and flogging.
Late next year, punishments such as death by stoning for offences including sodomy and adultery will be introduced.
Why stop there? Why not stone children to death for crying when they fall and skin their knees?
The UN’s human rights office said this month it was deeply concerned about the changes, adding that women typically bore the brunt of punishment for crimes involving sex.
Well they should have thought of that before deciding to be women.
What sayeth the Sultan’s long-time famous good buddy, Oliver North?
How absolutely terrifying for those inhabitants of that Sultanate. They must be petrified to leave the house or answer the phone, or not leave the house if it’s Friday.
Flee across the border, people! Run for your lives.
Or overthrow your crackpot dictator, he’s clearly evil and rotten to the core.
Has George Galloway leapt to the Sultan’s defence yet?
That arse kissing toad.
The ground of all being sure has some weird requirements.
When I worked for “a very large aerospace company formerly headquartered in the Pacific Northwest”, the sultan had a personal, private 747. His sons had to make do with personal 767’s.
During WWII, the Japanese empire controlled Brunei. Perhaps they’ed like to take it back? Welcome to it, as far as I’m concerned.
As Gandhi says, “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.”
He also said, I know of no greater sin than to oppress the innocent in the name of God.
It’s s stupid reason even if you believe the book. ‘People say Tom is a liar but Tom himself says he’s not, so there.’
Modern Japan taking over Brunei? Hilarity ensues.
I wonder how kawaii would translate there.
Even Imperialist Japan would have done a better job in Brunei than the guys who were actually there and helped to create all these royal families out of the most thuggish of the locals available.
When you have fucked up fiefdoms like Saudi Arabia and Brunei blotting the landscape, it is the dear old British you have to thank. I admit to a feeling of schadenfreude that they now have the sharia fetishists running their schools places like Birmingham and policing Bricklane or parts of Luton. The british will have more to contend with when their young muslim men return from the carnage in Syria. Perhaps Amnesty UK will tout them as peacekeepers as it did Moazzam Begg.
I am so fucking angry right now. SE Asia is my home and now there are 3 enclaves with full scale sharia law : Aceh, Brunei and two states in peninsula Malaysia. The asshole Malaysian Prime Minister said last week that his government is not against hudud implementation but rather biding its time. My blood ran cold when I read that. No Malaysian Prime Minister has ever said such a thing before. It was a startling concession to the sharia boneheads and a betrayal of Malaysia’s constitutional nod to a secular state.
Brunei and Saudi are very modern islamic dictatorships – only looking towards the (recently) historical British rule doesn’t fully explain it. Actually, it potentially offers a very patronising and lazy excuse for the existance of sophisticated tyranies.
Thanks. I’m sure that the people being abused and repressed will also share your healthy sense of irony. Schadefreude is deeply troubling when there are other victims than the entity you intend to sneer at.
You will really be able to enjoy the schadenfreude once the angry, brutalised radicals start to run amuck!
Come on, even when you’re angry, can’t you do better than that?
Imperialism has a lot to answer for, but the modern oil trade has just as much – the entire developed world does business with terrible dictatorships in oil-rich states. Perhaps Japan needs to think about how it supports the dictatorship in Brunei?