Uncompromising on sexuality started by Brunei even back in the middle of 2014. To make the situation completely clear, it all started when it announced the introduction of Islamic criminal law.
Their main point was doing it all through three stages. They wanted fines and jail time for pregnancy outside marriage or failing to pray on Fridays. Country’s prime minister, Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, claimed how their new laws are actually a ‘great achievement’.
Taking a step further by implementing that penal code is made for a reason, as they claim. It should be there to obey Allah’s command as written in the Quran.
Overall, what it brought their people is the death penalty for homosexuality despite the international outcry. Brunei is definitely the first country to come up with this new law. They claim how gay people are constantly being seen beaten up to death or even stoned to death on their streets. Brunei wants to implement this Sharia penal law at a national level.
This new law will come in power in April when it will also probably face some changes. Same-sex marriages are of course forbidden, as Sultan claims, and those convicted of being part of the LGBTQ+ community face long term prison sentences.
Sultan Bolkiah needed to defend his position and he did that by saying how Brunei Darussalam is a sovereign Islamic. He also added how it is a completely independent country and how they can implement their own rules.
This country is well known already for practicing a dual legal system. The first one is based on the Sharia Law and the other one on Common Law.
Promoting the teachings of Islam despite the criticism is what Sultan Bolkiah wanted to achieve, and as we can see, he will probably succeed in that.
For those who don’t know, this country will be the first Southeast Asian country to implement this penal code even at the national level. The Sharia Law, apart from criminalizing and deterring acts that are against the teachings of Islam also has a purpose to educate, respect and protect the legitimate rights of all individuals, society or nationality of any faiths and race.
What is your personal opinion about their new law? Do you think how their people will start moving out? How will that affect young people? Will they create more war than peace in their country now between their own nation?
While everyone around the globe is talking about the actions of Sultan Bolkiah, we can actually just wait and see how will this all turn out at the end. There will probably be a lot of people on the streets trying to stop this law coming into power.
Maybe even some far away countries will go to Brunei to help people. We will be probably able to see numerous LGBT+ activists trying to stop Sultan and his ideas of gaining power.
How do you imagine this law to be really implemented into reality?
Is it even possible for one man to make this decision?
Will some other countries come up with the same idea?
