Wholegrain
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@kalu_miah
The Sharia will only apply to Muslim citizens of Brunei. Some people on this forum can't help cursing after they see the word "Sharia", so I will ask those people to keep their mouths shut on this thread and not make any posts.
Brunei to bring in tough new sharia law
Brunei to bring in tough new sharia law | World news | theguardian.com
Brunei's sultan widens usage of Sharia
Brunei's sultan widens usage of Sharia | News | DW.DE | 22.10.2013
The Sharia will only apply to Muslim citizens of Brunei. Some people on this forum can't help cursing after they see the word "Sharia", so I will ask those people to keep their mouths shut on this thread and not make any posts.
Brunei to bring in tough new sharia law
Brunei to bring in tough new sharia law | World news | theguardian.com
Brunei to bring in tough new sharia law
Oil-rich sultanate plans a new Islamic criminal code with punishments including stoning, flogging and amputation
Kate Hodal
theguardian.com, Tuesday 22 October 2013 10.38 EDT
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Brunei plans to implement a tough new sharia criminal code next year that could see citizens stoned for adultery or having a limb amputated for theft.
Those convicted of drinking alcohol or committing other violations such as abortion could be flogged.
Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah who is thought to be worth about $20bn (£12.3bn) and exercises tight control over the Muslim-majority country described the legislation as "part of the great history of our nation" and a form of "special guidance" from God.
"It is because of our need that Allah the Almighty, in all his generosity, has created laws for us, so that we can utilise them to obtain justice," the 67-year-old was quoted as saying in local media.
The oil-rich sultanate already forbids the sale of alcohol and bans the evangelism of religions other than Islam. It is known for practising a more conservative form of Islam than its majority-Muslim neighbour Malaysia.
While sharia law already exists within the small south-east Asian nation which is home to roughly 406,000 people, two-thirds of whom are Muslim the Islamic court has, to date, primarily handled family-related affairs like marriage and inheritance.
The new penal code will be enforced in phases, local media reported, and will apply only to Muslims.
However, visitors to the Brunei could be flogged under existing secular laws for crimes including immigration offences. Caning is also used as punishment in Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore.
Brunei which also calls itself the "abode of peace" has seen an increase in crime in recent years, with courts dealing with petty robberies, drug trafficking, fraud and prostitution.
Many in the country seem to welcome the new legislation, with many taking to social media to write "long live the sultan" and "praise be to Allah". Human rights activists denounced the move as "feudal" and "abhorrent".
Brunei's leading Islamic scholar described the sharia code as "guarantee[d] justice for everyone".
Mufti Awang Abdul Aziz told a legal conference on Tuesday: "Let us not just look at the hand-cutting or the stoning or the caning per se. It is not indiscriminate cutting or stoning or caning. There are conditions and there are methods that are just and fair."
He said that tourists should not fear the new legislation as long as they were law-abiding.
"Do all potential tourists to Brunei plan to steal? If they do not, then what do they need to fear? Believe me when I say that with our sharia criminal law, everyone including tourists will receive proper protection," he said.
The sultan who has reigned since 1967 and lives in an 1,800-room palace also implied that those outside Brunei would do better not to judge the adoption of the new code.
"We view others without any form of prejudice," he said. "In return, we also have the right to expect that others will view Brunei in the same light."
Brunei's sultan widens usage of Sharia
Brunei's sultan widens usage of Sharia | News | DW.DE | 22.10.2013
Brunei's sultan widens usage of Sharia
Brunei's sultan says he plans to extend Sharia, or Islamic law, in the oil-rich eastern Asian kingdom in next six months. Penalties could include amputation and stoning. Human Rights Watch says the move is "abhorrent."
Brunei's Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah told a legal conference in the Borneo island kingdom on Tuesday that Islamic criminal law would be used widely. Brunei's Islamic court had previously used Sharia mainly for family-related disputes.
The Asia deputy director of the New York-based Human Rights Watch, Phil Robertson, described the legal changes planned by the monarch as "abhorrent and absolutely unjustifiable."
Bolkiah told the conference in Brunei's capital Bandar Seri Begawan that the changes would "come into force six months hereafter and in phases."
"By the grace of Allah, with the coming into effect of this legislation, our duty to Allah is therefore being fulfilled," said the sultan, who also holds the post of prime minister.
The sultan, who has full executive authority, has ruled the kingdom of 400,000 people since 1967. Public criticism of his policies is rare. He first called in 1996 for a Sharia criminal code.
Currently dual system
Brunei already has a dual system combining British-style civil law from colonial times and Sharia court practices for marital, inheritance and low-key issues.
Its brand of Islam is regarded as relatively conservative compared to its Muslim neighbors, Malaysia and Indonesia. Neither practice Sharia punishment, with the exception of the Indonesian region of Aceh.
Brunei's top Islamic scholar, Mufti Awang Abdul Aziz, told a Tuesday conference that the law change would "guarantee justice."
"It is not indiscriminate cutting or stoning or caning. There are conditions and there are methods that are just and fair," he said.
Nearly 70 percent of Brunei's people are Muslim Malays. Ethnic Chinese make up 15 percent. Minorities also include Buddhists and Christians.
Already strictly forbidden is the sale of alcohol and evangelism.
The sultanate was a British protectorate until 1984.
ipj/dr (AFP, Reuters, AP)
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