A new penal code mandates death by stoning for sex outside marriage, anal sex and insulting the prophet Muhammad
.) And then there is the question of the vast personal wealth of the sultan himself, who rules the tiny, oil-soaked sliver of Borneo as an absolute monarch. He owns a gold-plated Rolls-Royce, and lives in a palace with air-conditioned stables for 200 polo ponies, which, although perfectly legal, could be seen as wholesale theft from his 430,000 subjects, who derive far less benefit from Brunei’s resources than he does.
The sultan, presumably, did not have that kind of theft in mind when he pushed for the adoption of a harsh Islamic penal code, which came into force on April 3rd. Among other brutal punishments, it calls for the amputation of a hand or foot as punishment for thieves, and death by stoning for adultery or sex outside marriage. Sex between two men, anal sex and insulting the Prophet are also all punishable by stoning.
Yet there is no guarantee that Brunei’s courts will not implement the new laws. And even if they hesitate, it remains striking that the sultan, without any obvious prodding from his subjects, felt it necessary to bolster his legitimacy by espousing such a cruel interpretation of Islam. Perhaps he wanted to distract them from other, even less defensible aspects of his rule.
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