As Brunei implements Sharia this month, Christians there are worried that they will be denied basic rights — and they will be, as Islamic law mandates a second-class status for non-Muslims, with Muslims enjoying rights and privileges to which non-Muslims are not privy. But the global “human rights community” is unconcerned about this institutionalized bigotry and discrimination, because to be concerned about it would be “Islamophobic.”
“No baptisms in Brunei by 2016? Concerns raised over shift to new Islamic law system,” from GMA News, April 1:
Baptisms may soon be outlawed in Brunei as the country shifts to a full system of Islamic law—a potential major cause of concern among Catholic and other non-Muslim Filipinos there.
A report on UK’s The Independent said Philippine Ambassador to Brunei Nestor Ochoa recently held a meeting to warn Filipinos of possible implications of the new system.
Brunei hosts 30,000 Filipinos, most of whom are Catholics, and to whom baptisms may be out of reach in two years’ time.
“There will be no baptisms. There is not a lot we can do about it. We will have to wait and see what happens,” Father Robert Leong, a Catholic priest in Brunei, told The Independent.
Under the new rules, propagation of religion other than Islam to a Muslim or atheist is an offense. Brunei Times reported that offenders will pay a fine up to $20,000 or face imprisonment for up to five years or both under Section 209.
A separate report on Brunei Times said legal experts from the Ministry of Religious Affairs and the Prime Minister’s Office in Brunei have warned private education institutions from committing such offenses.
Under the new law, it is a crime to “expose the child to any ceremony, act of worship or religious activity of any religion beside Islam, or to participate in any activity held for the benefit of other religions.”
Both Muslims and non-Muslims are subject to the law, but certain offenses are only applicable to Muslims.
Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, the 67-year-old leader of Brunei, declared the shift to a full Sharia system in 2013. He said the system acted as a “strong and effective firewall” against challenges posed by globalization.
Bolkiah warned Brunei netizens in March that they may face legal actions for criticizing the legal shift.
“They can no longer be given the liberty to continue with their mockery and if there is a basis for them to be brought to court, then therefore, the first phase of the Syariah (criminal) law this coming April will be relevant to them,” Global Voices Online quoted Bolkiah as saying.
He also cautioned younger generations against the influence of international netizens who wish to “instigate conflict and do not respect their leader or government.” — Rie Takumi/KBK/JL, GMA News
Stephen Poole says
… Jesus Christ presented himself for baptism before He began his ministry … What in the world does Islam have against baptisms ?? … SP OX …
mariam rove says
What in the world does Islam have against baptisms ??
Islam is against humanity and peace. Baptism is is a peaceful ceremony. So there you have it. So sorry about yesterday. Not sure what went wrong during posting comments. M
Stephen Poole says
… I already accepted your apology M Rove … Plus, I live in the free world … Sticks and stones will break my bones but telling me to f-off will Never hurt me … … I’d thought that Islam accepted Christ as a Prophet … Yet He made a mistake ?? … ibn Muslim where are you when I need you most … SP OX …
Salah says
“I’d thought that Islam accepted Christ as a Prophet”
Not only did the Qur’an accept Isa (the muslim name for Jesus) as a prophet, but, according to ALL the islamic texts, He is far more superior than Muhammad!!!
The Holy and the Sinner
Islamic texts + sources + links + screenshots:
http://crossmuslims.blogspot.com/2011/05/saint-and-sinner.html
Michael Copeland says
For Jesus in Islam: a useful note:
http://loganswarning.com/2014/03/29/north-american-infidel-refutes-cairs-about-islam-page/
mortimer says
Mohammed created his own version of Jesus because he had no idea what was in the New Testament and didn’t even realize it was not written by Jesus himself. Mohammed tried to depict Jesus as a Muslim. God intentionally created Christianity to mislead Christians and now Muslims are commissioned to persecute and exterminate them to punish them for being misled by Allah.
Mohammed claimed Jesus was similar to himself but with many more miracles, including being assumed bodily into heaven. Mohammed’s scenario is filled with glaring contradictions and motives of Allah that don’t add up.
gravenimage says
Stephen, the Muslim “Isa” is a nasty figure that has *very little* in common with the Jesus of the Gospels.
PJG says
It was obvious to me who your comment yesterday was aimed at. The commenting system makes it clear. It was SP’s mistake thinking it was for him.
Stephen Poole says
… You are the only one with that view, PJD … Plus, M Rove apologized to me over it, and, he made the comment in question … It seemed to him !! that it coulda bin misconstrued !! … Just sayin’ … … Let’s not forget that I taunted ibn Muslim to reply today, and that, he did not … Doesn’t say much for his opinion, since he comments in later posts … Just sayin’ … TC PJD … SP OX …
gravenimage says
Stephen, miriam rove made it clear that that comment *wasn’t* in reply to you. He was only sorry that you had thought that it was.
Sometimes where there are a lot of replies, and replies to replies, it can be difficult to trace the thread back.
jewdog says
I think President Obama should gather an international coalition of nations interested in human rights and democracy for the purpose of invading Brunei and replacing the government there. Somehow, I doubt he will, but he should.
southeuropean says
No, I think that it is time for the richest Asian micro country leader to drown himself in a flout
Stephen Poole says
… Brit & Brun (… a new brand of shoe-Polish …) are great allies, JDog … Plus Brun is so rich that they use gold instead of lead for their bullets … Just sayin’ … SP OX … PS : If you get a moment JD, please expound on your user name pour moi … I’m kinda mixed-up about it, and, the nurse just made her rounds …
jewdog says
For those Muslims who don’t like Jews or dogs I am proud to be both.
jewdog says
Since Obama and Kerry are so big on calling for things to be he way they “should” be, I thought I’d join in the fun.
Veracious_one says
All non Muslim laborers should now be making plans to exit the country as soon as possible…let the Muslims furnish their own laborers…
umbra says
Well replacing unskilled labourers is not a problem. Finding replacement for skilled workers who run the oil industry will be a problem. Furthermore, unskilled labourers will have to be imported from indonesia (malays from malaysia generally shun laborious work, they have indonesians for those type of jobs) to replace those from Philippines (a sizeable proportion are employed as domestic servants). Indonesian labourers are inefficient and more problematic. At least that is the experience in malaysia.
Christian A. Beltram says
What is happening in Brunai is a well-known pattern in the Islamic World. Rulers who had been only nominally or culturally Muslim for most of their lives gravitate towards Islam and impose Sharia law on their countries whenever they believe that their power is threatened. The late dictator Gafaar Muhammad Nimeiry of Sudan is a perfect example of this. Before his turn towards Islamism in the late 1970s and his imposition of Sharia law on Sudan in 1983 which triggered the Second Sudanese Civil War, he occasionally drank scotch, a very Unislamic thing to do.
Stephen Poole says
… I’d guess that I’m as un-Islamic as you can possibly get, CAB … … The movie “Dogs of War” might be appropriate viewing for us all right now … Just sayin’ … SP OX …
PJG says
And when he declared sharia law, all the alcohol was thrown into the Nile. History doesn’t tell us, however, if he offerred up his own supply to the Nile waters.
duh_swami says
They are doing the right thing. Sharia laws are Allah’s laws and no one should violate them…or else. This kind of ruling makes Allah very happy, ecstatic almost. Watch for stonings and public beatings of female ‘uncovered meat’, maybe a gay hanging or two, Lots of Christians are going to be arrested for blasphemy if they are guilty or not. An example has to be made of them so the rest of the population understands, Allah and his laws are in charge.
Stephen Poole says
… The PC of the IOC will make the sharp-shootin’ competitors use blanks … Just sayin’ … SP OX …
Power to the people says
And who’s Allah? Definetely is not my God
colin says
Sharia law is a way of controlling the masses and chanelling the collective. Allah is the drug fuelled invention of a paedophile necrophilliac and the koran is a poor copy of the Bible.
Jay Boo says
Muslims need all the water to wash their blood stained hands
Just Before Prayers
It is a Muhammad inspired tradition.
gravenimage says
Brunei under Sharia will deny Christians religious freedom: “There will be no baptisms. There is not a lot we can do about it.”
………………………….
How many in the West will notice that the imposition of Shari’ah law *necessarily* renders non-Muslims second class citizens? All too few, I’d imagine…
Ands as ugly as this ban on baptism is, it’s nothing compared to the likely flood of “blasphemy” charges against Christians and other Infidels.
More:
Bolkiah warned Brunei netizens in March that they may face legal actions for criticizing the legal shift.
“They can no longer be given the liberty to continue with their mockery and if there is a basis for them to be brought to court, then therefore, the first phase of the Syariah (criminal) law this coming April will be relevant to them,” Global Voices Online quoted Bolkiah as saying.
………………………….
In other words, the first order of business under Shari’ah law is to criminalize any criticism of Shari’ah law.
More:
Under the new rules, propagation of religion other than Islam to a Muslim or atheist is an offense. Brunei Times reported that offenders will pay a fine up to $20,000 or face imprisonment for up to five years or both under Section 209.
………………………….
Ummmmm—right. I’m sure it was *atheists* who were clamoring for this law. sarc/off
In fact, I’m sure it will not be long before atheists suffer under Shari’ah, just like Christians.
bill says
I lived in Brunei for 4 years 1990 -93. it was a fairly liberal place for an Islamic country. You could buy alcohol as there were quite a lot of Chinese there,and even pork in the supermarket though at a separate counter from the other meats. However one could see things changing. First alcohol went leading to smuggling! The Christian minority was tlerated but not allowed to gather in large numbers to worship because of a law against more than 4 people meeting together (could be wrong about the actual number) intende to prevent uprisings againts the Sultan, as in 1962. I do not know if the Imams and Mullahs have something on the Sultan who used to lead a very sybaritic lifestyle, or whether he is getting more religious in his later years, but it is sad to see the country sliding towards more extreme Islam. It also seems to be the trend in most SE Asian countries. Islam cannot tolerate progress so it regresses instead
gravenimage says
Bill wrote:
I do not know if the Imams and Mullahs have something on the Sultan who used to lead a very sybaritic lifestyle, or whether he is getting more religious in his later years
………………………….
Bill, this something you hear a lot—but I think this is just because so many Westerners tend to think in Christian terms.
Really, there’s very little that is contradictory about a Muslim ruler living a sybaratic lifestyle and orthodox Islam, especially when it comes to sexual excess with Infidel women.
Certainly, it sounds as though he has treated some of these women as virtual sex slaves aver the years.
dumbledoresarmy says
No baptisms?
Well, maybe no *public* baptisms.
But…all one needs is so very, very little. A cup or a jug in a private room; the person (whether adult or infant) being baptised, and someone to baptise them. Or for that matter, a pool in a stream in the jungle (there are many jungle villages in Brunei) and two people; or even just a Christian woman in her room with her newborn baby, and a handful of water.
Normally, a recognised pastor or priest carries out a baptism; but if I recall correctly, in conditions of extreme necessity, it is held that *any* professing Christian can perform the rite.
I remember a heartwrenching little story from book of memoirs written by an Australian of Irish Catholic extraction, recalling his pioneer family’s experiences. His mother gave birth to twin girls – at home, in a remote country district of NSW, in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney. No doctor. And one of the babies, soon after the birth, took ill…fading fast, too quickly for anyone to make the long ride to fetch the priest (this was, I think, in the 1880s). The dying infant was baptised by her own elder brother. And all he had to do was to pour a handful of water and say, “I baptise thee, Veronica, in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit”.
xi says
Allah is a new name for the moon god Al Ilah!Lokk at the symbol of muslism it a coming moon!They pray for the darkness.
dumbledoresarmy says
Stats on Brunei, as of 2010.
Population – 478 000.
Muslims – 65 percent of the population.
Christian – 11.4 percent – some 46 000 people. Some are of Chinese ethnicity, some are expats – Westerners, Filipinos – and some are indigenous, tribal people who converted to Christianity in the past couple of generations. The tribal Christians are under a lot of pressure to become Muslim.
Buddhist – 8.9 percent – some 36 000 people, mostly Chinese. They are under heavy pressure to become Muslim.
“Ethnoreligious” (that is: native non-Malay tribes in the jungle, who are completely indigenous to the island of Borneo) – 6.6 percent. They are under *heavy* pressure to become Muslim.
Then there’s a sprinkling of Hindu, nonreligious and Bahaii folks.
Anyways: Borneo is 65 percent Muslim and 35 percent *non-Muslim* (of which non-Muslims a significant percentage are *indigenous* rather than expats/ immigrants), but here are the Muslims proceeding to dictate to everybody else, and *force* them to live under the ghastly sharia of Islam.
Now, imagine societies that are 65 percent *non-Muslim* and 35 percent Muslim.
Imagine if that society treated the Muslims as the Muslims in Brunei are treating – and are proceeding to treat – the non-Muslims there. Imagine the SCREAMS from the Muslims, the wailings and howlings, the crying and whining…and the hand-wringing from human rights groups.
The Mohammedan mob laughs with glee when it is hurting and oppressing others, yet screams with rage if anyone *dares* to hurt *it*…or even just to say no to it and set some reasonable limits.
Mohammedan non-reciprocity and malignant narcissism are a revolting spectacle.
Lantern says
Brunei a tragic story. Gloom hangs over all of them. Fear takes over.