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Brunei makes celebrating Christmas a criminal offense

Dec 25, 2019 9:00 am By Robert Spencer

Imagine the outcry if any nation had made celebrating any Islamic festival a criminal offense. But no one will take any significant note of this.

“Brunei has made celebrating Christmas a criminal offence,” by Mark Kelly, Pattaya One, December 23, 2019:

Anyone found illegally celebrating Christmas in Brunei could face up to five years in prison, according to a reported declaration by the Sultan of the tiny oil-rich state.

Brunei introduced its ban on Christmas last year over fears that celebrating it “excessively and openly” could lead its Muslim population astray.

Christians and others can celebrate Christmas, but must do so in private and have to first alert the authorities.

Local Islamic religious leaders have promoted the ban, warning that adopting the trappings of Christmas is tantamount to imitation of another faith, prohibited in some interpretations of Islam.

Officials from the Ministry of Religious Affairs have also reportedly visited local businesses to ensure they are not displaying Christmas decorations, including Santa hats and banners with Christmas greetings.

Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, who has ruled the former British colony for nearly 50 years, introduced the ban on Christmas in 2014, the same year Brunei adopted a stricter penal code, based on Islamic sharia and including punishments such as stoning and amputation.

The Christmas ban is justified under the new laws – the punishment for celebrating Christmas is a fine of $20,000 or up to five years in prison, or both….

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Filed Under: Brunei, Featured, Islamic supremacism Tagged With: Hassanal Bolkiah, Ministry of Religious Affairs


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Comments

  1. Henry Schalk says

    Dec 25, 2019 at 9:20 am

    Can we expect a mass outpouring of Muslims protesting not in our name?

    • Arthur says

      Dec 25, 2019 at 10:01 am

      no chance 🙁

    • Infidel says

      Dec 25, 2019 at 11:55 am

      Ain’t you in the funny mood today?

      Merry Christmas

    • Francis Weber says

      Dec 26, 2019 at 1:01 pm

      #welovethefatwhitedwarf

  2. Keya says

    Dec 25, 2019 at 9:25 am

    Islam is so insufferable, suffocating and anti-life. A large number of Muslims who are otherwise good people are enslaved and trapped by it by just being born into islam and brainwashed from an early age.
    Mo’s character should be exposed as an imposter. So muslims can see the real Islam and decide to reject it.

    • Scott Carlson says

      Dec 26, 2019 at 3:44 am

      So how many Muslims would risk the death penalty for leaving Islam?

    • David says

      Dec 28, 2019 at 9:09 am

      Being born a muslim is like being born in a concentration camp.
      It is strange how muslims cannot help but demonstrate how vile their religion is, yet millions don’t see this.Totally bizarre.
      jihadwatch.org should be required reading, depressing through it has to be.

  3. Carl -stealth Infidel- says

    Dec 25, 2019 at 9:33 am

    Those muslims have the faith of a mosquito.

    • Istvan Vogel says

      Dec 25, 2019 at 8:56 pm

      That’s a bit unfair on mosquitoes

  4. revereridesagain says

    Dec 25, 2019 at 9:49 am

    Anybody really surprised anymore by what they do in Brunei?

    Merry Christmas and Happy Chanukah, all.

    • Infidel says

      Dec 25, 2019 at 11:18 am

      Another great contribution by the Brits, who colonized Malaysia, but b/w themselves and the Dutch, couldn’t end the sultanate of Brunei (which originally was the entire coast of Borneo) but instead recognized the sultan as a legitimate ruler

      Brunei is essentially the Qatar of the East Indies: only thing I’ve heard of that country is their sultan blowing off millions in casinos abroad, while running his own country like an Islamic state.

      • gravenimage says

        Dec 25, 2019 at 10:07 pm

        Whatever mistakes the Brits made, Infidel, they did not create Islam in Brunei.

      • Christopher Watson says

        Dec 26, 2019 at 8:17 am

        And he has racehorses in England and comes over to watch them race. Then he comes dressed in ‘morning’ clothes trying to look like a normal human being.

  5. HugoHackenbush says

    Dec 25, 2019 at 10:06 am

    They would probably behead you for celebrating Festivus as they would regard it as a Pagan holiday or another insidious Jewish conspiracy.

    • gravenimage says

      Dec 25, 2019 at 10:07 pm

      Yep.

  6. Gork says

    Dec 25, 2019 at 10:29 am

    Merry Christmas to the Sultan of Brunei. I mean it. I hope your Christmas is holy, and filled with joy.

    Now, go donate that fine to those Christians you malign so much.

  7. Agostino Armo Pellegrini says

    Dec 25, 2019 at 10:32 am

    Brunei makes celebrating Christmas a criminal offense

    Islamic bigotry like this and the dangers it brings should be obvious to anyone with eyes and ears. Yet leftists act oblivious to the truth about islam. This phenomenon conjures a metaphor in my mind: I feel like America and the West in general is like a bunch of folks trapped in a boat surrounded by circling sharks. You got the group in charge insisting, “Those sharks can’t hurt us, they’re peaceful, let’s swim.” And the other group knows what sharks can do and say, “No, they’re dangerous and want to eat us.” Then one guy falls out and gets eaten and the one groups says, “Don’t worry, that shark doesn’t represent all sharks, he’s a crazy shark.” But the other group says, “No, that’s what sharks do.” Both groups continue to fight over the issue while the sharks grow larger in number and continue to feed off us. And no matter how many of us get eaten the one group can never seem to admit the truth about sharks. You’ve got one group working off reasoned observation and experience, while the other group denies reality and threatens the lives of every one else in the boat. And this is what it’s like with leftists regarding islam, we can talk and talk while people die, yet they never seem to listen and learn. They continue to make excuses, they continue to deny reality, and our people get “eaten.”

    I think there comes a point when the smart group has to throw the dumb and dangerous group out of the boat. It becomes too big an immorality for the one group to keep denying the obvious and endanger everyone else. The analogy is clear, we need to get these lying leftists out of our politics and positions of power, they are killing us–culturally and literally. They are denying the obvious threat and dangers of islam to the point of blatant complicity. I care about them as people too, but if they want to hurt me for islam then they better get out of the boat. We have families too, and our worth as people grants us equal measure in our own self defense.

    • Emma says

      Dec 25, 2019 at 10:37 am

      Excellent analogy!

      • FrankO says

        Dec 25, 2019 at 11:39 am

        Ditto

    • Wellington says

      Dec 25, 2019 at 11:53 am

      I like the shark analogy, AAP. I would only add that Leftists are not only hurting us with their stupid defense of Islam but pretty much across the board. Everything the Left touches it harms, be it education, the Constitution, the law, bathrooms, gender, marriage, the Boy Scouts, late-night talk shows (ah, to have Johnny Carson back), the NFL, American history, enforcement of laws against illegal aliens—a very long list indeed. The Left is a collective idiot and often a dangerous idiot at that.

      But nonetheless may you and yours have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

      • Agostino Armo Pellegrini says

        Dec 25, 2019 at 12:45 pm

        Wellington,

        You’re right, the left hates conservative values and traditions. It’s all part of their agenda to destroy our national identity and our cultural uniqueness and become one big state on planet earth–to be “multicultural.” They want to tear down our heritage and our most valued beliefs to make us more vulnerable to the raunchy beliefs of others. All cultures are the same to them, but they’re not really, islam is too retarded and morally corrupt to say that. We are the better culture, not islam, and we are the better people for espousing principles of free speech and equality over the totalitarian brutalities of islam. The left attacks rationality and good morals because it’s a threat to their more depraved aspirations. If we care too much about our unique assets like rational thinking and free speech then they can’t mold us for islam and their one world government. All we gotta do is look at islam’s tactics in the United Nations to know how such a world would end up, tyrannical and oppressive for islam. But my “boat” analogy was too small to talk about so much, in here islam is the topic of debate and so I kept it confined to that. You are right though, the threats of the left go way beyond islam. But defeating islam doesn’t require a full-spectrum attack against the left, we are best served by staying focused on the problem at hand, I say.

    • Gg says

      Dec 25, 2019 at 11:53 am

      Agostino – You forget the owners of the boat hate us all and want us all off their ship ASAP so that they can steer it wherever they like, without risk of a mutiny.

      Those in charge know and understand exactly how dangerous sharks are, better than us in fact, which is why they keep baiting the sharks to surround our ship, whilst silencing those of us who try warning the rest about the danger we all face.

      • Agostino Armo Pellegrini says

        Dec 25, 2019 at 1:31 pm

        My dear friend, you should run with any analogy that suits you. As long as you understand the real problem at hand then you are an asset to our freedoms and safety, that’s what matters most to me. Now, go in peace and sin no more. lol, I have no idea why I said that. haha!

    • James Lincoln says

      Dec 25, 2019 at 2:21 pm

      Agostino Armo Pellegrini and Wellington – excellent exchange!

      Very insightful…

      • gravenimage says

        Dec 25, 2019 at 10:08 pm

        +1

  8. WPM says

    Dec 25, 2019 at 11:35 am

    The leftist feel that the sharks will get their fill on what they call the “right wing” ,that they the leftist will be spared because they treat the sharks so well. Time to vote these SJW, virtual signaling idiots ,Islamic appeasers .OWG morons, no borders screamers out of office .

  9. Gg says

    Dec 25, 2019 at 11:41 am

    The UN’s Agenda 2030, agreed in 2015, specifically states peace, justice and reducing inequality as some of its main goals, in particular in defence of women, lgbt and religious minorities.

    Brunei implemented Sharia law, the stoning of gays and banned Christmas after agreeing to agenda 2030. It underwent a UN review in May 2019 where 90% of member states gave Brunei a positive review, with over 60% giving a glowing review.

    I know Agenda 21 & 30 is really the globalist elite’s attempts of creating a one/new world order, but how do they justify such hypocrisy? How stupid do they think we are? Surely they’d at least pretend to speak out against Brunei and all the other Islamic states which have all signed up to this “agreement”.

    • gravenimage says

      Dec 25, 2019 at 10:09 pm

      This just shows how sadly useless the UN is.

  10. SKA says

    Dec 25, 2019 at 11:46 am

    Embargo Brunei oil. Let Uighur repressing China become their main customer. Let the pork earring wine imbibing Atheist Chinese Communists infiltrate and Copt this Muslim paradise.

  11. Westman says

    Dec 25, 2019 at 11:58 am

    Another expression of fear from a Muslim nation. Persecution of Christians is byproduct of their ever increasing HUMILOPHOBIA. It should obvious that this is equivalent to the behavior of a bully to cover up internal feelings of inferiority.

    And to all, may you have a memorable Christmas with loved ones and friends.

    • James Lincoln says

      Dec 25, 2019 at 2:24 pm

      Westman,

      Excellent observation. I look at it as more of a “subconscious” inferiority complex.

      And a very Merry Christmas to both you and yours!

  12. D3F1ANT says

    Dec 25, 2019 at 11:59 am

    Soooo…the Democrats run Brunei!? LOL!

  13. Henry Mansfield says

    Dec 25, 2019 at 12:18 pm

    Years ago Brunei made news for mistreating American women.
    A fake modeling agency was set up in California, ads placed in industry papers and planeloads of models, actresses and Playmates showed up to have their passports confiscated and begin life as harem girls for the Sultan and his henchmen.
    This was before 9-11-01, and little to nothing was made in the media of Brunei’s Islamic rule. A little derelict in it’s duty there, political correctness or cowardice probably the cause for omitting how Muslim men can find verses in the Quran to justify such behavior.

    • Save Europe says

      Dec 25, 2019 at 9:40 pm

      This also happens in Dubai VERY badly, indeed.

      Vile!

      I’ve always implored EVERY non Muslim woman NEVER to go to Muslim countries.

    • gravenimage says

      Dec 25, 2019 at 10:10 pm

      True, Henry and Save Europe.

  14. No Muzzies Here says

    Dec 25, 2019 at 12:58 pm

    What kind of a religion is it that executes those who leave it and imprisons anyone who practices a different religion? It is a totalitarian, repressive, intolerant one that is supported by the coercive power of the political system in which it resides.

    The very same religion that Democrats are so eager to bring into the USA to replace Christianity.

    • James Lincoln says

      Dec 25, 2019 at 7:02 pm

      No Muzzies Here says,

      “The very same religion that Democrats are so eager to bring into the USA to replace Christianity.”

      Unfortunately true. The left does not fully understand that muslims are using them as useful idiots -who will eventually have to submit to islam – one way or another…

  15. OREN WYSOCKI says

    Dec 25, 2019 at 12:59 pm

    More undeniable evidence of radical muslim discrimination Is A much greater than white or Israeli racism? Don’t worry the media and the left will just censor it. Human rights only count when the media and the left say so. In G-d I trust.

  16. Battle says

    Dec 25, 2019 at 2:17 pm

    Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah of Brunei is proof Islam is too weak in principles, for example no Golden Rule, to defend itself against Christian principles, so Christianophobia must be implemented for fear Islam Moslems will become Christian.

    The sultan should be teaching his people freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and freedom of assembly.

  17. elee says

    Dec 25, 2019 at 3:25 pm

    This territory, like so many others, was once governed by people who believed in religious tolerance. Its hard to imagine how they could have done a worse job of it than the current lot. We live in sad times.

  18. Lydia Church says

    Dec 25, 2019 at 3:49 pm

    The answer?

    Do it anyway. Just do it!
    Everything that God tells us to do, the devil makes illegal.
    That is NOT supposed to stop us, and it is still NOT okay to stop because something has been made illegal and we will be punished for doing it. (Or the reverse of that if it goes against God’s laws.) If that were the case, we would not even have Christianity today, because the apostles would have been too scared to disobey the orders from the religious leaders who told them not to preach the gospel. But THANK GOD, they were not the chicken sh**, knee knocking cowards that are scared witless today that we see running things! THAT is why we have the problems that we have today! Because of cowards trying to hide their b*lls and also their tail between their legs!

  19. tgusa says

    Dec 25, 2019 at 7:01 pm

    “Brunei introduced its ban on Christmas last year over fears that celebrating it “excessively and openly” could lead its Muslim population astray.”

    Too late, that ship has long ago sailed.

    Want to trigger the sultan? Send him Christmas cards, lots of Christmas cards.

    • gravenimage says

      Dec 25, 2019 at 10:26 pm

      This is not the first time Brunei has crushed the celebration of Christmas there:

      “Brunei bans public Christmas celebrations, including wearing Santa hats”

      https://www.jihadwatch.org/2015/12/brunei-bans-public-christmas-celebrations-including-wearing-santa-hats

      This was four years ago. Now the penalties are becoming more draconian.

    • SAFI says

      Dec 26, 2019 at 8:16 pm

      Let’s send this guy a nice Christmas gift in the form of sanctions.

      • gravenimage says

        Dec 27, 2019 at 12:14 am

        +1

  20. abad says

    Dec 25, 2019 at 8:15 pm

    Brunei is a Moslem-majority nation.

    Why not send all of these so-called “Syrian Refugees”(TM) over to Brunei? Brunei has a lot of money, lap of luxury insofar as Moslemhood goes.

    • gravenimage says

      Dec 25, 2019 at 10:14 pm

      Brunei is 9% Christian, so this still effects a lot of people. And 8% is Buddhist, so there are a lot of Infidels to persecute there.

  21. Istvan Vogel says

    Dec 25, 2019 at 8:58 pm

    Why are there no worldwide riots outside their embassies? Why are there no protests?

    • gravenimage says

      Dec 25, 2019 at 10:16 pm

      There *were* protests outside the Brunei-owned Beverly Hills Hotel when Brunei first imposed Shari’ah law.

    • SAFI says

      Dec 26, 2019 at 8:23 pm

      Imagine what would happen to the embassies of any country that tried to ban a Muslim religious festival. We know from past experiences all it takes for muslim mobs to burn down an embassy is for some magazine in that country to publish a cartoon of their beloved prophet…

  22. gravenimage says

    Dec 25, 2019 at 10:05 pm

    More persecution in Brunei.

    We can add this to amputations for petty theft, murder for “defamation of the Prophet Muhammad”, and stoning women and gays to death.

  23. SAFI says

    Dec 26, 2019 at 8:09 pm

    Now’s probably a good time to start sanctioning Brunei.

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