Hotel Boycott Grows Against Brunei Sultan

Brunai is a tiny little country about the size of Delaware located on the northwest coast of Borneo in the South China Sea. The country is a constitutional sulnate, run by Sultan Bolkiah believed to be one of the richest men in the world because Brunai produces a LOT of oil and Sultan Bolkiah apparently keeps a great deal of the oil profits for himself. He invests a lot of that money too, and a couple of places he bought are hotels in Los Angeles, the landmark Beverly Hills Hotel and the Hotel Bel-Air. He then decided to make some massive multi-million-dollar renovations to both hotels, and they turned out pretty nice. However, there is now a problem. It seems that although Sultan Bolkiah began taking cautious steps toward democratic reform in Sept. 2004, he also decided that since about two-thirds of the country's 400,000 inhabitants are Muslim, that they should be subject to very strict Sharia law. Some of the penalties under Sharia law are death by stoning for adulterers and the amputation of limbs for theft. Sultan Bolkiah celebrated the new legal code as obedience to "God's command, as written in the Koran."

Apparently the Sultan thought the new law might be considered a bit too harsh for Westerners, so he decided to phase it in slowly over a year or so. Under the first phase, fines and jail terms were introduced Thursday for offenses that include failure to attend Friday prayers, and indecent behavior and pregnancies outside of marriage. A second phase of the law, which will come into force later this year, provides for severing of limbs and flogging for property crimes. A third phase set for late 2015 will allow the justice system to sentence offenders to death by stoning for crimes including adultery and gay sex. 

Well, it seems that human rights advocates around the world have criticized the action as "draconian" and "medieval." Demonstrations have erupted at both hotels and among the demonstrators are celebrities Jay Leno and Ellen DeGeneres. Human Rights Campaign, a U.S.-based group that advocates for gay and transgender rights, condemned Brunei's action as "draconian penal code reforms ... that will soon include stoning as a possible punishment for engaging in same-sex activity." The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights also condemned the Brunei legal code for its planned application of death sentences for rape, adultery, sodomy, extramarital sexual relations, insulting verses of the Koran and murder.

Beverly Hills officials have condemned the new laws and want its government to separate itself from the Beverly Hills Hotel. The city council's unanimous resolution Tuesday night calls for the tiny Southeast Asian nation to change its laws or divest its ownership of the iconic property. A growing number of Hollywood groups have relocated events traditionally held at the Beverly Hills Hotel in protest. The International Women's Media Foundation and Barbara Davis Carousel of Hope are the latest to join the boycott.

Muslims in neighboring Malaysia are subject to a version of sharia law that doesn't include amputation or death sentences, and Indonesia's Aceh province also has the less severe form of Islamic law. Conservative Brunei, where alcohol is banned, is the only Asian Pacific country to impose the harsh form of religious law practiced in parts of the Middle East and South Asia.