East Asian country steps up brutal sharia laws

[lewisnotmiller]

You are creating an argument for the sake of pontificating. Go for it.

Way to make any point at all.
Let me ask you a question...what is your opinion about Brunei's change to its laws, as per the OP?

 

[lewisnotmiller]

I can assure you that I have NOT read 6,000 hadiths.

Nor did I suggest you had.
Or anything like that.

 

[Revoltingest]

Based on a definition including oral sex? Plenty.

I think you're right.

That makes it sound like its mere cultural bias at play here. What I'm suggesting is that the law is inconsistently enforced. Whether sodomy should be punished is more a cultural position, albeit one I feel strongly about.

I expanded on this in an edit.
(My posts are always a moving target for a while after first appearing.)

 

[lewisnotmiller]

I think you're right.

I expanded on this in an edit.
(My posts are always a moving target for a while after first appearing.)

Cool, I went back and reread.
I do the same sometimes, in terms of editing.

Your post made sense to me.

 

[Audie]

No religion, no ideology, nothing that requires that one "bind oneself" to some position or belief, is ever going to get to the principle that I hold most dear: that the individual is and must be sovereign over himself, constrained only by not hurting others and not contravening just laws. Religions and ideologies are not about you or me, they're about control and conformity, usually to the benefit of a very few in the "priestly" or "central committee" roles in those religions and ideologies.

(Actually, I accept that one may be punished for contravening unjust laws, and that this might be a price one has to pay to get those unjust laws revoked. Not everyone, certainly not me, has the courage for that sort of thing, but I praise the bejeebers out of those that do.)

This thing wont let me give more than one "winner".

 

[sooda]

Way to make any point at all.
Let me ask you a question...what is your opinion about Brunei's change to its laws, as per the OP?

I don't think it will stand.. Its very severe even for a strict and conservative Muslim country.

 

[lewisnotmiller]

I don't think it will stand.. Its very severe even for a strict and conservative Muslim country.

Cool. I hope you're right.
I can't think of a time (including in the West) where these sort of laws have been fairly enforced, or not used as a way of keeping some people 'in their place'.

I also find this all hypocritical given the amount of noise around the Sultans own romantic entanglements.

 

[lewisnotmiller]

I think you're right.

Including the guy who implemented the law and his brother, if we need to get more specific.
People's ability to deal with such cognitive dissonance is incredibly hard for me to understand. Still, I'm the immoral one by most measures in that country...

*shrugs in confusion*

 

[Shadow Wolf]

Shows an obvious need for secular governments.

Secular governments have no inherent safe guards or fail safes to prevent them from enacting human rights abuses. Just as a dictator can be cruel or benevolent. Official state policy tends to take a back seat to leading governing narratives If this wasn't the case, Christians would find it extremely difficult to find any favorance from the officially secular US government - and also we could expect to find more religious policy in the officially religious Europe, but that isn't the case either.

 

[Cooky]

I don't think it will stand.. Its very severe even for a strict and conservative Muslim country.

Have you seen any indications of this yet?

Do you think economic sanctions would be appropriate to encourage them to end this?

 

[Cooky]

...Or should the world allow this?

 

[Cooky]

Secular governments have no inherent safe guards or fail safes to prevent them from enacting human rights abuses. Just as a dictator can be cruel or benevolent. Official state policy tends to take a back seat to leading governing narratives If this wasn't the case, Christians would find it extremely difficult to find any favorance from the officially secular US government - and also we could expect to find more religious policy in the officially religious Europe, but that isn't the case either.

I can't think of any favorance that Christians receive from the US government.

...What exactly are you referring to?

 

[sooda]

Have you seen any indications of this yet?

Do you think economic sanctions would be appropriate to encourage them to end this?

Just a gut feeling. The international outcry has been loud and immediate. Let's revisit this subject in ten days and see if they haven't backed off.

Economic sanctions from Trump? He has no standing in the world.

Brunei Shell Petroleum (BSP), a joint venture owned in equal shares by the Brunei Government and the Royal Dutch/Shell group of companies, is the chief oil and gas production company in Brunei. It also operates the country's only refinery.

Brunei is the third-largest oil producer in Southeast Asia, averaging about 180,000 barrels per day.

 

[sooda]

The Sultan of Brunei is a major hypocrite.

https://nypost.com/2014/05/10/inside-the-wacky-sex-obsessed-world-of-brunei/

 

[lewisnotmiller]

Secular governments have no inherent safe guards or fail safes to prevent them from enacting human rights abuses. Just as a dictator can be cruel or benevolent. Official state policy tends to take a back seat to leading governing narratives If this wasn't the case, Christians would find it extremely difficult to find any favorance from the officially secular US government - and also we could expect to find more religious policy in the officially religious Europe, but that isn't the case either.

I think it's more important that the government is practically secular than theoretically.
Far too many religiously 'inspired' policy decisions and votes in the US for it to be truly secular.

 

[lewisnotmiller]

I can't think of any favorance that Christians receive from the US government.

...What exactly are you referring to?

Depends on how you view things. Teaching the 'controversy' of intelligent design wouldn't be allowed in many First World countries...

 

[Audie]

Just a gut feeling. The international outcry has been loud and immediate. Let's revisit this subject in ten days and see if they haven't backed off.

Economic sanctions from Trump? He has no standing in the world.

Brunei Shell Petroleum (BSP), a joint venture owned in equal shares by the Brunei Government and the Royal Dutch/Shell group of companies, is the chief oil and gas production company in Brunei. It also operates the country's only refinery.

Brunei is the third-largest oil producer in Southeast Asia, averaging about 180,000 barrels per day.

"Trump has no standing in the world"?

 

[sooda]

"Trump has no standing in the world"?

He's a laughingstock... a boob.

As for this new ruling in Brunei, I don't expect it will stand.

 

[Cooky]

I think it's more important that the government is practically secular than theoretically.
Far too many religiously 'inspired' policy decisions and votes in the US for it to be truly secular.

Far too many?

 

[Cooky]

Just a gut feeling. The international outcry has been loud and immediate. Let's revisit this subject in ten days and see if they haven't backed off.

Economic sanctions from Trump? He has no standing in the world.

Brunei Shell Petroleum (BSP), a joint venture owned in equal shares by the Brunei Government and the Royal Dutch/Shell group of companies, is the chief oil and gas production company in Brunei. It also operates the country's only refinery.

Brunei is the third-largest oil producer in Southeast Asia, averaging about 180,000 barrels per day.

Good to know. I'll make it a point to not buy shell gas anymore. It's typically overpriced as it is.