On December 24, in the capital city of the Islamic Sultanate of Brunei, religious police ordered business owners to get rid of Christmas decorations or face arrest. When Brunei adopted Sharia Law in 2014, many wondered if the stringent penal code, which includes stoning and amputation for blasphemous acts, would be enforced in actuality, since one-third of the small, oil-rich fiefdom’s population constitutes non-Muslims. The crackdown on Christmas Eve 2014, clearly addressed that concern.
According to business owners in Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei’s capital city, religious police cited the Sharia Penal Code Order 2013, which prohibits decorations and exhibits that do not comply with Islamic beliefs, before asking them to remove Christmas decorations from their respective establishments. If the business owners refused to do so, the officials said they could face a $15,000 fine as well as a five-year jail term.
The ban on Christmas decorations is not the only restraint on religious freedom in Brunei, as Sharia Law also disallows non-Muslims from teaching or speaking to Muslims about their personal beliefs, punishing one that violates the law with a hefty fine as well as imprisonment. While it is mandatory for all religions to register with the government in Brunei, Muslims who convert to another religion could face death sentences and Christians who have used the Bible in public have been imprisoned.
Despite Brunei’s consistent record of religious persecution, the Obama administration has pressed forward with plans to label the Sultanate one of its most favoured nations and give it special privileges under the Trans Pacific Partnership trade agreement (TPP). Senator Mitch McConnell has also gone on record to say this agreement is one of his top priorities.
During the Cold War, Republicans and Democrats restricted trade with countries that did not allow their citizens basic freedoms. Now that the threat has transformed from communism to Islamist totalitarianism, the GOP Congressional leadership as well as Obama seem ready to embrace a Sharia regime as a privileged trading partner under the TPP.
The TPP is an agreement that not only concerns trade but also global governance, and the Obama administration has been negotiating with eleven Pacific Rim nations, including Brunei, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, Chile, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, Peru and Canada to join the pact. Of these countries, Brunei is not the only one that has a consistent record of persecuting non-Muslims. While in Malaysia, Christians are sent to concentration camps to be converted to Islam, in Vietnam, churches must register themselves with Communist authorities that look over all prayer services.
Churches in many of these countries have been attacked routinely and several priests have been murdered as well.
Critics believe the American government is doing a really shoddy job at showing how important religious freedom is by negotiating a most-favoured-nation trade status with such countries that are known to stifle their people’s religious freedom. Even though TPP is being negotiated in secrecy, Obama has said the agreement would be finalized by mid 2015. In fact, McConnell, too, said he would work with the White House to ensure Obama is given a fast track trade promotion authority. Fast track rules imply the president could sign an agreement before submitting it to Congress, where no amendments would be made. Once approved, TPP would establish a pattern for accepting Sharia Law under international law.
Photo Credits: Ahram Online
