On Tuesday, an LGBTI group protested outside the Brunei embassy in Bangkok, rallying against the tiny oil-rich nation's imposition on April 3 of full Sharia law, which among other barbaric acts punishes sodomy by stoning offenders to death.
The rally-goers should be commended for their courage in holding their demonstration and their cause should be supported by all decent people in Thailand and beyond.
Besides Tuesday's rally in Bangkok, other protests against Brunei and its sultan have been held elsewhere, one in London when dozens chanted "Shame on you" outside the Brunei-owned Dorchester Hotel.
For the uninitiated, there is only one Sharia, or Islamic religious law. Sharia law itself cannot be altered but its interpretation and punishments can be given latitude by Islamic jurists known as ulema, or in the case of Brunei, when its ruler Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah decided to proceed with some of the harshest of penalties -- and not just for LGBTI people -- after consulting with local ulema.
A wave of condemnation from Western nations and celebrities has been directed at Brunei and the sultan. British pop legend Elton John and American talk show host Ellen DeGeneres joined the Hollywood actor George Clooney in demanding a boycott of all Brunei-linked hotels around the world.
For those who believe Brunei is the only country in the world to have enforced such savagery in its legal system, they must think again. Much of the Western media and even experienced journalists in the region seem to have ignored the fact that full Sharia law is already in force in a slew of countries from Asia to the Middle East and Africa, and has been for many years.
Where has the worldwide outrage been for all this time? And as for the celebrity boycott campaign, is it more a case of pro-LGBTI virtue-signalling with Clooney and company pointing the finger at Brunei rather than condemning Sharia punishments as a whole? Or do they have good intentions and just not know the facts?
The list of "full Sharia law" countries includes Saudi Arabia, Iran, Yemen, Somalia and Sudan. Many others incorporate Sharia principles into their legal codes, but impose punishments that are "not so savage", say whipping instead of stoning to death for homosexuality.
The risk now of course is of previously more tolerant Muslim-majority nations in Southeast Asia following in Brunei's footsteps, and those of some of the more brutal Arab world regimes. In Indonesia and Malaysia, the silence from their governments about Brunei has been deafening. Some puritanical Islamic lawmakers in those countries have actually congratulated the Brunei sultan.
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) has remained conspicuously silent on the subject, more than a week after the penalties in Brunei came into full force, as has the regional advocacy group attached to the bloc -- the Asean Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AIHCR). The Bangkok Post in its April 2 editorial highlighted Asean's abject failure to respond, noting that the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of other states was the probable reason.
But sticking to a political principle is simply not good enough. Asean and the AIHCR must take a stand on Brunei's draconian new penal code before the curse of Islamic extremism, endorsed by a nation state in law in this case, creeps across the Southeast Asian region. If it doesn't, the counter-curse of anti-Islam sentiment, as already witnessed in Myanmar with the horrors inflicted upon the Rohingya, risks becoming widespread in non-Muslim-majority Asean member states.
