Why won’t Westerners condemn Sharia law? Brunei’s anti-gay brutality didn’t come out of thin air.
There is a deeper political problem that needs to be tackled: the creeping influence of Sharia law. While criticism of Brunei has been vocal, criticism of Sharia law has been muted. When protesters amassed outside the Dorchester Hotel, their placards read 'Boycott Brunei' and 'LGBT Rights are Human Rights'. None mentioned the system of law which is oppressing gay people across the globe.
There needs to be a democratic movement to stand against the creeping influence
of Sharia. The fact that so much anger has been directed at a hotel, rather
than at an ideology, shows just how fearful many in the West have become of
critiquing even the most extreme aspects of Islam. This has got to change if
the lives of gay people in countries that follow Sharia law are to have any
chance of improving.