Brunei | Homosexuality and Adultery under the Death Penalty

The Sultan of Brunei has put homosexuality and adultery under the death penalty in his country. Violent international criticism was the result. 

So far, there was no comment from the immediate neighborhood Malaysia and Indonesia - two countries with a large Muslim majority in the population.

In Malaysia, the only bordering Bruneis, homosexuality is prohibited by jail. It is legal in Indonesia, but it is not welcomed culturally. Indonesia has the world's largest Muslim community of more than 200 million people. Unlike Malaysia, where 60 percent of the population is Muslim, Islam is not the state religion. Citizens must belong to only one of the recognized world religions. However, in both countries a strengthening of conservative Islam is to be noted.

In Malaysia, there have been increasing efforts by Muslim conservatives to introduce stricter punishments of homosexuals for several years. It was not until September 2018 that two homosexual women were publicly flogged.

Indonesia President Joko Widodo, known as Jokowi, is awaiting the reaction of the highly conservative Nahdlatul Ulama. This mass movement, with 40 million members, is the largest Muslim NGO in the world. On April 17, Jokowi is re-elected. As a candidate for the vice president, he has chosen the conservative scholar Ma'ruf Amin - so far the leader of Nahdlatul Ulama.