I wish I could find the complete letter that Brunei sent to the EU. The letter that purports to clarify that stoning to death people that have the wrong kind of sex is OK, as long as you keep in mind that it “is to safeguard the sanctity of family lineage and marriage”. The letter might allow us to understand better how believers rationalize their insane beliefs.
I could only find a few quotes.
The criminalisation of adultery and sodomy is to safeguard the sanctity of family lineage and marriage to individual Muslims, particularly women
The penal sentences of hadd – stoning to death and amputation – imposed for offences of theft, robbery, adultery and sodomy, have extremely high evidentiary threshold, requiring no less than two or four men of high moral standing and piety as witnesses, to the exclusion of every form of circumstantial evidence.
The interesting bit in the second quote is the implication that the threshold of four witnesses will prevent people from being stoned to death on a false accusation. However, if it concerns actual “adultery and sodomy”, stoning to death is still the proper punishment, surely.
Another interesting bit, not included in the quote, is that earlier people accused of the hideous crimes of having the wrong kind of sex were merely put in prison. Which means that Brunei was already using backward, immoral laws to punish people, for which it already should have been sanctioned, somehow. However, lower the threshold of outrage a bit, and economic interests overrule the moral considerations.
Perhaps that our politicians can do the right thing only when they take a vow of poverty?
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/apr/22/brunei-defends-stoning-death-gay-sex-letter-eu
