SHARIAsource

Brunei lawmakers passed amendments to the Syariah Penal Code Order of 2013 in August 2018. The amendments define the term ‘practice or ceremony related to the religion of Islam’ and give examples, broaden the definition of ‘contempt of Islam’ to include disputing and questioning, and broaden ‘incitement to neglect religious duty’ to include any Islam-related practice or ceremony that is common in Brunei.

Brunei lawmakers gazetted corrigendum to two typos in the Maylay text of the Syariah Penal Code Order of 2013 in November of the same year.

Lawmakers in Brunei passed the Syariah Courts Criminal Procedure Code Order in 2018, and it took effect on January 1, 2019. The Code details procedures to be followed in implementing the country’s Syariah Penal Code Order of 2013, parts of which took effect in 2014 and the remainder of which took effect in 2019. The SCCPCO outlines the structure and jurisdiction of the Islamic (Syariah) courts as well as procedures for arrest, summons, warrants, trials, sentencing, implementation of punishment, and appeals.

Lawmakers in Brunei passed the Syariah Penal Code Order of 2013 in October of that year, and implemented the law in two stages: sections regulating minor crimes and misdemeanors took effect on May 1, 2014, and the remainder—including serious crimes and felonies that entail classical Islamic criminal law’s fixed crimes and punishments—took effect on April 3, 2019. This Islamic criminal code exists in parallel to Brunei’s “civil” (or secular) criminal laws, which borrow from British law. Among other provisions, Brunei’s new code criminalizes failures to perform various religious obligations, sexual relations out of wedlock, and gay or lesbian sexual relations. It includes punishments of whipping, amputation of hands and feet, and stoning. Notably, the most severe punishments accompany very high evidentiary standards as laid out within the Code, and in the related Syariah Courts Criminal Procedure Code Order, the SCCPCO of 2018.

Malay text of Act A1138 Constitution (Amendment) Act (No. 2) 2001, amending the Federal Constitution of Malaysia

English translation of Act A1603 Constitution (Amendment) Act 2019, amending the 1957 Federal Constitution of Malaysia.

On February 2, 2023, the Majlis Agama Islam Negeri Johor (MAINJ) announced that Sultan Ibrahim of Johor had approved a fatwā on the types of events hosted by non-Muslims that Muslims are permitted to attend. The fatwā states that Muslims are prohibited from participating in religious rituals of other faiths, but they are not precluded from attending celebrations of other faiths that do not involve ritual ceremonies. Along with the issuance of the fatwā, MAINJ also issued more general guidelines on non-Muslim festivals that Muslims are permitted to attend–including ceremonies not accompanied by rituals, non-Muslim religious symbols, and religious songs contrary to the Islamic faith.