Sultan gay
KCL revoke Sultan of Brunei honour over gay stoning law
King's College London (KCL) have revoked the Sultan of Brunei's honorary doctorate, after his country made gay sex punishable by stoning to death.
Strict novel Islamic laws came into force in April in the south-east Asian nation, advocating punishment for theft by amputation.
The move has sparked international condemnation.
A university spokesman said the novel law "contradicts the beliefs and freedoms we uphold at King's".
In a expression KCL said: "The willingness of the Sultan of Brunei to inflict death by stoning and other egregious penalties upon individuals in Brunei simply because of who they are or whom they affection provoked real anguish within our community."
The award to Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah was made in 2011 for his "commitment to higher education".
King's LGBTQ+ Staff Network wrote an expose letter demanding immediate deed from the university.
Following the implementation of the novel penal code, the university began a formal review of the award, which the Sultan was invited to respond to, KCL said.
Homosexuality was a
Royal family & all countries urged to cut ties with Brunei regime
Queen & governments urged to come back gifts received from Sultan
London, UK – 8 April 2019
“Nearly 400 hundred people rallied outside the Dorchester Hotel in London on Saturday 6 April to protest against Brunei’s enactment of death by stoning for homosexuality, adultery and insulting the prophet Mohammad. At one point, they broke through the hotel’s barriers and peacefully besieged the front doors, shouting ‘F*ck the Sultan’ and demanding he rescind the death penalty. Hundreds of rainbow-coloured stones were dumped on the hotel’s steps and anti-Sultan slogans were scrawled on the forecourt. A rainbow flag was hoisted on the hotel’s veranda, to ecstatic cheers from the crowd,” said Peter Tatchell, Director of the human rights organisation, the Peter Tatchell Foundation, who helped Benali Hadamache of the LGBTIQA+ Greens co-ordinate the protest.
PHOTOS of the protest (free to use): http://bit.ly/2G79iXf
“The Sultan is enforcing the same barbaric stonings enacted by ISIS in Syria and Iraq. He is comparable to the ISIS fanatics who executed people for queer sex during their murderous calip
Gay Saudi couple Sultan and Nassar released from Australian detention
Two gay Saudi journalists who were detained in Australia as they sought everlasting refuge have been released while their asylum claims are processed, their lawyer told AFP on Tuesday.
The pair, identified only as Sultan and Nassar, arrived Down Under on tourist visas in October and were taken into immigration detention when it became clear they were seeking to settle permanently.
Nassar was released on Friday and, after a bureaucratic delay, Sultan was released Tuesday, lawyer Alison Battisson said: "He's literally being released now."
One of the men had been functional for the kingdom's media ministry and foreign news outlets. The other's employer has not been specified.
The pair had decided to flee Saudi Arabia when they were called in for questioning by the authorities and it became clear their association was known.
Gay sexual activity is illegal in Saudi Arabia and punishable by death.
On arrival in Australia, they cleared passport control but were detained when questioned at customs.
The two men own now been granted bridging visas while their cases labor thei
The sultan of Brunei enacted new laws punishing homosexuality with death by stoning to clean up his image as a big-spending playboy, critics say
FacebookEmailXLinkedInRedditBlueskyWhatsAppCopy linkImpact Link
This story is accessible exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now.Have an account? .
- Brunei last week introduced new laws that would see same-sex attracted people stoned to death.
- Critics say the new relocate toward conservative Islam contrasts with the reputation of the country's ruler, Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, as an international playboy and enormous spender.
- Sultan Hassanal and his immediate family regularly flaunt their wealth, and he reportedly used to mail people around the earth to "comb the globe for the sexiest women they could find."
- Human-rights activists say there is a "high degree of hypocrisy" with the sultan's brand-new move to conservative Islam.
- Visit BusinessInsider.com for more stories.
The 72-year-old sultan of Brunei may have enacted his country's new anti-homosexuality laws to overhaul his retain reputation as a playboy and big spender, critics say.
The new laws, which were issued as a direct o
Brunei's Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah returns Oxford degree after gay-sex death penalty backlash
Brunei's Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah has returned an honorary degree awarded by Britain's Oxford University after a global backlash, fronted by celebrities like Elton John and George Clooney, for proposing the death penalty for gay sex and adultery.
Key points:
- Nearly 120,000 people signed a petition calling on Oxford to rescind the statute degree
- On April 3, Brunei installed the death penalty for sodomy, adultery and rape
- The sultan earlier this month said the death penalty would not be imposed, although the law remains
Nearly 120,000 people had signed a petition by April calling on Oxford to rescind the honorary statute degree awarded in 1993 to the Sultan, the world's second-longest reigning monarch and Prime Minister of the oil-rich country.
The petition was circulated after the small South-East Asian country rolled out its interpretation of Islamic laws on April 3, punishing sodomy, adultery and rape with death, including by stoning.
Seeking to temper the backlash, the Sultan earlier this month said the death penalty would not be imposed in the implementation of t