The Sultan of Brunei has introduced a tough, new criminal code based on an interpretation of Islamic Sharia Law, which could penalties like amputation for theft, stoning for adultery, and flogging for consumption of alcohol or abortion.  The new code would only apply to Muslims in Brunei, two-thirds of the small country's population.

“By the grace of Allah, with the coming into effect of this legislation, our duty to Allah is therefore being fulfilled,” the 67-year old Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah said of his expanded Sharia Penal Code at a legal conference in Brunei's capital.

Brunei already adheres to a stronger form of Islamic law than its neighbors Malaysia and Indonesia, and this tightens the screws even further.  Religious education is compulsory for Muslim children and businesses are ordered to close during Friday prayers.  But until now, Sharia courts were limited to family matters such as marriage and inheritance. 

Brunei’s top Islamic scholar Mufti Awang Abdul Aziz said that foreign travelers shouldn’t fear winding up on the wrong side of Sharia law.

“Let us not just look at the hand-cutting or the stoning or the caning per se, but let us also look at the conditions governing them,” Awang said of things that seem pretty hard to overlook, such as hand-chopping and stoning.

“It is not indiscriminate cutting or stoning or caning. There are conditions and there are methods that are just and fair.”

The first Sharia Law criminal courts open six months from now.