George Clooney is right? Boycott Brunei-owned hotels. Then?
While selling alcohol is banned in Brunei, Brunei-owned hotels in London and New York profit from selling alcohol. So the Sultan of Brunei’s ownership of London’s Dorchester and the Beverly Hills Hotel in Los Angeles is questionable from an Islamic perspective, hence if boycotting them will lead to Brunei selling them, that is surely a good thing - and maybe George Clooney has a point?.
However, that’s not why celebrities including George Clooney have been calling on the public to boycott Brunei-owned luxury hotels in the last few days. That’s not why the story has made the front page of the BBC and other global media outlets for several days. That’s not why the UK’s Labour party says Brunei should be “chucked out” of the commonwealth.
The reason for the boycott calls is because Brunei decided to expand its application of aspects of Islamic shariah law including punishment for relationships outside of marriage between men and women. So what is Clooney’s problem? Brunei is applying aspects of Islamic shariah law in Brunei, not in London, Paris or New York!
Does Clooney know his geography?
Clooney and other secularists seem to believe that everywhere should be like London, Paris and New York. For them, how dare a Muslim country decide to follow their own Islamic values? How dare they deviate from the secular liberal order? Don’t they know that you are ‘free’ - as long as you adopt secular values, have adulterous relationships, family breakdown, gender confusion, rampant sexual harassment of women as highlighted by the #MeToo movement and all the issues Western societies are sadly experiencing? The arrogance of Clooney and co is amazing.
Problems but not solutions
In the West, government’s and intellectuals lack answers to the problems of increasing racism, the demonisation of minorities, the UK’s knife crime epidemic, increasing wealth divide, family breakdown and a widening gap between the rich and the poor. I’m not holding my breath for Clooney’s pronouncements on these pressing issues.
Not everyone believes in secular values
These muscular secular liberals fail to appreciate that Muslims see the problems and confusion in the West and instead increasingly turn to Islam. Muslims are thinking: why should we embrace a secular liberal order that is unable to address human problems? While Islam has solutions to human problems in all aspects of life, including clear guidelines for fulfilling and loving relationships between men and women.
This yearning and pressure from the Muslim masses to have the Islamic shariah rule over more and more areas of life is also what the Sultan of Brunei and other Muslim rulers have to pander to. Hence they implement aspects of the Islamic shariah - whilst neglecting and even contradicting other aspects of the shariah regarding economic, foreign relations and other aspects. So in Brunei, the sale of alcohol is prohibited, but non-Muslims over 17 can bring alcohol into the country for personal consumption! Likewise investing in hotels abroad that indulge in matters that contradict Islam is claimed to be permissible/halal because “that is business” - as if Islam doesn’t have laws and guidance regarding business and investing!
Western government’s love shariah law
Yes, you heard that right. Western governments actually love aspects of the Islamic shariah laws when it comes to finance. The UK government proudly promotes London as an ‘Islamic finance capital’ and has supported the issuing of so-called shariah compliant Islamic bonds as a way of bringing in $ billions in investment into the UK - from the Muslim world. Saying these bonds are ‘shariah compliant’ is in many cases putting lipstick on a pig - and calling it halal.
Brunei’s wealth is the ummah’s wealth
A friend recently told me the story of a dignified Syrian lady in Lebanon. Some of her family members had been killed and she hardly had any support. Her dream was to be able to enrol in classes to study the Quran and all she needed to cover rent and expenses is $200 a month.
The Sultan of Brunei and other so called Muslim rulers sit on the ummah’s wealth and spend $ billions investing on hotels, football clubs and other vanity projects in the in London, Paris and New York whist that money would go a long way in building infrastructure, creating jobs, feeding the poor and aiding people like this aspirational sister in Lebanon.
The wealth of Brunei is not Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah’s wealth. It belongs to the ummah and when the Islamic Khilafah state is re-established and implements the shariah laws it will not see this as Egyptian, Saudi or Brunei’s wealth, but rather the wealth belonging to the whole ummah and must be utilised for the ummah - not just a part of it.
Will Clooney’s Brunei boycott really work?
When Brunei started phasing in Shariah laws in 2014, celebrities like Jay Leno then also called for a boycott. Did it work? No. Actually, since 2014, the Dorchester collection group of hotels profit’s went up by almost 30%. So the boycott is unlikely to affect Brunei as it is not its main source of income. I suspect owning these prestigious 5 star hotels in the West is more about Brunei’s leaders seeking some sort of status and prestige - in the eyes of who?
These 5 star hotels cost hundreds of dollars a night. The few in the West who can afford them probably enjoy their partying, champagne and afternoon tea at the Dorchester more than they believe in George Clooney’s secular crusade. That’s a shame because I wouldn’t mind a boycott of the hotels if it leads to Brunei selling its stake in such projects and if it stops the Muslim rulers wasting the ummah’s wealth on such projects.
What do you think of the crusade to dictate secular liberal values to the Muslim world? Let me know your comments below.
Taji Mustafa