Ellen DeGeneres, Jay Leno Protest Brunei-Owned Beverley Hills Hotel Over Sharia Law
A number of Hollywood stars, including Ellen DeGeneres and Jay Leno, are protesting the Beverly Hills Hotel, owned by Brunei's Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, who recently introduced the first phase of Sharia law in the Islamic country.
"I'd like to think that all people are basically good and when they realize this is going on, hopefully they'll do something about it," Leno said at the protest in front of the hotel.
BBC News reported on Wednesday that the Beverly Hills city council unanimously voted to condemn Brunei because of its harsh Islamic penal code, which is set to establish laws punishing homosexuality and adultery by death by stoning in future phases.
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"I place my faith in and am grateful to God the Almighty to announce that Thursday May 1, 2014, will see the enforcement of Shariah law phase one, to be followed by the other phases," Bolkiah announced in a speech the day preceding the implementation of the law.
The Motion Picture & Television Fund released a statement noting that it "cannot condone or tolerate these harsh and repressive laws and as a result support a business owned by the Sultan of Brunei."
"We sincerely regret that the employees and management of the hotel may suffer because of our response and the response of many other organizations that have aligned against this outrageous and unacceptable legal code," it added.
There has been some debate over whether the hotel itself should be boycotted, however, with a number of people on the council disagreeing with Beverly Hills mayor Lili Bosse's support for the boycott.
Several organizations beside the MPTF have said they will cancel future events at the venue, including the Feminist Majority Foundation's annual Global Women's Rights Awards.
Joshua Nass, founder and chairman for Voices of Conservative Youth, issued his support for the boycott.
"This is a basic human rights issue and the scores of celebrities calling for this boycott ought to be commended," Nass told FOX411."A combination of corporate and celebrity pressure will have an effect on the hotel's revenue and it should."
Christians and other religious minorities experience severe persecution in Brunei according to watchdog groups like Open Doors, which notes that Islam controls all spheres of life in the Asian country.
"Christian pastors and workers are considered 'enemies' and their activities are monitored by government spies and police. Changing religion on one's identity card is impossible, and Muslim-background believers face hostility – even violence – from families, friends and neighbors," the organization states.
Brunei's strict laws already prohibit teachers and principals from teaching or speaking to Muslim children about religions other than Islam.
The law, which is also applied to Christians schools attended by Muslim students, states that it is a crime to "persuade, influence, incite, encourage a child with non-Islamic teaching," as well as to "expose the child to any ceremony or act of worship which is not Islamic or allow the child to participate in activities for the benefit of other religions," with offending teachers facing five years in prison and up to $20,000 in fines.
