May 31–PARIS — A French hotel manager warned Saturday that the boycott of a group of luxury hotels owned by the sultan of Brunei, brought on because of his country’s introduction of Islamic sharia law, threatened hundreds of French jobs.

Francois Delahaye told dpa that the campaign against the Dorchester Collection hotels had had “little impact” so far on its two five-star Paris establishments, the Plaza Athenee and Le Meurice.

“But I’m worried about the summer season,” said Delahaye, who is both chief operating officer of the Dorchester Collection and general manager of the Plaza Athenee, which is due to reopen in August after undergoing an extension.

“A boycott is never good, especially for a company which employs 1,000 people in France,” he added.

On May 1, Brunei became the first South-east Asian country to adopt sharia law, which calls for flogging, dismemberment and death by stoning for crimes such as rape, adultery and sodomy.

The decision sparked a campaign for a boycott of the Dorchester Collection, which is owned by Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah through the Brunei Investment Agency and which includes the famed Beverly Hills Hotel, among others.

The campaign has been backed by Hollywood A-listers such as Ellen DeGeneres and Jay Leno as well as Virgin boss Richard Branson and Francois-Henri Pinault, chief executive of luxury and sports goods conglomerate Kering.

Branson tweeted that his employees and family would not stay at the chain “until the sultan abides by basic human rights.”

Delahaye said he too found sharia “horrible.”

“But the people who are boycotting us are people who do business in countries that apply sharia law,” he said, giving as an example sales of Boucheron perfume — owned by Kering — in countries such as Saudi Arabia that also apply sharia.

The Dorchester Collection owns 10 luxury hotels in Europe and the US: The Beverly Hills Hotel (Beverly Hills), Hotel Bel-Air (Los Angeles), Plaza Athenee (Paris), Le Meurice (Paris), Hotel Principe di Savoia (Milan), The Dorchester (London), 45 Park Lane (London), Coworth Park (Ascot, England), Le Richemond (Geneva) and Hotel Eden (Rome).