Religious Death Squads Killing Gays in Iraq

[cynatnite]

Religious death squads are killing gays in Iraq, Doug Ireland will report in tomorrow's weekly edition of New York's Gay City News, PageOneQ has learned

"The Badr Corps is committed to the 'sexual cleansing' of Iraq," a 33 year old gay Iraqi exile in London told Ireland. Since the SCIRI's spiritual leader, the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistni -- the highest Shia religious authority -- issued a fatwa ordering gays assassinated in "the worst, most severe way of killing," the Badr Corps in Iraq has begun to use the Internet to hunt down and kill Iraqi gays.

The murdered Iraqi gays "are usually discovered with their hands bound behind their back, blindfolds over their eyes, and bullet wounds to the back of the head," Iraqi exile Ali Hili, coordinator for the London-based Abu Nawas Group, an organization of gay Iraqis in exile -- tells Ireland. In one case, the article explains, a transsexual was beaten and burned to death in an area of Baghdad.

Hili explains that, "intimidation, beatings, kidnappings and murders of gays have become an almost daily occurrence.”

http://pageoneq.com/news/2006/IRAQ_032206b.html

[rodeodance]

1. prob. there is truth to this.

[LynnTheDem]

2. But what about all the GOOD NEWS!

Yes I know there isn't any...but what about it!

:eyes:

[saigon68]

3. This is Good News to the Homophobes in Freeper land

[LynnTheDem]

5. True.

Very true.

[Zhade]

4. K/R

NT!

[closeupready]

6. Why is this story only being carried in the gay media?

Yet, the MSM is saturated with stories about Afghanistan.

[ronnykmarshall]

17. Because the media doesn't give a fuck?

That would be my guess.

[readmoreoften]

23. Because we're considered less than human.

Our stories and lives don't much exist outside the gay world except in the form of a debate: are we just normal people? Or are we "the new ideology of evil?" (the Pope's words) What is to be done about us? Should we be given rights? Are we the result of an incurable genetic "illness" or a moral choice? Should we be tolerated? How much is a society is expected to "tolerate" our existence? With the debate framed as such, it sounds perfectly reasonable to say, "Well, some countries are certainly going to fall on the 'less tolerant' side of the spectrum. Those gays are foolish to be 'out' anyway. They should maybe remain celibate or in hiding. Hell, what do they expect?"

[BOSSHOG]

7. This will be America if the "christian" taliban achieve their goal

of establishing a theocracy in this country and destroying the constitution. This story undoubtedly is good news to the religiously insane in America. It is also sexual to them. Stories of murdered gays are orgasmic to "christian" "conservatives."

[movonne]

8. It seems to me they have the same ideas as the Christian Taliban..if

we keep going like we are this will be the new America...

[dusmcj]

9. Sistani doesn't get it (in more than one way)

Considering that Sistani is closest to what might pass for a statesman in Iraq (I don't give a darn if he's a mullah rather than a secular politician, he acted like he had the people's interests at heart rather than some bullshit ideology or other). But now his true colors and the limits of his vision are showing, if appearances are correct and he's choosing to align Iraq with old-line role-based society placed in opposition to religio-humanist egalitarianism. In that case he doesn't see that that will play right into America's hands, since its 'dominant' (pffft) 'culture' (the word barely applies) comes right from there. Oh well (comment pertains to Iraq and its people's prospects; the atrocities themselves are disgusting). One more old-line culture on the way to death. Evolution in action.

[Jankyn]

10. Kick...

This needs to be in the national news, not just the gay press.

[MadMaddie]

11. It seems to me that the Gays were safer under Sadam!!!

This is what * Freedom looks like!!

[Moderator]

12. Be sure to post the original article in LBN

when it comes out in the New York's Gay City News

[Babel_17]

13. I've read about Sistani's opinion

"To see the fatwa yourself:

Go to the Sistani website

www.sistani.org

Under the section Istiftaaat, go to letter L in Arabic, look up to Lewat which means (sodomy). See question and answer 5.

Direct link:

http://www.sistani.org/html/ara/main/index-istifta.php?page=4&lang=ara&part=4

Q5: What is the judgment for sodomy and lesbianism?

A5: Forbidden. Punished, in fact, killed. The people involved should be killed in the worst, most severe way of killing."

http://petertatchell.net/international/sistani.htm

Juan Cole offers his nuanced opinion:

http://www.juancole.com/2006/03/sistani-on-homosexuality-andrew.html

I can see why it got Sullivan upset. But if Cole honestly believes that Sistani, however deranged, can make such distinctions and that there are real world implications to those distinctions then I could see why Cole tries to point out the difference between what is written and what is implied. But I think one has to be both straight and many miles from the reach of Sistani to have any appreciation for the reasoning behind this hypothetical distinction.

Much of Iraq is headed to becoming a fundamentalist hellhole with the bonus of having a full-blown civil war impatiently waiting in the wings.

[Cults4Bush]

15. Gotta go with Cole on this.. history and nuance are 50 times more

important in their culture than we even understand in ours.

Also the way he finished his article... basically "what do you expect? The man is a conservative Shiite Cleric."

[MidwestTransplant]

14. Media's fault

[Nikki Stone 1]

16. For a split second, I thought it might be Franklin Graham's people

doing this, but it is only their brothers in spirit.

Kick and recommend

[Initech]

18. Is Fred Phelps behind this?

:shrug:

[wtmusic]

19. Anyone know if al-Sadr supports this?

:shrug:

[greiner3]

20. I also understand that Jamaica;

has a high occurance of muredered gays, if not by official sanction, then certainly from its turned back.

[AndyTiedye]

21. 2319 American Troops Died So Iraqis Could Murder Their Gay People?!???

:wtf:

[David Zephyr]

22. Lesbian Mary Cheney is handing out U.S. $ to These Assholes on Behalf Bush

The hypocrisy of the Cheney and Bush families when it comes to grubbing for money is amazing.

[NMMNG]

24. See what happens in a theocracy?

x(