GLR Forum

General Forum => GLBT General Topics => Topic started by: Feral on Thu, Mar 23, 2006, 05:25

Title: Iraq
Post by: Feral on Thu, Mar 23, 2006, 05:25
SHIA DEATH SQUADS TARGET IRAQI GAYS -- U.S. Indifferent (http://direland.typepad.com/direland/2006/03/shia_death_squa.html)

Quote
 Following a death-to-gays fatwa issued last October by Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani (left), death squads of the Badr Corps have been systematically targeting gay Iraqis for persecution and execution, gay Iraqis say. But when they ask for help and protection from U.S. occupying authorities in the “Green Zone,” gay Iraqis are met with indifference and derision. 
Title: Re: A Disturbing Story on Iraq.
Post by: K6 on Thu, Mar 23, 2006, 08:23
SHIA DEATH SQUADS TARGET IRAQI GAYS -- U.S. Indifferent (http://direland.typepad.com/direland/2006/03/shia_death_squa.html)


The US has overthrown a secular Sunni Baathist regime,dictatorial though it was.What could be expected next but an incipient Chiite theocracy ?
Even if the US had the will to help gay Irakis,it would be powerless.The situation is now out of control in Irak.The only thing gay Irakis can do is
try to leave the country,and seek asylum as gays in other countries.Canada among others,if I am not mistaken,takes in gay refugees.

K6
Title: Re: A Disturbing Story on Iraq.
Post by: Mogul on Thu, Mar 23, 2006, 20:27
The whole thing with planting the seed of freedom and democracy in some foreign country by bombing it flat - well, this could not go well. Everybody with at least some brains has warned the US administration that the results would be not merry, but no, the EMPIRE's leadership knew better... If we review the situation in Iraq and Afghanistan now, gays and anybody else there hardly can be protected from arbitrary violence. This is also not the intention of the US occupation force - whatever the motives were before, NOW the troops are lucky when they aren't killed themselves.

In Afghanistan, Sharia is practically carved into constitution - with all the consequences. What kind of freedom shall THIS be? Currently there is one man under trial who converted from Islam to Christianity - he is not unlikely to face death penalty. And how many cases are there which never get their way to the public attention? I remember having read a report about Afghani prisons, where several gay men were waiting for a trial because of their sexuality.

Under current circumstances, homosexuals in those countries can not do much - where should they flee? No country readily invites persecuted homosexuals to immigrate - what Canada, NL, and some other countries do, helps only those individuals who by some way manage to cross the border. If you just come to the embassy and ask for a visum, they would laugh at you - if you ever have the chance to be admitted to that embassy. In reality, refugees are forced to take any possible attempts to sneak into the "civilized world" by illegal means. It is possible to come from Iraque to Turkey, but thereafter? The Turkey grants no asylum to homosexuals, it only serves as a transit country. It is actually very difficult to come to Europe, and all of that possibilities are illegal. How should they come to Canada? The only reasonable way would be an illegal travel by ship, and only few succeed with this.

The bitter truth is, that for those guys there is no way out currently. And in our shamefull weakness we can not help them.
Title: Re: A Disturbing Story on Iraq.
Post by: Feral on Mon, Apr 17, 2006, 23:26
From the BBC (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4915172.stm):

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"I don't want to be gay anymore. When I go out to buy bread, I'm afraid. When the doorbell rings, I think that they have come for me."

That is the fear that haunts Hussein, and other gay men in Iraq.

They say that since the US-led invasion, gays are being killed because of their sexual orientation.

They blame the increase in violence on the growing influence of religious figures and militia groups in Iraq since Saddam Hussein was ousted.

Islam considers homosexuality sinful. A website published in the name of Ayatollah Sistani, Iraq's most revered Shia cleric, says gays should be put to death.

"Those who commit sodomy must be killed in the harshest way," says a section of the website dealing with questions of morality.
 
Sistani's official website calls for gays to be executed. The statement appears on the Arabic section of the website, which is published in the Iranian city of Qom, but not in the English section.

As distressing as I find the news coming from Iraq, I am actually pleased to have this last fact confirmed for me. There has been, of late, an absurd and reflexive defense of al Sistani which claims that he in fact never issued such a ruling on gays, that claims that he did so are malicious anti-Muslim agitprop. I had suspected the Arabic and English language versions of al Sistani's website differed. According to the BBC, they do differ.

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"Saddam was a tyrant, but at least we had more freedom then," said Hussein. "Nowadays, gay men are just killed for no reason."
Title: Re: A Disturbing Story on Iraq.
Post by: Mogul on Tue, Apr 18, 2006, 00:57
The website of Ayatollah Sistani is: http://www.sistani.org/. I was not able to locate any statement on homosexuality in the English version of the website, but I suppose BBC has made a funded research before they published the article.

Allegedly, this (http://www.sistani.org/html/ara/menu/4/?lang=ara&view=d&code=45&page=1) part of Sistani's website contains a statement on homosexuals, the reported (http://www.sistani.org/html/ara/menu/4/?lang=ara&view=d&code=45&page=1) translation from Arabic language into English is:

"Q: What is the judgement on sodomy and lesbianism?

A: "Forbidden. Those involved in the act should be punished. In fact, sodomites should be killed in the worst manner possible.""

The difficulty in dealing with the Islam religious leaders seems to be that they often insist on the literal interpretation of their Scripture and suggest Sharia to be the legal basis for criminal persecution. The regulation of Sharia on homosexuals are depicted here (http://pglo.org/web/english/pages/001.htm), the basics are these:

"Article 108: Lavat is an act of congress [vati] between males whether in [the form of] penetration or of tafkhiz (the rubbing of thighs/of the penis against thighs).

Article 109: Both the active and passive partners to lavat are subject to the hadd [punishment].

Article 110: The hadd [punishment] for lavat where penetration has occurred is death and the method of execution is at the discretion of the Sharia judge.

Article 111: Lavat is punishable by death so long as both the active and passive partners are mature, of sound mind, and have acted of free will."

Though there are several provisions which would help a benevolent judge to avoid ordering the death penalty for the first-time trespasser, any not but "occasional" homosexual will be murdered if seized. These provisions make clear that Islamic Law and Homosexuality are not compatible: we will have to issue "fathwas" on a number of Ayatollahs.
Title: Re: A Disturbing Story on Iraq.
Post by: Feral on Wed, Apr 19, 2006, 01:38
When I earlier linked to a BBC news story regarding conditions in Iraq, I did not realize that this was the first time (http://direland.typepad.com/direland/2006/04/at_last_bbc_fir.html) this issue has been mentioned in major media sources. Doug Ireland has truly been a hero of the gay people in his determined coverage of these events. He has a few additions to make to the BBC's story.

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While I'm delighted the BBC has finally broken the blackout on this story that has so far reigned in the major media, its report left out many crucial aspects, which were covered in my original report. The BBC failed to note the relationship between the killings of Iraqi gays and the lethal anti-gay pogrom in Iran -- it does not mention that Ayatollah al-Sistani is himself an Iranian, that SCIRI (Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq) is backed by Iran -- its headquarters were in Tehran for more than 20 years during the Saddam Hussein dictatorship -- and that the Badr Corps is financed by Iran. This is common knowlege in Iraq -- indeed, in an important February 17 interview with Le Monde that was ignored by the English-language press, the fact that the salaries of the soldiers of the Badr Corps -- whose death squads are carrying out the "sexual cleansing" campaign of murder of gay Iraqis -- are paid by Iran, was confirmed by Ali Debbagh, a counselor to Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, a member of the Iraqi parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee, and a university professor specializing in religious political parties. And while the BBC report did mention that "there are widespread concerns that large parts of Iraq's police force are under the control of such groups," it omitted the fact that Badr Corps members in Baghdad and elsewhere wear the uniforms of the official police under the control of the Interior Ministry.

 


We can thank the BBC for bothering (apparently--they were able to credit the Arab-language interviewer for the story) to have an Arabic speaker examine al Sistani's website and confirming that the homophobic text that does not appear on the English version does indeed appear on the Arabic version, thus squashing the rumor that the Sistani fatwa did not really exist

We can also thank the BBC for this particular passage:

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Human rights group Amnesty International has focused most of its work in Iraq on the high levels of violence linked to the insurgency. The organisation said it had no information on reports of anti-gay activities in the country. "It is not an area that we have been actively looking at, but that is not to say that we will not look into the issue at some point," said a spokesman at the group's London headquarters.

I have little admiration for Amnesty International since their claims of support for the rights of gays have always been backed by so few actions. I have heard elsewhere doubts that there is any pogrom against gays in Iraq at all, based entirely upon Amnesty International's silence on the matter. So Amnesty International admits now that they have not been looking at this area. No doubt they are well-pressed with their legitimate concerns for the distress of the heterosexual inhabitants of Iraq. Perhaps they will find time to look into it when the matter reaches the "excavating mass graves" stage.

Title: Re: A Disturbing Story on Iraq.
Post by: Mogul on Thu, Apr 20, 2006, 23:08
In order to preserve the original topic of this thread, several posts were splitted and merged to the thread Gay Realpolitiks (http://forum.gayrepublic.org/index.php/topic,252.0.html).
Title: Re: A Disturbing Story on Iraq.
Post by: Feral on Sun, Apr 23, 2006, 08:31
Rights group calls on US to protect gay Iraqis (http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-1232.html)

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A gay human rights group has reacted to a United Nations report that gay Iraqis are increasingly targeted for violent threats, kidnappings, attacks, and murder, by calling on the government to take action.

The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) has written to the Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and called on the Bush Administration to take all appropriate measures to publicly condemn the escalation of violence against gay men and lesbians in Iraq and take all possible measures to ensure their protection.
Title: Re: A Disturbing Story on Iraq.
Post by: Mogul on Fri, May 05, 2006, 14:55
One more reports: "Iraqi police 'killed 14-year-old boy for being homosexual'" (http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article362151.ece).

Obviously, the police forces are infiltrated by fundamentalists.
Title: Re: A Disturbing Story on Iraq.
Post by: K6 on Fri, May 05, 2006, 18:19
One more reports: "Iraqi police 'killed 14-year-old boy for being homosexual'" (http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article362151.ece).

Obviously, the police forces are infiltrated by fundamentalists.

The Iraki police and military forces set up by the US have never been and will never be reliable.They are the ones who pass on information to
the guerrilla and to the fundamentalists.Whereas they pass no information about the later to the US forces,while knowing quite a lot about them,
still happy if they or their immediate families aren`t themselves involved in the insurgency.In the times of Saddam Hussein,not a pin dropped in Irak without the dictator learning about it within the hour.Now,the police seems to see nothing and to know nothing.How strange.

K6
Title: Re: Iraq
Post by: Feral on Mon, May 15, 2006, 11:56
UK Gay News (http://www.ukgaynews.org.uk/Archive/2006may/1501.htm) is reporting that the office of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani has removed from its website the fatwa calling for the killing of homosexuals in the "worst, most severe way possible". Readers may recall that the BBC had recently confirmed that this fatwa did not appear on the English language version of that web site.

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The removal on May 10 follows protests to Sistani by the London office of the Iraqi gay rights organisation, Iraqi LGBT, which represents a clandestine network of lesbian and gay activists inside Iraq’s major cities, including Baghdad, Najaf, Karbala, Hilla, Duhok and Basra.

Following two weeks of negotiations with Iraqi LGBT – UK, Sistani’s office agreed to remove the fatwa calling for the murder of gay men, but has curiously refused to remove the fatwa urging punishment for lesbianism.

Initially, Sistani’s office had demanded that Iraqi LGBT-UK delete their criticisms of Sistani from their website and apologise to the Grand Ayatollah for questioning his religious authority.

Iraqi LGBT-UK refused.  It issued a counter-demand that Sistani remove his ‘death to gays’ fatwa from his website.  After two weeks of sometimes tense negotiations, Sistani’s representatives in London and Najaf agreed to drop the homophobic fatwa from his website – except for the section calling for the punishment of lesbianism.

“We welcome the decision to remove the most murderously homophobic part of Sistanti’s fatwa from his website,” said gay Iraqi refugee, Ali Hili, who heads the organisation Iraqi LGBT – UK.  Mr Ali is also Middle East Affairs spokesperson for the British LGBT movement, OutRage!, which works closely with Iraqi LGBT – UK.

“This decision does not go far enough," Mr. Hili.  The fatwa has been removed from Sistani’s website only.  It has not been revoked.  We want the entire fatwa withdrawn, including the hateful denunciation calling for the punishment of lesbians.

“Iraqi LGBT-UK urges Sistani to apologise and revoke his fatwa calling for the murder of homosexuals, and to issue a new fatwa condemning all vigilante violence, including vigilante attacks on gay and lesbian people.

“We believe that Sistani’s fatwa has encouraged and sanctioned the current wave of execution-style assassinations of lesbians and gay men.  He owes gay Iraqis an apology.  He owes all Iraqis an apology for setting straight Iraqis against gay Iraqis.

“Endorsing the murder of other human beings is unIslamic.  Our Muslim faith is one of love, compassion, tolerance and mercy.  Hatred and prejudice have no legitimate place in our religion.

“Sistani’s encouragement of homophobic violence provokes negative views towards the Islamic faith and towards Muslim people.

“Iraqi LGBT-UK holds Sistani personally responsible for the murder of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Iraqis. He gives the killers theological sanction and encouragement,” said Mr Hili.
Title: Re: Iraq
Post by: Mogul on Mon, May 15, 2006, 20:36
I would say, this does not sound like a change of mind - instead being a simple tactics to avoid sanctions from the western governments. If Systany had publicly revoked his previous statements and had declared that doing any harm to homosexuals is wrong and evil - yes, then he would smooth the anger of our people.

As the things are now, he shall encounter appropriate justice for his crimes.
Title: Re: Iraq
Post by: K6 on Tue, May 16, 2006, 00:54
I would say, this does not sound like a change of mind - instead being a simple tactics to avoid sanctions from the western governments. If Systany had publicly revoked his previous statements and had declared that doing any harm to homosexuals is wrong and evil - yes, then he would smooth the anger of our people.

In march 2004,I had a discussion of about four hours with another canadian who had worked for several years in a muslim country.He knew the place very well and had learned Arabic.I asked him among other things what kind of adversaries would the muslims constitute.He answered me right away and briefly with the expression "two-faced" ("fourbe",in French).Not to be trusted whatever they say,I gathered as for myself.

K6
Title: Re: Iraq
Post by: Mogul on Mon, May 22, 2006, 21:56
[..] what kind of adversaries would the muslims constitute.He answered me right away and briefly with the expression "two-faced" ("fourbe",in French).Not to be trusted whatever they say,I gathered as for myself.

I guess this could be said about many other adversaries as well - I remember a couple of such comments heard about the Russians, the Chinese, the Spanish etc. In fact, even your beloved - and most respected - Niccoló Machiavelli kept trickiness in a very high value. In politics, it's very recommended to gain additional informations on whether people actually do what they say - this is as true for a gay politician as for a mullah.
Title: Re: Iraq
Post by: Feral on Thu, May 25, 2006, 14:29
From the Petrelis Files (http://mpetrelis.blogspot.com/2006/05/al-jazeera-iraqi-ayatollah-wants-gays.html)

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The following is excerpted from speeches and interviews with Iraqi Ayatollah Ahmad Husseini Al-Baghdadi, which aired on Al-Jazeera TV on May 5, 2006, on Syrian TV on May 3, 2006, and on ANB TV on April 14, 2006.

"Whoever Marries Someone of the Same Sex Must Be Killed"

Ayatollah Ahmad Husseini Al-Baghdadi: "The second clause says no law may contradict the principles of democracy. Can you imagine millions demonstrating in Iraq, calling for same-sex marriage, like in Sweden, America, and Britain? Same-sex marriages means a marriage of a man with a man, or a woman with a woman. This is a terrible catastrophe, totally forbidden by Islam. Whoever marries someone of the same sex must be killed. Both must be killed as soon as possible and must be burned as well."

The remarks come from the end of this page (http://www.memri.org/bin/opener_latest.cgi?ID=SD116606), where the Ayatollah al-Baghdadi has other things to say as well.

So of course Al-Sistani will agree to remove the offending fatwa from his website. Some other cleric has been broadcasting much the same message on Al-Jazeera.
Title: Re: Iraq
Post by: Mogul on Sun, May 28, 2006, 01:01
Some other cleric has been broadcasting much the same message on Al-Jazeera.

The most "liberal" position I conceived from a mufti was, that he were a good citizen in a democratic country which laws do not allow to kill gays, and as such good citizen he would not go to streets and bash gays. At the same time he stressed that among muslims homosexuality were an outrageous behaviour which is forbidden by Qu'ran and therefore no muslim is allowed to be gay. When the "liberal" mufty was asked what he would do if his own son were homosexual, he said that this is an awfull question - just like to ask someone if your son comes to you and puts a knife into your heart.

Now, think you are that gay son of a good moslem - would you readily stab a knife into your father's breast? This is the part of the dillema: too many gays from religious families are suffering immense social pressure as they are expected to make anywone but themeselves happy. Beyound fighting the mufties, we would do well by offering our brothers and sisters theologic and philosophic support to find their way to a better, well-thought ethics.
Title: Re: Iraq
Post by: K6 on Sun, May 28, 2006, 17:39
Now, think you are that gay son of a good moslem - would you readily stab a knife into your father's breast? This is the part of the dillema: too many gays from religious families are suffering immense social pressure as they are expected to make anywone but themeselves happy. Beyound fighting the mufties, we would do well by offering our brothers and sisters theologic and philosophic support to find their way to a better, well-thought ethics.

Veneration of the idea of a gay independent State should do the thing.Politics in that sense should fulfill all the spiritual and emotional needs of a gay individual.Working towards the establishment of a country of ours,something greater than ourselves as individuals,should satisfy our desire for eternity
in communion with gays of the past and of the future which form our continuity throughout history.No eternity is to be found elsewhere for us gays.

K6
Title: Re: Iraq
Post by: Feral on Fri, Jun 09, 2006, 04:14
From the Washington Blade (http://www.washingtonblade.com/thelatest/thelatest.cfm?blog_id=7336):

The U.S. military is aware of a rash of anti-gay killings in Iraq during the past eight months and is taking steps to curtail sectarian violence against all Iraqis, including gays, according to a spokesperson for the U.S.-led multinational forces in Iraq. 
 
 At least three men suspected of being gay were gunned down March 20 in the Iraqi city of Ramadi. U.S. forces say they are concerned about the rising number of anti-gay killings in Iraq.  

"If someone is in danger of being slaughtered or persecuted, we do all we can to stop it," said Army Maj. Joseph Todd Breasseale, chief of the Media Relations Division of the Multinational Corps in Iraq.  

Breasseale spoke by telephone from his office at U.S. military headquarters in a section of Baghdad known as the Green Zone.  

Faced with a highly volatile atmosphere brought about by warring Islamic factions, the U.S. and its coalition allies must use caution in addressing the issue of homosexuality, Breasseale said.  

"It doesn't make a whole lot of sense, when we're in a fledgling time like this, to go in and say, 'Here's these issues that are going to repel 80 percent of the population and this is what we want to inflict on you,'" he said. "We're trying not to get into too many values judgment type issues and just do the right thing."  

Breasseale's comments came in response to questions about how the U.S. was responding to a decision last October by a powerful Islamic leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, to issue a fatwa calling for the killing of gays in Iraq. Bush administration officials have cited al-Sistani as a moderate voice among Iraqi Shiites.  

Islam considers homosexuality sinful. A website published in the Iranian city of Qom in the name of Sistani, says: "Those who commit sodomy must be killed in the harshest way," according to BBC news reports. The statement appeared in an Arabic section of the website dealing with questions of morality, but not in the English-language equivalent.  

A network of gay Iraqi exiles in Europe reported that the fatwa triggered a flurry of assassinations, kidnappings and death threats against Iraqi gays.

In other words, despite the spokesman's protestations to the contrary, the US forces in Iraq know what is going on and are doing nothing.
Title: Re: Iraq
Post by: K6 on Fri, Jun 09, 2006, 06:31
In other words, despite the spokesman's protestations to the contrary, the US forces in Iraq know what is going on and are doing nothing.

Just like in Vietnam three decades ago,US armed forces are no match for a situation of guerrilla warfare.They are achieving no lasting political goal in Irak.They are not winning and they are thus in the process of loosing.They will eventually be compelled to quit,like they did in Vietnam.They
are not relevant to the situation in Irak for the present and the future.As for the recent past,they are,conjointly with the US government,
responsible for that situation.They have overthrown the previous regime of the late dictator Saddam Hussein,which was *secular* and kept
religious elements and factions quiet.There was no disorder in Irak before the arrival of US forces in 2003.

K6
Title: Re: Iraq
Post by: Mogul on Sat, Jun 10, 2006, 00:23
US occupational forces are simply not in control of the situation - they cannot protect Iraqi gays even if they wished to (which I doubt). Whatever the actual interests of the US administration in Iraq is, it is not creation of a democratic state. Like in many other cases, US diplomacy and intelligence have effectively supported tyranic and inhumane regimes, if only they acted in compliance with (assumed) US interests in the regions. We shall not forget that in the "freed" Afghanistan the islamic law (Sharia) is explicitely mentioned in the constitution as the corner stone of jurisdiction, and this means death to gays and to apostates, with government having actually no means to intervene.

"It doesn't make a whole lot of sense, when we're in a fledgling time like this, to go in and say, 'Here's these issues that are going to repel 80 percent of the population and this is what we want to inflict on you,'" he said. "We're trying not to get into too many values judgment type issues and just do the right thing."

This clearly means, American troops do not care about "democracy" and "universal values" - they simply must ensure their own safety and functioning ifrastructure in the region - either for the economic or for the military purposes, or both. At the end, this campaign was never meant to be a humanitary action.
Title: Re: Iraq
Post by: Feral on Sun, Aug 06, 2006, 09:56
Gays flee Iraq as Shia death squads find a new target (http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,1838222,00.html)

Quote
Hardline Islamic insurgent groups in Iraq are targeting a new type of victim with the full protection of Iraqi law, The Observer can reveal. The country is seeing a sudden escalation of brutal attacks on what are being called the 'immorals' - homosexual men and children as young as 11 who have been forced into same-sex prostitution.

Quote
Homosexuality is seen as so immoral that it qualifies as an 'honour killing' to murder someone who is gay - and the perpetrator can escape punishment. Section 111 of Iraq's penal code lays out protections for murder when people are acting against Islam.

'The government will do nothing to tackle this issue. It's really desperate when people get to the stage they're trading their children for money. They have no alternatives because there are no jobs,' Hili says.

Graphic photos obtained from Baghdad sources too frightened to identify themselves as having known a gay man, and seen by the Observer, show other gay Iraqis who have been executed. One shows two men, suspected of having a relationship, blindfolded with their hands tied behind their backs - guns at the ready behind their heads - awaiting execution. Another picture captured on a mobile phone shows a gay man being beaten to death. Yet another shows a corpse being dragged through the streets after his execution.

One photograph is of the mutilated, burnt body of 38-year-old Karar Oda from Sadr City. He was kidnapped by the Badr Brigade in mid-June. They work with the Ministry of Interior and are the informal armed wing of the Supreme Council of Islamic Revolution in Iraq, who make up the largest Shia bloc in the Iraq parliament. Oda's family were given an arrest warrant signed by the Ministry of Interior which said their son deserved to be arrested and killed for immorality as a homosexual. His body was found ten days later.

What's sad is that I can't even tell if the Observer is reporting a worsening of the already bad situation in Iraq, or just finally reporting on a situation that has been intolerable for a long time now. I suspect the former. The death squads, which always had the tacit cooperation of whoever was in authority, now appear to be operating under official license, their murders re-defined as a "public service."
Title: Re: Iraq
Post by: Mogul on Wed, Aug 09, 2006, 23:24
The television report by Channel 4 is available at their homepage (http://www.channel4.com/more4/news/news-opinion-feature.jsp?id=347). It seems that the report is based on the older general informations, with some newer background stories and pictures.

There is little hope that the situation will change in the next years, as the experience of Afghanistan after the Soviet occupation shows. It is very easy to destabilize a country, but very hard to establish public order again. Over the next years, we will probably watch the religious fundamentalism of worst kind winning terrain in even more countries with islamic background (Pakistan, Indonesia, Malaysia etc).

Watching how one of the most influential leaders of Iraq frankly declares on television that known homosexuals must be immediately killed and their bodies burnt, is a striking experience. There can be never ever any "equality" with straights, because the issue of our "unworthyness" will come over and over again, if not in this generation, than in the next one.
Title: Re: Iraq
Post by: Feral on Mon, Sep 04, 2006, 22:30
Plight Of Iraqi Gays Worsens (http://365gay.com/Newscon06/09/090406iraq.htm)

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(London) As Iraq continues to spiral closer to all-out civil war the situation for the country's LGBT community worsens by the day a British gay rights leader said on Monday.

Outrage leader Peter Tatchell, writing in the leftist weekly Tribune, says that information reaching the organization points to a "Talibanisation of Iraq"

Citing sources within the country, Tatchell says that some Baghdad neighborhoods, are now under the de facto control of Taliban-style fundamentalist militias.

"Two militias are doing most of the killing," he writes. "They are the armed wings of major parties in the [US/UK backed] Iraqi government. Madhi is the militia of Muqtada al-Sadr, and Badr is the militia of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), which is the leading political force in Baghdad's ruling coalition."