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Author Topic: Iraq  (Read 16060 times)

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Feral

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Re: A Disturbing Story on Iraq.
« Reply #8 on: Sun, Apr 23, 2006, 08:31 »

Rights group calls on US to protect gay Iraqis

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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.
Stonewall was a riot.

Mogul

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Re: A Disturbing Story on Iraq.
« Reply #7 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.
"Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right!" Salvor Hardin

Feral

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Re: A Disturbing Story on Iraq.
« Reply #6 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 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.

Stonewall was a riot.

Mogul

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Re: A Disturbing Story on Iraq.
« Reply #5 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 part of Sistani's website contains a statement on homosexuals, the reported 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, 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.
"Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right!" Salvor Hardin

Feral

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Re: A Disturbing Story on Iraq.
« Reply #4 on: Mon, Apr 17, 2006, 23:26 »

From the BBC:

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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."
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Mogul

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Re: A Disturbing Story on Iraq.
« Reply #3 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.
"Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right!" Salvor Hardin

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Re: A Disturbing Story on Iraq.
« Reply #2 on: Thu, Mar 23, 2006, 08:23 »

SHIA DEATH SQUADS TARGET IRAQI GAYS -- U.S. Indifferent


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

Feral

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Iraq
« Reply #1 on: Thu, Mar 23, 2006, 05:25 »

SHIA DEATH SQUADS TARGET IRAQI GAYS -- U.S. Indifferent

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 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. 
« Last Edit: Mon, May 15, 2006, 11:49 by Feral »
Stonewall was a riot.
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