Gay + Iraqi = Dead

[Ian David]

Doug Ireland, a veteran political journalist and media critic, can be reached through his blog, DIRELAND . The following was written for Gay City News—New York’s largest gay weekly—and appears in its current issue, published last week.

For the very first time, an official United Nations human rights report released last week has confirmed the “violent campaigns” against Iraqi gays and the “assassinations of homosexuals in Iraq.”

“Attacks on homosexuals and intolerance of homosexual practices have long existed, yet they have escalated in the past year,” says the latest bi-monthly Human Rights Report of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI), released on January 16. “Islamic groups and militias have been known to be particularly hostile towards homosexuals, frequently and openly engaging in violent campaigns against them. There have been a number of assassinations of homosexuals in Iraq,” the report says.

Including a section entitled “Sexual Orientation” for the first time, the 30-page report goes on to say that the UNAMI Human Rights Office “was also alerted to the existence of religious courts, supervised by clerics, where alleged homosexuals would be ‘tried,’ ‘sentenced’ to death, and then executed.”

“The trials, presided over by young, inexperienced clerics, are held... in ordinary halls. Gays and rapists face anything from 40 lashes to the death penalty,” the UNAMI report says, citing a report by the Institute for War and Peace Reporting, adding: “One of the self-appointed judges in Sadr City believes that homosexuality is on the wane in Iraq. ‘Most have been killed and others have fled,’ he said. Indeed, the number who have sought asylum in the U.K. has risen noticeably over the last few months... {This judge} insists the religious courts have ‘a lot to be proud of. We now represent a society that asked us to protect it not only from thieves and terrorists but also from these {bad} deeds.’“

<snip>

Gay City News first broke the story about the systematic murder of Iraqi gays last March (see this reporter’s article, “Shia Death Squads Target Iraqi Gays-U.S. Indifferent,” March 23-29, 2006). The Badr Corps—the military arm of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), the country’s most powerful Shiite political group—launched a campaign of “sexual cleansing,” marshaling death squads to exterminate homosexuality, following a “death to gays” fatwa issued in October 2005 by Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the 77-year-old chief spiritual leader of all Iraqi Shiite Muslims.

More:
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2007/01/31/gay_iraqi_dead.php

[Tom Joad]

1. This is in contradiction to the US military campaign, that kills people

without regard to gender, age, sexual orientation.

[The Magistrate]

3. What Is Your Point, Mr. Joad?

You seem to be arguing in defense of Islamic courts executing people for being homosexual.

Do you consider that a progressive stance?

[Tom Joad]

4. That is not what i said.

My concern is that the US has been killing many innocents in Iraq, and continues to do so, at the behest of Bush & Co. We should work to end this illegal and immoral war and occupation by the US.

I don't approve of anyone being killed because of their sexual orientation.

[The Magistrate]

5. That Is Far From The Easiest Reading Of Your Comment, Sir

Which nowhere indicated any disapproval of the action. Someone said persons were being killed by Islamic courts for beinmg homosexual: your response was, essentially, an effort at distraction, saying, well, look over here, something bad is being done by the United States. That is a pretty common defensive technique, and leaves open the possibility you do not have any real quarrel with the actions of the Islamic courts. Sentences like this are hardly perculiar to present-day Iraq: they are routine in Iran, for example, and can be encountered where-ever Shiara law has force as a criminal code. It remains the case that you seem to be suggesting that, at minimum, this is something people should not pay attention to.

[Marnieworld]

11. That is true but

This is an additional horror. Boldly out in the open as the official policy of the gov't we are propping up. We support them with $, time, equipment, and sacrifice our soldiers for them.

Yes the entire war is an illegal horror but this aspect of it should also be denounced, discussed and dealt with in the media and in the halls of gov't. To ignore it or brush it aside as nothing distinct is to condone it.

Considering that we are still there to get this very govt up and running allegedly it is pertinent to discuss exactly whom we are helping? Is this the freedom on the march that we are waiting for?

[BR_Parkway]

2. Sounds like Falwell, Focus and the rest of the Hate Gay for Pay

crowd. They'd do it in a heartbeat if they could.

And yeah, stories of being executed always remind me why I "chose" this "lifestyle".

[Ian David]

6. Curious that Ted Haggard would "choose" that lifestyle, too. n/t

[The Magistrate]

7. Indeed, Sir

The common statement by these types that "I don't want the homosexual agenda shoved down my throat" has always struck me a tad peculiar....

[Unvanguard]

9. It is not peculiar at all.

It just needs a little translation.

"The homosexual agenda" is the idea that gays and lesbians deserve to be treated with equality and dignity.

To shove "the homosexual agenda" down the throat is to expect people to tolerate putting such ridiculous and disgusting ideas into practice, and, even worse, to expect people to (*gasp*) actually abide by them themselves.

Quite easy to understand... if you're a bigot trying to pretend you're not, anyway.

[BR_Parkway]

14. I think it has more to do with a subconcious desire for someone to

actually shove something down their throat. And that desire scares the shit out of them, so they react.

[Unvanguard]

8. These are the people the US has put into power.

Nice to know that "Iraqi freedom" has been such a success.

[The Magistrate]

10. An Excellent Point, Sir

The uncomfortable fact is that the United States invasion of the place established the "Islamic Republic of Iraq" as surely, and for that matter as predictably, as if doing so had been the stated goal of the policy.

[JohnLocke]

12. And Ali al-Sistani is viewed as a moderate!

[The Magistrate]

13. To Be Fair, Sir

Competition for the title of most extreme is awfully fierce: even strenuous and dedicated effort may prove sadly inadequate in the contest....

[JohnLocke]

15. That is true.

Sometimes I seem to see pale shadows of that competition here...