As Clerics Encourage Anti-Gay Hate, Gay Men Found Executed in Iraq
By Susie Madrak Tuesday Apr 07, 2009 12:15pm
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. (Photo by Bilal Hussein/AP)
Yet another group who has found life even worse than it was under Saddam Hussein. Nice going, BushCo! Installing a theocracy usually does lead to the suppression of human rights - just in case you never noticed:
BAGHDAD - The bodies of two gay men have been found in Baghdad's Shiite slum of Sadr City after a leading cleric repeatedly condemned homosexuality, an Iraqi police official said Saturday.
The killings come after Shiite cleric Sattar al-Battat repeatedly condemned homosexuality during recent Friday prayers, saying Islam prohibits homosexuality. Homosexual acts are punishable by up to seven years in prison in Iraq.
The two men were believed killed Thursday by relatives who were shamed by their behavior, said the official. Police said they suspected the killings were at the hands of family members because no one has claimed the bodies or called for an investigation.
The killings come weeks after Iraqi police found four bodies in late March buried near Sadr City with the words "pervert" and "puppies" written on their chests, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information.
Puppy is a derogatory word used by residents in Sadr City to refer to homosexuals, the official said.
Sadr City, a slum of about two million people, is home to a large majority of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia. Al-Sadr's forces launched several uprisings against American forces since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, but fighting ended in Sadr City in May 2008.
"When the Mahdi army was in control, such practices were banned, and homosexuals were afraid of declaring their tendencies," the official said. But that's changed since the Mahdi Army militia cease fire took hold, the official said. The official said some people claim a coffee shop in Sadr City has become a hangout for gay men.
Sheik Ammar al-Saadi, a cleric at al-Sadr's office, denied any involvement by the Mahdi army in the killings. He said the Mahdi Army was only urging people to stop practicing homosexuality.
"Such people have brought shame on Sadr city people," he told The Associated Press. "The blame falls on the security forces who do little to combat this phenomenon or to stop the flow of pornography materials into Iraq."
Amnesty International recently condemned the Iraq government's plan to execute 128 prisoners, many of whom were imprisoned for being gay.
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You knew this was coming didn't you? Great Job W! Another triumph(?) for your legacy.
let's not forget the marriage law in Afghanistan where a woman HAS to give in to here husband's desire no matter if she wants to have sex or not.
Legal rape in Afghanistan and gays murdered in Iraq.
Wonderful legacy w.
Not only that, but an Afghani wife has to ask her husband for permission to leave her own home.
btw, those corpses look like kids' bodies, not adults.
How's that memoir coming along? I hope you include the part where you "saved" Iraq.
Bastard.
dubya's laughing it up and throwing baseballs to cheering crowds in Texas.
Ah, life is grand, ain't it?
Executing gays has been practiced for centuries in radical Muslim populations. Remember when Mahmoud Ahmadinejad spoke at Columbia University said "We don't have homosexuals like in your country"? (http://www.breitbart.tv/html/5960.html). Its not that they don't have homosexuals, its that if they come out of the closet they will be murdered. Simple as that. Has nothing to do with Bush. Their interpretation of their Muslim religion is so radical that they kill any one who defies. Sad, just sad.
And you, surfjac, are sad as well. Stop posting such stupid remarks. Crooks and Liars is a great site, and your dumbing it down.
Your tax dollars at work.
We need to get the fuck out of there. It appears that the money and resources needed in Iraq will make our nation homeless.
and the sooner the better.
Remember, the GOP and the rightwingers consider this part of the success story in Iraq.
-GSD
And there's folks here who would love to executed gays.
W is tapped to serve, W HAS to serve as Ambassador to Iraq. No troops, we bring them home and tell W, you broke it, you bought it!
However, I really wish they would just appoint a Special Prosecutor and put W's ass in Abu Grahib prison in women's panties.
I have such contempt for W and company for what they did to this country and other countries; its like bile in my throat, heartburn, agita, and I can't get rid of it.
here is something that is a lot more real: Spain is seriously launching prosecutions for the Bush torture team. From the article:
"John Yoo, Jay Bybee, David Addington, Alberto Gonzales, William Haynes and Douglas Feith may face charges in Spain for authorizing torture at Guantánamo Bay.
If arrest warrants are issued, Spain and any of the other 24 countries that are parties to European extradition conventions could arrest these six men when they travel abroad.
Does Spain have the authority to prosecute Americans for crimes that didn't take place on Spanish soil?
The answer is yes. It's called "universal jurisdiction."
These protofascists didn't need GWB to carry out their hypocritical (as in pedophilic mullahs) acts of violence in the name of their god, or prophet, or whatever fictional being they worship before they go on their killing sprees.
Bush overthrowing a Sunni-minority dictator and replacing him with a Shiite-majority ANYTHING made it possible. And this is just Act 1. Our meddling in the ME is destabilizing the region like crazy.
It's quite an accomplishment to drive FOUR countries (Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, and the U.S.) over the cliff, but W. has managed quite nicely.
"If it ain't broke, break it."
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d72/johnny718bravo/Politics/e80772aa.jpg
Thank you, JohnnyBravo!
One thing I learned from visiting the RAWA site (feminist org in Afghanistan/Pakistan) and reading the articles written by Afghan feminists is that one big mistake we've made is replacing one group of religious fanatics with another (RAWA was opposed to the Northern Alliance govt. we helped set up because they too have horrific human rights abuses against women and others - they would have preferred the establishment of a progressive and secular govt. instead), or in the case of Iraq, taking out a secular government and letting the fanatics get their feet, and their legs, and the butt, etc. in the door of Iraqi government. That is where our government and GWB contributed to the problem.
Seems to me that the only people bringing "shame" to Sadr City are the barbarians murdering members of their own family.
So, let's see, so far, President Obama has assured Muslims around the world that the USA is our friend... while we *still* have "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" in our military.
Is there anything more damaging to reason and intellect than the stupidity and hatred that religion inevitably spawns?
... if you put "religion" alongside "FOX News."
america style.
I'm in no way in favor of censorship, but I must say this picture and the associated cause of death really almost made me lose my lunch. Issue awareness is one thing-- but perhaps such graphic photos (with such terrible cause) could be posted below the fold...
Out of sight, out of mind.
Because we are so much better served by pictures of people waving their purple ink-stained thumbs, soldiers building soccer fields, and not seeing any flag-draped caskets being brought home.
Sorry, but even raw numbers don't bring it home as well as a graphic photo.
I for one get triggered by photos of death (it's why I can't look at the photos posted at the previously mentioned RAWA site - they give me nightmares), but I can understand the point of exposing us to it without putting it behind the fold. We all need to see the consequences of what our country has done to Iraq.
Dear Disturbed ... when you and a few other people get tired of "losing your lunches" maybe then you will have more than nice little conversations with you work colleagues or friends and family that you are for "gay rights". We need people getting real loud and ugly to say, "I have had it, this is enough!"
Last week I was at Sachsenhausen, the notorious Nazi death camp where 1000s of homosexuals were tortured and executed ... when as a people are we going to get fed up with one aspect of the human race systematically being dehumanized, tortured, murdered, their rights taken ... I myself have had enough ... I say we need more powerful images like this to put a face on the religious barbaric atrocities daily being committed against gays and lesbians.
I guess to their freaks, Allah does too.
Then we got Mr. Obama in the name of the American People asking for punishment towards N. Korea for testing a missile. Hillary is in on that too, just for added clout. Not everyone has forgotten the illegal invasion of Iraq, Barrack. Oh, you are so smooth. And tell the people how you have expanded you wiretapping powers just recently. You will not hear much about that on the old MSM.
I've been telling everyone that I know for months now that Obama wont change anything of importance. He'll make all sorts of cosmetic changes to minor stuff but that's about it.
"Right-wing talk-show punditry incites emotionally disturbed people to kill liberals"
Iraqis can't stand up any more so the US can stand down. Hurray for democracy.
So not only their alternative lifestyles get a public airing, but also their deaths?
This is what more than 4,400 American soldiers died for? Fuck you, George W. Bush.
NO. It is, was, and will always be about OIL (and the power and money, therein.)
The true price of cheap gas.
Calling those murderers animals would be an insult to every non-human denizen of this planet.
Holy shit! The Iraqis are watching Glen, Bill, Sean and Rush as well!
Nice zinger!!
It's been a blast. Enjoyed reading your posts and most others as well.
Thanks John Amato. Great blog, no matter what anyone says. I'm done posting though. I've had my fill of people pretending to be progressives and liberals. Too much hate here now. It's turned into a Dem version of Redstate.
Good luck to all of you, especially those who work with John to bring these posts. You do a damn good job!
I'll miss you, but I can understand your reason for leaving.
I always enjoyed reading your posts. Please take care of yourself.
We don't always agree, but there's nothing that says you have to stand around and get your chops busted daily for being 'down on Obama.'
Your perspective will be missed, and I mean that.
Can I sit by you on the plane on the way home? Just teasing and hopefully after a little break you'll return to C&L.
"Religion poisons everything."
Yes, if you break it you've bought it, but once you own it, you can't always make it into what you want it to be. This is fu*king heartbreaking. Hopefully Madam Karma is tracking george bush these days.
... the TARP bailout look like small change.
But it's all meaningless unless the former C-Student-in-Chief has the capacity to learn. I don't know if it's possible to have a soul so damaged that it can't grow or advance on a subsequent turn of the wheel (assuming, of course, that you believe in reincarnation) ... but George is certainly a candidate.
All the hypocritical, anti-Gay Reslugs probably think this is OK.
The great interest that religious people have in OTHER PEOPLES' sex lives.
They flit about thumping their "holy" books while sniffing the bums of others.
I guess that the Holy Ones desparately fear that somebody else might seek fulfillment or have fun.
According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit that monitors hate groups and extremist activity in the United States, gays and lesbians in the United States are victimized in hate crimes twice as often as African Americans, and numerous studies show these attacks are much more brutal than most assaults. The SPLC also estimates that due to problems with the hate-crime reporting system in the United States, the real number of hate crimes being committed in the United States each year is likely closer to 50,000, as opposed to the nearly 8,000 reported by the FBI.
http://www.southernstudies.org/2009/01/withou...
Concernedcanuck and calgarylady. We are coming for your water next, and you can't do a thing about it. Canadians are a pushover.
This is a tragic story, and I'm glad it's being reported. But is it really necessary to show a photo of these poor bodies? It seems to be in poor taste. I didn't really appreciate coming across that without a warning, either. Perhaps the photo engenders sympathy, but it's also true that too much exposure to these types of images leads to people becoming hardened to them. I long for the days when bodies were not considered appropriate for public viewing. And I hurt for those poor boys.
I remember an argument being similarly made for refusing the press the access to arriving caskets from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
People need to see this. If you can't stomach it, then help make the world a place where such things don't happen.
...or bury your head in the sand...
If the dead were Cantor,Mitch,and McCain I would enlarge the photo and have it silk screened onto a bedspread. I offer no apologies as the republicans are the enemy and the death of any of them would be cause for celebration. I mourn the lads in the photo...horrible.
There are Christians in the USA who would look at a picture like that and say to themselves "They got what they deserved. The wages of sin are death." They believe in a wrathful God/Lord, and believe he works in mysterious ways, remember? They might not have the guts to carry out such a dastardly deed themselves, but they do condone such things by suggesting that God hates fags.
I applaud C&L for putting this image out there to remind us of how horrible human beings can be to each other, for the crime of being different.
I wrote Saturday in a post about this ongoing abuse in Iraq. I contacted Senator Joe Lieberman's office about this matter as well as John Larson's office. Neither office was aware of the execution of gays and lesbians inside Iraq. Neither office has gotten back to me about this matter. I called last Friday to both offices after a friend alerted me to this grave issue in Iraq.
The aide in Senator Lieberman's office had the audacity to tell me "I do not think that we should be getting involved in the affairs of other countries..."How would you like it," he told me "if other nations spoke out against the death penalty on the federal level?" I said I had mixed feelings about the death penalty but it would not bother me if other nations spoke out against the death penalty. I certainly do not advocate what Iraq is doing. The Lieberman aide assured me that Senator Lieberman was a friend of gays and lesbians but that he had to be more concerned with the lack of rights gays and lesbians have in America more than he should be concerned with Iraqi gays and lesbians. I reminded the aide of Lieberman's "clout" with the Iraqi policy and all. That Lieberman is very connected to the "success" of Iraq as well. I called at around 4:10 p.m. to the Washington, D.C. office. I posted my concerns about this issue in the Iowa's gays and lesbians win the right to marriage.
I urge you all to call your respective members of the Congress and the Senate and Governors since the National Guard has a strong presence in Iraq. Thank you very much. Take care.
Christians in America see this and cry "Barbarism!"..
But in reality. This is what you get when you let magic deities in the sky inform your public policy.
Like I told my devoted, supportive catholic mother during the prop 8 debacle. Religion is to blame.
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