There are documentary evidences of armed men engaged in persecuting homosexuals in Iraq. Nearly 480 gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender Iraqis have been killed mostly by the police since the invasion.
One example is Ahmed who was 14 years old when he was executed by Iraqi police in Dora, a Sunni neighborhood in Baghdad. In May 2006, four officers came to his home, accused him of being ‘corrupt’ and a ‘shock’ to his community. He was shot twice in the head. His crime was having sex with men. Kamal was 16 in 2005 when he was arrested by armed men and his torso shaved. Over a period of 15 days, he was repeatedly raped by his captors until his family agreed to pay a ransom of more than 1,000 euros.
One NGO describes it as “one of the most organized and systematic campaigns of sexual cleansing in history.” This is the warped result of religious extremism.
In October 2005, Grand Ayatollah Ali al Sistani, the highest Shiite religious authority in Iraq, spoke about homosexuality, “That is forbidden. In fact, the people involved should be killed in the worst, most serious forms of murder.” His words were published on a website.
When the struggle against the occupation, violence, and civil war left unpunished acts of violence, the extremists pursued homosexuals in one of the most sensitive campaigns in Iraq. The Badr Brigades, the armed wing of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution (one of the main Shia parties) took the edict to practice and launch the persecution of homosexuals in Iraq. The fact that the fatwa was withdrawn a year later did not change anything. In 2007, human rights groups were alerted by the “existence of religious courts, supervised by clerics, where alleged homosexuals are ‘judged,’ ‘sentenced’ to death and executed.” Another cause for alarm was the report: “In total, three fatwas issued by clerics have allowed ‘good Muslims’ to hunt and kill homosexuals.”
This is one of the lesser-known faces of the Iraqi tragedy, despite complaints as the UN report highlighted in 2006: “Islamic groups and militias are known to be particularly hostile to gays, taking frequent and open campaigns of violence against them.”
Legally, the situation is not much better since Iraq is one of nine countries in the world where the death penalty for homosexuality is in force.
Via IRAQI LGBT/Gays Without Borders
Please, the photo you used is an IRAN’s one.
Really? Oh, wow, I didn’t know… It was an image from an article about gays and sexual cleansing in Iraq. Here’s the link:
http://www.shariahfinancewatch.org/blog/2008/09/25/sexual-cleansing-in-irag-as-radicals-go-searching-for-gays-to-kill-this-is-a-very-frightening-situation-and-human-rights-groups-must-respond-now/
There are other images that can be pictorially appropriate for ‘sexual cleansing’ but they are too graphic.
I suppose the ‘good muslims’ aren’t doing anything wrong when they rape the homos. If only some bad muslims would rape all the holy souls in return, perhaps God would smile down upon the rapists and ready a feast for them in paradise..