Sistani Orders Death To Gays

[A_Wanderer]

Shiite Muslim leader Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani issued a death-to-gays fatwa in Iraq last October, and now squads of the local Badr Corps are systematically targeting gay Iraqis for persecution and execution, veteran political journalist Doug Ireland reports on his Web site. Iraqi gays who have sought protection from U.S. authorities in the “Green Zone” around Baghdad say they have been met with indifference and derision.

“The Badr Corps is committed to the ‘sexual cleansing’ of Iraq,“ Ali Hili, a 33-year-old gay Iraqi exile in London who fled to the United Kingdom five months ago, told Ireland. “We believe that the Badr Corps is receiving advice from Iran on how to target gay people.”

The Islamic Republic of Iran has been in the news in recent months for persecuting and executing young gay men. According to Ireland, the well-armed Badr Corps is the military arm of the Iranian-backed Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, the powerful Shia group that is the largest political formation in Iraq’s Shia community.

The Ayatollah Sistani, 77, an Iranian-born cleric who is the supreme Shia authority in Iraq, is revered by the Supreme Council as its spiritual leader. His antigay fatwa says that “people involved” in homosexuality “should be killed in the worst, most severe way of killing.”

link

The Islamic Reformation already happened, it was the Iranian revolution on one side and Wahabbism on the other

 

[Irvine511]

should gays in Iran be given refugee status?

or does only religious persecution count?

 

[verte76]

They should have refugee status. Their lives are in danger. I can't believe that they may actually be *killed* due to their sexual preference.

 

[yolland]

I wonder if this is in accord with the Iraqi constitution?

I've posted this list before, but these are the countries whose governments actively enforce the death penalty for homosexuality: Chechnya, Iran, Mauritania, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen.

There is *some* precedent for gay Iranians, at least, seeking asylum as gays in certain European countries (the Netherlands, primarily); not much, however, and Rita Verdonk (of burqa ban and integration test fame) has proposed that they be deported on the grounds that only homosexual acts, not homosexuality itself, are punishable by death in Iran.

Here is an interesting website about gays in Iran, with links to other gay Muslim sites.

 

[Zoomerang96]

hmmm...

"His antigay fatwa says that 'people involved” in homosexuality “should be killed in the worst, most severe way of killing.'"

i'm not sure how to respond to this. it's almost comical if it wasn't so deathly serious.

gays sure are scary though, guys. i heard somewhere they're "solely resonsible for destroying our social framework".

bah. what's wrong with these people...

 

[melon]

So we went from Saddam to this fucker? Boy...what a waste of half a trillion dollars.

If Iraq respects the rule of law, Sistani should be arrested and tried for murder. He's no different than a mafia boss who has his underlings do all his crimes.

But do I think he'll ever get what's coming to him? Hah! The U.S. has a hard enough time arresting obstinate, criminal Catholic bishops, so why expect more from a quasi-anarchist state like Iraq?

Melon

 

[verte76]

I had a feeling that once we got rid of Saddam he'd be replaced by someone as bad as he was, if not worse. The Iraqis have jumped from the frying pan into the fire.

 

[nbcrusader]

I'm not sure Sistani has risen to the level of "replacing" Saddam - but without Saddam's brutal thumb, the loonies who have always been there are now free to speak their minds.

 

[BVS]

I'm not sure Sistani has risen to the level of "replacing" Saddam - but without Saddam's brutal thumb, the loonies who have always been there are now free to speak their minds.

Which puts us where?

Remind me why we went there?!

So far no one has shown me a good reason...

 

[deep]

I'm not sure Sistani has risen to the level of "replacing" Saddam - but without Saddam's brutal thumb, the loonies who have always been there are now free to speak their minds.

so who freed the loonies ?

and are aiding and abetting them ?


this is ALL on the Bush Administration.

like Colin Powell said:

If you break it
you own it.

 

[nbcrusader]

so who freed the loonies ?

and are aiding and abetting them ?

this is ALL on the Bush Administration.

That strikes me as overly broad and intellectually dishonest.

 

[Irvine511]

That strikes me as overly broad and intellectually dishonest.

you mean like the invasion of Iraq?

 

[verte76]

They freed the loonies, but I wouldn't say they're encouraging them at all. Once Saddam was gone, the loonies were free to do what they hadn't been able to do under Saddam, and that's rule the country. I knew that they were going to fall under Islamism, and that would make true democratization impossible.

 

[nbcrusader]

They freed the loonies, but I wouldn't say they're encouraging them at all. Once Saddam was gone, the loonies were free to do what they hadn't been able to do under Saddam, and that's rule the country. I knew that they were going to fall under Islamism, and that would make true democratization impossible.

Did "they" free the loonies from imprisonment, or did they free them from the threat of Saddam's secret police?

Again, I'm not sure they've risen to the level of ruling the country.

 

[verte76]

Perhaps not, but it's tough to argue that Sistani isn't one of the most powerful people in Iraq. The majority of Iraqis are Shia Muslim, so they'd probably support him for any office he damn well pleased, including the top job.

 

[AussieU2fanman]

OK this is the last time im googling some of A_wanderers references so I can have something constructive/intelligent to ingratiate myself with, in this case just 'Wahabbism.'
So um......yeh killing gays is bad n shit.

 

[tommyvill]

All I can ask is: WHY?

 

[A_Wanderer]

hint: Invisible Friend

 

[verte76]

All I can ask is: WHY?

Can you say "Sharia law"? Or "fundamentalist"?