Iraqi gay torture claim
Police are torturing gay Iraqis to death by gluing their anuses shut and inducing diarrhea, according to reports emerging from Iraq.
The reports, which originate from the Emirates-based media network Al-Arabiya, indicate that some captured gay men are having a type of super-glue squirted into their anuses. The glue bonds skin instantly and requires surgery to remove. The gay man is then allegedly forced to drink a liquid that induces diarrhea, causing a slow and agonising death.
Cellphone videos of the torture deaths are reportedly circulating throughout Iraq. Shiite Muslim leaders recently issued a decree declaiming homosexuals and Sunni leaders have been broadcasting calls for the murder of gay men.
The superglue claim comes from a report by Emirates-based media network Al-Arabiya. An Iraqi police official says there is no evidence for these crimes and we do not know the motives of the killers and we do not know the intentions of those killed. The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission is unable to substantiate the claims through independent sources. The Los Angeles Times reports that posters have appeared in Baghdad’s Sadr City suburbs threatening the lives of homosexuals.
Iraqi gay rights activists claim at least 60 gay men have been killed in their country so far this year. Meanwhile, the BBC has recently reported on what it headlines the lives of hell lived by gay men in Iraq.
Chris – so if you post “almost every day” to, say, a mainstream website does that make you a closet straight? Does me posting on an islamic website on a regular basis, which I do (although I often get kicked off) make me a closet muslim?
One minute I’m a closet gay, then I’m a member of some salt shaker group that I’d not heard of until one of you bought it to my attention. Then I get called a bigot for my views on homosexuality. Oh, and I’m also a member of hillsong. What next I wonder? Still, I get a good laugh out of it.
James…what ‘straight person’ spends almost every day posting on a website for the gay and lesbian community…lol
unless he has a secret agenda…eg being a lame voice for that very lame fundamentalist group ( cult) saltshakers.
chris May 10th 10:59am 2009 – a great, well-thought out comment there. We all appreciate your valuable input. Keep ’em coming.
James ‘ Thinks’ he is straight!!!!!
Darren – sorry to disappoint you mate but I’m as straight as an arrow. Taking an interest in and debating religions such as Islam with people doesn’t make me a closet Muslim, just like debating gay issues with gay people doen’t make me a closet gay.
This whole thing seems to be getting a little off topic. Oh and P.S. I don’t believe for one second that James is straight. Don’t make up lies just for arguments sake.
shayne chester said – “the media must reflect the values and encourage the unfounded prejudices of its audience.”
Complete bollocks. I’m straight, am certainly not in any “closet”, and therefore don’t reflect the values of this newspaper/website at all or probably 99% of its readers. However, I really enjoy reading the opinions of people which are so vastly different from my own. I also like to debate certain issues and contribute my own, mostly contrary, point of view.
On another note, this whole “western media is so biased” line gets really boring after a while. Please let us know what news source you use to get your unbiased, truthful, non-distorted information from so we can all switch to it.
Al Arabiya is Saudi funded as part of MBC. It may not be entirely impartial, however this story has yet to be commented on by Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International who always rely on first hand evidence. There is no doubt the the plight of LGBTQI gays in Iraq is far worse now than before. Interestingly Iran does practice the death penalty against gays and lesbians, generally under the guise of other crimes, but the government funds sex change operations.
Shayne I can’t disagree with what you see as a bigotry against Muslims in Australia and the Western media. But why overlook the undeniable torture and murder of gays in, for example, Saudi Arabia simply because the oppression of gay people also occurs in, say, Latin American countries? That’s why I applaud ILGA which takes a world view of these problems. I also reject arguments that criticism of particular countries anti-gay policies are somehow “racist”, “imperialist”, “Zionist” or whatever. Too often being gay is said to be some sort of foreign plot by dictators who want to freely murder people without interference.
Oh dear Shane, “Saddam …stabilized the region”??? So being tortured or murdered by Saddam’s soldiers isn’t quite as bad as being tortured or murdered by someone post-Saddam??? Geez, with friends like that!!……
Islam or illegal or not, I’m just so glad not to be living in that country. I felt so sick when read the part of gluing anuses shut, such barbaric practices being performed. Shocking.
Arguments over the homophobic interpretation of the story of Lot exist in Christianity and Judaism where the original meaning was debatable and not explicit, but not in Islam because by the time Mohammed heard the story in the 6th Century and put it in the Koran, the homophobic interpretation had become orthodox.
For this reason the Koranic story specifically describes the men of Sodom as those who “approach men lustfully instead of women”.
Muslims believe the Koran was delivered word for word to Mohammed by God via the angel Gabriel so for them to doubt this interpretation is to doubt the very divine nature of that revelation.
It hardly needs to be said that Western media is biased against Islam and Muslims, David. Where is the coverage of gays being oppressed in the other 85 countries that criminalize consensual same sex acts between adults? It is important to understand bias and the obvious fact is that the Western media is a business, which means that the media must continuously attract readers, (or listeners and/or viewers,) and also attract advertisers. Ergo the media must reflect the values and encourage the unfounded prejudices of its audience.
The portrayal of Arab and Muslim people in the western media is stereotypical and negative. Back in 2006, the Federal Police Commissioner Mick Keelty warned that rising vilification of Muslims was being fuelled by irresponsible media outlets which sensationalised stories with little basis in fact (like this one).
Shayne, re-read my post and get back to me. I have already said…no I won’t say. Re-read what I actually posted.
David Skidmore said, “I really can’t see how it is -œanti-Islamic to point out reports of anti-gay violence in countries which just happen to be Islamic and then try to do something about it.”
did you know its also illegal in Fiji, a non-Muslim country? And Papua New guinea and the Solomon Islands? And Nauru? And the Cook Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Angola, Cameroon, Zimbabwe, Kenya…the list goes on. You have some work to do.
What I said about the story of Lot, which is very similar to the one in the Christian Bible, AMP, is “The story … condemns lack of charity to our fellow human beings ” and while “some people interpret this story to be a prohibition of sodomy, but others interpret it as a prohibition of rape, as the people of Lot forced themselves on their victims.”
“if it’s propaganda who exactly do you believe stands to benefit? ” is not a hard question, I’ve already discussed the reasons for the manufacture of anti-Islam rhetoric.
Shaikh Sadeq al-Zair actually said, -œIF these people are sick, they should be given therapy.
“Islamists who are responsible for many, many other documented homophobic slayings and their clerical and political supporters do” As do many Xian sects, for example the Westborough church. It doesn’t make all Xians homophobes.
The Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq opposed Saddam Hussein – who suppressed their extremist views – and did not interfere with the U.S.-led invasion because they saw it as an occasion to establish the kind of theocratic skullduggery of which you now complain.
I really can’t see how it is “anti-Islamic” to point out reports of anti-gay violence in countries which just happen to be Islamic and then try to do something about it. After all, condemning homophobia in Australia is not “anti-Australian”, it is simply making a stand for the rights of gays. And like I said, the main human rights groups like Amnesty do not single out Islamic countries or African countries or wherever. They look at human rights violations globally and try to act on them. And I agree with that strategy.
Shayne- “Geez, even the -˜children overboard’ and the -˜wmd’s’ news stories had more than ONE unreliable source”- if it’s propaganda who exactly do you believe stands to benefit? The Iraqi Government who want foreign troops out? The coalition governments who want their troops out? The militia groups who want foreign troops out? This story delivers no motivation that is useful to any of those parties.
The story is yet to be corroborated but I wouldn’t call Al Arabiya unreliable. Considering the level of violence directed at Iraqi gays is it really that surprising that no one has stuck their neck out to confirm it?
I think it is particularly disingenuous that you left out the first part of Shaikh Sadeq al-Zair’s comment to the BBC in which he called homosexuals “sick” and called for gays and lesbians to be subjected to psychiatric treatment.
Personally I consider people being forced to undergo bogus psychiatric therapies to be a form of violence.
He may not agree that the death penalty for homosexuality is correct in Islam but the Islamists who are responsible for many, many other documented homophobic slayings and their clerical and political supporters do.
“with the Allies all desperately cutting their losses and running, poor Iraq is a miserable mess”- are you advocating that coalition troops remain in Iraq?
I find your claim that there are no references to homosexuality in the Koran strange seeing as you yourself referenced the homophobic story of Lut in a comment on my column just two weeks ago.
There is at least one other section of the Koran which the vast majority of Muslims interpret as concerning homosexuality.
Hussein stabilised ethnic and religious unrest in Iraq- not the region. Remember the Iran-Iraq war and the invasion of Kuwait?
Rebecca, I like to think about things, rather than be duped like so many that have allowed themselves to be led into this anti-Islam rage. The lie was generated that all terrorists are Muslims. Then came the claim that Saddam Hussein had WMD’s and a connection with the 9-11 hijackers. These were the lies that were used to invade, occupy and devastate Iraq. The US wanted all-out, open war against the Islamic world. They wanted us all to equate Islam with bastardry and legalize the torture of Muslims, and their indefinite detention. I have no particular affinity with any of the world’s five major religions, but I have even less with propaganda and the scapegoating the innocent.
I’m waiting for Shayne to convert to Islam, given how defensive he is all the time.
Of course Hussein was a murderous despot. But he also stabilised the region. The illegal actions to which we signed up have left a chaotic anarchy in which thousands (including homosexuals) have become the victims of lawlessness. And now with the Allies all desperately cutting their losses and running, poor Iraq is a miserable mess. The nation liberated looks more like a nation oppressed. Fortunately we can always scapegoat Islam, again, but the fact remains that the situation that allows such horrendous crimes against glbqti in Iraq is one of our own making.
It worries me that anti-gay violence happens fullstop, too David. And the CIA’s ongoing torture – sorry, ‘extraordinary rendition’ – of innocents worries me too. And the wholesale slaughter of innocent Arabs worried me. And the rabid homophobia in many Western countries, even in this one where simply holding the hand of someone of the same sex anywhere outside the gay ghettos will get you a smack in the head, and worse, still sickens me.
Regardless of the status of homosexuality under Saddam Hussein’s regime (he seemed to hate everyone anyhow), the concern is now how gays are surviving now in Iraq. ILGA, Human Rights Watch and others are rightly concerned about anti-gay violence in Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle-East.
Quite frankly, I couldn’t care less about lip service given to gay equality by some Islamic scholars anymore than I care about human equality communist theorists supposedly supported. I’m interested in the welfare of gay people worldwide and it worries me that anti-gay violence happens fullstop.
Phil,
I think a bit off is an understatement, this is down right nasty. No wonder the middle east gets such flack.
Geez, even the ‘children overboard’ and the ‘wmd’s’ news stories had more than ONE unreliable source. I don’t suppose anyone is interested to know that that homosexuality WAS NOT illegal under Saddam Hussein until 2001 – right before the US invasion when lawlessness was allowed to reign. Or that the Shia cleric in central Baghdad’s Kerrada district, Shaikh Sadeq al-Zair, said -œ…violence is rejected by all religions, especially by Islam, which is a religion of mercy. Or that the Koran makes no reference to homosexuality. Anti-Muslim rhetoric is invariably misinformed conjecture. We just love to hate, don’t we?
These abuses shouldnt be happening, period! Why is it that some people that come here from these countries think the same laws apply here. Thats most concerning.
Whether homosexuality is technically not illegal in Iraq doesn’t seem to deter anti-gay forces there. Besides, there are many countries where homosexual sex is not a crime but “decadence” or “perversion” (code words for homosexuality as well as pornography or anything the government doesn’t like of a sexual nature) are.
Can I remind people homosexuality is NOT illegal at all in Iraq, however next door in Iran, homosexuality is punishable by the death penalty. That country is under continous war, hatred and horror on all sides – regardless of race, religion, ethnicity, sex/gender or sexual orientation.
That’s a bit off.