Gays Killed in Baghdad as Clerics Urge Clampdown

As further proof that the U.S. occupation forces in Iraq either do not have the situation under control and/or that the U.S. leadership of the occupation force cares nothing for LGBT lives, reports out of Baghdad indicate that at the urging of Islamic clerics gays are being hunted down and murdered. Meanwhile the allegedly pro-U.S. puppet government in Afghanistan is allowing sharia law to be implemented so as to strip women of legal rights and protections. Frankly, if this is how the supposedly friendly puppet regimes are operating, then it is definitely past time that the USA troops be brought home. I would argue that the ones who are "perverts" and "deviants" are the hate filled clerics and their mindless followers who apparently cannot handle the fact that like the Bible, the Koran is wrong in its alleged condemnation of gays. Here are some highlights from Reuters on the murder of gays:

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BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Two gay men were killed in Baghdad's Sadr City slum, a local official said on Saturday, and police said they had found the bodies of four more after clerics urged a crackdown on a perceived spread of homosexuality. Homosexuality is prohibited almost everywhere in the Middle East, but conditions have become especially dangerous for gays and lesbians in Iraq since the rise of religious militias after U.S.-led forces toppled Saddam Hussein six years ago.

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"Two young men were killed on Thursday. They were sexual deviants. Their tribes killed them to restore their family honor," a Sadr City official who declined to be named said. The police source who declined to be named said the bodies of four gay men were unearthed in Sadr City on March 25, each bearing a sign reading "pervert" in Arabic on their chests.

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Many young men who might have cut their hair short and grown beards when religious gangs controlled much of Iraq now dress in a more Western style as government forces take back control. Some are now accused of being gay, and residents of Sadr City say at least one coffee shop has become a gay hangout.

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A member of the slum's Sadrist office said the Mehdi Army was not involved in the killings, but said homosexuality was now more widespread since the Mehdi Army lost control of the slum.
"This (homosexuality) has spread because of the absence of the Mehdi Army, the spread of sexual films and satellite television and a lack of government surveillance," said the office's Sheikh Ibrahim al-Gharawi, a Shi'ite cleric.