The bodies of up to 25 suspected homosexual men have been found over the past two months in the newly democratic Iraq, according to the New York Times.
A modicum of liberation for Iraq’s gays has arrived with the regime change, but tribal values remain strong. In 2005, Shiite leader Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani called for the execution of gays and lesbians, saying that they should be put to death “in the worst, most severe way of killing.”
The latest report comes two days after an Iraqi official revealed that six gay men had been murdered by tribes after being disowned by their families.
Appalling!
I hope our President addresses this outrage.
The other day CNN ran an interview with two gay men in Bagdhad. With their faces concealed, they spoke of the dangers they might face if anyone “found out.”
Yesterday I sent an email to Helem, a gay Arab group.
I wrote: “I’m horrified by the gay murders in Iraq.
I’d like to personally sponsor 1 or 2 gay Iraqis
for immigration to the USA. How do I proceed?”
I’ve no idea how to accomplish such a thing, but I hope to find out & save a life or two.
And we replaced a secular tyranny for this religious tyranny?
If you were gay or a woman (or god forbid, both) which government would YOU want to be governed by, if these two were the only choices?
Today three print publications told me that they’d cover my immigration campaign after I got it off the ground..
I was also pointed in the direction of a gay immigration hotline~~I’ll be contacting them before the weekend.
I’m very excited about this and I mean to see it through.
It feels good to do something hands on that might end up
saving a gay life!
I hope I do it well enough to inspire others to do the same!
Randy Thomas’ response to the 6 being murdered:
What the hell does that mean?? Pray they will “self-determine” that they will either 1) slink back into the closet, or 2) decide to “change to straight?” But for that last option, they better not turn to Exodus, because apparently (according to Randy) it’s “misleading” to say that Exodus tries to help gay men get rid of their SSA.
I wonder if Randy has bat an eye at the fact that these are Muslims being murdered. I’m almost surprised he didn’t call for them to “find Jesus.”
Oh, and let’s not forget that at his post he puts the qualifier “allegedly” behind “homosexual behavior,” (there are no gays just straight people who do homoSEXual things, remember?) despite the fact that the CNN article he links to declares that they ARE gay. It’s as if he’s saying “they might not have been murdered for their sexuality, so don’t try to claim this one yet, all you raging gay-identified activists.”
Emily:
Randy needs to learn the prayer: “Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me.”
I never heard of praying for someone to “self-determine” something. The mere fact that we are calling on a higher power to help someone rules out the “self” part. That’s like saying, “Lord, help them but let them do it on there own.”
I think it is important to keep our brothers and sisters who suffer violence anywhere and for whatever reasons tht go behind the violence. The fact that in Iraq they are killing people even if they suspect they are gay means more than just gay people are being victimized for these shameless acts of violence. It’s good Iraq has a democracy, but it seems they now need a democracy that is fair and just.
This is just one more in a long history of incidents of WHY church and state need to be separate- when one mixes the two, both lose. Why? The church in power crushes any dissent with death and torture , so the people lose. The church becomes beholden to the state not to God, and when it does, then the State, not Christ runs the church.
And yes, it’s terrible for gays and lesbians, transgendered, and women in those Islamic extremist countries- we need to pray hard for them, but how will we show any moral credibility as a nation on this issue when we have our own little “Christian” hate groups right here in the USA- the only reason we are not put to death here is that SO FAR, church and state have been fairly well separated. If that changes and this country buys into the hate agendas of the “religious” “right” (they are neither) we’ll most likely be in a similar situation. Do we really want any one particular church to run the country? I would say the answer lies in the Constitution of this country when it states that “Congress shall make NO law regarding an establishment of religion, or the free excercise thereof. ” (emphases mine) As well, Jesus makes a good case for separation of church and state when he says: “Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s and unto God that which is God’s.
And still the hate rages, people are killed in the name of their God. But really, this is not God at all, it’s the devil himself who foments this kind fo thinking, after all what does Jesus tell us, “the enemy come ony to steal, kill and destroy”- I wonder why religions, esp. Christianity think it’s ok to do that?!