OutRage! News Service
16.3.06
Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani of Iraq has issued
a death fatwa against lesbian and gay people. On his website, he calls
for the killing of homosexuals in the "worst, most severe way" (see his
text below).
“Sistani's murderous homophobic incitement has given a green light to
Shia Muslims to hunt and kill lesbians and gay men,” says exiled gay
Iraqi, Ali Hili, of the London-based gay human rights group OutRage.
Mr Hili also heads up the new Iraqi LGBT – UK Abu Nawas group, which
consists of exiled gay Iraqis and has close links with clandestine gay
activists inside Iraq.
“We hold Sistani personally responsible for the murder of lesbian, gay,
bisexual and transgender Iraqis. He gives the killers theological
sanction and encouragement,” said Mr Hili.
“Evidence we have received from our underground gay contacts inside Iraq
suggests intensified homophobic abuse, threats, intimidation and
violence by fundamentalist supporters of Sistani.
“Grand Ayatollah Sistani is the spiritual leader of all Shia Muslims in
Iraq and around the world. He is also the spiritual leader of the main
Islamic fundamentalist movement in Iraq, the Supreme Council for Islamic
Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI).
“The government in Iraq consults regularly with Sistani on political,
social and moral issues. He wields huge influence over Iraqi government
policy and the over Iraqi Shia public opinion.
“Sistani is not even Iraqi. He is an Iranian national who has set
himself up as a religious leader in Iraq. He wants to impose an
Iranian-style theocracy on the Iraqi people.
“The British government paid for Sistani to have medical treatment in
the UK in 2004, and fetes him as a revered Muslim leader.
“The Badr Corps, which is the armed wing of SCIRI, has instituted a
witch-hunt of lesbian and gay Iraqis – including violent beatings,
kidnappings and assassinations.
“Despite Badr’s murderous record, the UK allows its political arm, SCIRI,
to have offices and fundraise in the UK. Badr is the terrorist wing of
SCIRI. Badr should be proscribed as a terrorist organisation.
“Badr agents have a network of informers who, among other things, target
alleged 'immoral behaviour'. They kill gays, unveiled women,
prostitutes, people who sell or drink alcohol, and those who listen to
western music and wear western fashions.
“Badr militants are entrapping gay men via internet chat rooms. They
arrange a date, and then beat and kill the victim.
“Males who are unmarried by the age of 30 or 35 are placed under
surveillance on suspicion of being gay, as are effeminate men. They will
be investigated and warned to get married. Badr will typically give them
a month to change their ways. If they don't change their behaviour, or
if they fail to show evidence that they plan to get married, they will
be arrested, disappear and eventually be found dead. The bodies are
usually discovered with their hands bound behind their back, blindfolds
over their eyes, and bullet wounds to the back of the head.
“The Badr Corps is a terrorist organisation and uses terrorist methods
against political, religious, sexual and ethnic dissidents. It is behind
much of the sectarian violence in Iraq today, including suicide
bombings, kidnappings and the assassination of Sunnis, moderate Shia,
trade unionists, women’s rights activists, gay people and secularists.
“Our sources inside Iraq report the murders of the following gay and
bisexual men. All the killings bear the hallmarks of the execution-style
murders for which the Badr organisation is notorious.
“These killings are just the ones we have been able to get details
about. They are the tip of an iceberg of religious-motivated summary
executions. Gay Iraqis are living in fear of discovery and murder,” said
Mr Hili.
Karim, aged 38, survived a hand grenade attack on his house in the Al-Jameha
district of Baghdad in 2004. The attack by members of the Badr Corps,
left him with severe facial disfigurement and shrapnel in his body.
Simultaneously, the Badr Corps murdered his partner, Ali, at his house,
also in the Al-Jameha district. They shot Ali as he tried to escape.
Haydar Faiek, aged 40, a transsexual Iraqi, was beaten and burned to
death by Badr militias in the main street in the Al-Karada district of
Baghdad in September 2005.
Sarmad and Khalid were partners who lived in the Al-Jameha area of
Baghdad. Persons unknown revealed their same-sex relationship. They were
abducted by the Badr organisation in April 2005. Their bodies were found
two months later, in June, bound, blindfolded and shot in the back of
the head.
Naffeh, aged 45, disappeared in August 2005. His family were informed
that he was kidnapped by the Badr organisation. His body was found in
January 2006. He, too, had been subjected to an execution-style killing.
Ammar, aged 27, was abducted and shot in back of the head in Baghdad by
suspected Badr militias in January 2006.
Bashar, an actor aged 34, who resides in Baghdad, has been forced to go
into hiding, after receiving death threats against him and his family.
Before he went underground, his house was raided several times by the
Badr Corps. Fortunately, he was not at home, otherwise he fears he would
have been kidnapped and killed.
A copy of Sistani's fatwa, with translation, follows below.
The text of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani’s fatwa for the killing of
sodomites is below. To see it yourself:
Go to the Sistani website: www.sistani.org
Under the section Istiftaaat, go to letter L in Arabic, look up to Lewat
which means (sodomy). See question 5.
Direct link:
http://www.sistani.org/html/ara/main/index-istifta.php?page=4〈=ara∂=4
Q5: What is the judgment for sodomy and lesbianism?
A5: Forbidden. Punished, in fact, killed. The people involved should be
killed in the worst, most severe way of killing.
