By Marke B.
Today came word that six men had been shot for being gay in Baghdad’s Sadr City — two last Thursday and four earlier, their bodies unearthed on March 25 with signs reading “pervert” pinned to their chests. Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr had called for a “crackdown” on gays. “Sermons condemning homosexuality were read at the last two Friday prayer gatherings in Sadr City, a sprawling Baghdad slum of some 2 million people,” according to Reuters
“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.
“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.
According to an eyewitness, a cafe known for being a gay hangout was also burned down.
“Homosexuality is not a crime in Iraq,” said our own State Department (specifically, John Fleming, the public affairs officer for the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs) last Thursday when confronted by an international outcry over the alleged possibility of “execution in batches” of gays imprisoned for “moral crimes” there.