Wayne Besen - Author, Activist, Columnist, Public Speaker

Wednesday, July 20, 2005

Two teenage boys - one under 18 - were publicly hanged by the Islamo-fascist regime in Iran yesterday for being gay. This information and picture were provided by Andrew Sullivan's website.

Violent fundamentalism, no matter the religion, is a cancer that must be defeated. Take a good, long look at this picture because this is what radical Islamists want to do to homosexuals. It is clear that Bush lied about Iraq and America should not be there. But, it is equally clear that this sick version of fanaticism must be crushed if we expect to live in a free and decent society.

It is not just Islam. Watching Eric Rudolph smugly defend his bombing of abortion clinics, a gay bar and the Olympics reminds us that home grown religious zealots also lurk in the shadows. The truth is, if you look throughout the world, fundamentalist nations are failures and are almost always backwards. Religious fanaticism in all its guises is an evil worth fighting and defeating.

29 Comments:

Homophobia is always barbaric.
posted by Anonymous, at 7/20/2005 1:24 PM

Don't think it couldn't happen here with the current political climate. Our home-grown right wing zealots would like nothing better than to see us gone.

Robert, Bayside, NYC
posted by Anonymous, at 7/20/2005 1:30 PM

These fucking A-rabs are evil. Bush was right by invading Iraq and blowing them up. I wish he could win a third term. Even though those people are hanging you people - you homos still don;t get it. Start supporting Bush to save yourselves.

L.D.
Texas
posted by Anonymous, at 7/20/2005 1:43 PM

And who is going to save us from people like you L.D.? Superman? You are as evil. I wonder why Texas didn't stay independent...
posted by Anonymous, at 7/20/2005 2:32 PM

Message for L.D. Why would any sane individual want to vote for Bush considering that he and his party don't believe in full civil rights for all? Yes, my friend, gays pay the same taxes as "you people" but we don't enjoy the same rights and privileges as "you people"...get it? I guess not. Your president's extremist right-wing supporters are not so far removed from those you describe as evil. It is not Arabs who are necessarily evil but their religious, fundamentalist sharia laws and ideology. For your information, Iranians aren't Arabs.

Robert, Bayside, NYC

Robert, Bayside, NYC
posted by Anonymous, at 7/20/2005 2:38 PM

LD in Texas' hateful, ignorant, racist diatribe is not even worthy of a response, this hick even spells don't with a semi-colon.

I have no doubt that the most extreme religious right in this country would execute us Gays if they could get away with it. They were filled with glee in the early 80s when the AIDS epidemic surfaced.
Whenever a society is totally dominated by patriarchal reglions such as islam or christianity without the protections of secular law, reason and science, murderous control, extreme backwardness, poverty, homophobia and misogyny are the inevitable result.
Bush and his most ardent supporters aren't far removed from this type of world.
Gary (NJ)
ps..LD, a THIRD term for bush?!!? By then we'd be TRILLIONS of dollars in debt! I have a solution, let's start taxing your damn churches who are always sticking their hooked noses in politics anyway where they DON'T belong!!
posted by Anonymous, at 7/20/2005 2:58 PM

Wasn't the bomber of a gay bar and a abortion clinic an extremist too? Isn't "ex-gay" ministries extremist too? Please, L.D. (Low Dog?)open your eyes, when kids are send to ex-gay boot camps, when kids like Matew Shepard are killed in a barbaric way for being gay, when people protest gay marriage, we are witnesing extremism. I would laugh at you -as my friends who are reading your coment are- if it wasn't because you are a danger to the American society. I am sure that you find amusing hate crimes and other barbaric act, perpetrated by people who call themselves Christians. I actually don't want to use the term conservative anymore, because it implies that "conservativism" wants to "conserv" (or preserv) something. Conservaitvism is about destroying, not CONSERVING.
posted by Anonymous, at 7/20/2005 3:24 PM

Message to Gary, NJ: I echo your statement totally.

Lets face it, the Republican party is basically a party of hate, no question about it. Look what it has bred in Texas and elsewhere. I've no doubt L.D. in Texas would make a fine disciple for the christian right. Maybe he already is or maybe he's one of the ex-gay success storys. I find it odd that he's visiting Wayne's website and posting comments. Why the interest in us I wonder?

Robert, Bayside, NYC
posted by Anonymous, at 7/20/2005 5:36 PM

This picture grieves me and brings to mind the lynch mob of the old Deep South.
The casual hangings of young black males based on the paranoia and intense stigma of black sexuality was the way to exact total social control over blacks.
Color was a means, not the only reason for segregation.
The Deep South prided itself on it's religious grounding and values and thought that the uncivil sexual aggression of blacks was THE thing that most justified the lynching of them.
The offense of being, not DOING is enough for a death sentence in religious circles these days.
Is there really a God at all?
It's times like these, it's actions like these against innocent BOYS...who are barely men, that make it hard for me to believe that God is still with us.
I will question his presence or the strength of his commitment and ability to us always under these circumstances.
God...were you WITH these poor children dying so horribly in Iraq?
Are you listening when a child or his grandmother cries out from a gang member's bullet tearing into them?
Lynch mobs...and their cousins all over the world...can God see this picture in all our eyes?
posted by Regan, at 7/20/2005 6:21 PM

regan: yes god was with these people as they took their last breaths, Yes god was weeping to see Matthew Sheppard dying as Mckinney and Henderson ruthlessy bludgeoned him. You ask why doesn't god do anything about it? Well it has to do with free will. He can't take away their will without taking yours. But don't worry people like this are only ripening themselves for destruction. Remember the parable of the wheat and the tares? Tares only show their true colors just before the wheat harvest. The christian right after hundreds of years being absorbed into the general church population is finally showing their true colors, and seperating themselves from those who truly love the lord and his children. Those who love their enemies and love peace, like you and I. Trust me the Second coming is real close I am sure. God will not let the world be veiled in satanic darkness like it was for 1500 years from the death of the apostles in the first century till the bible was first published. Darkness will never reign again. Take heart. As the Bible Says "be still and know that I am God."
posted by Adam Kautz, at 7/20/2005 6:57 PM

Message to Gary: Gary, I like what you said about taxing churches. Since it was the catholic swing vote that largely helped give Bush the nod in the last election, it would make sense to start taxing any religious institution that lends support or meddles in the political arena to effect hateful legislation against a targeted group of people. After the child molestation scandal in the church (not a recent phenomenon, but centuries old), the burden of taxation might shut them down altogether, along with all the other faith-based institutions that are wilfully dividing this society. Not a bad thing either. I welcome it. Maybe we can fight back and give it back to them on this one issue alone.

Robert, Bayside, NYC
posted by Anonymous, at 7/21/2005 7:38 AM

Thanks for your words of comfort, Adam.
I'm not Christian, but my religion does believe in the equivalent of a Creator and being angels to your fellow man.
To, above all things, be kind and just and seek to understand why and where injustice occurs and work to correct it.

In our religion, we believe gay people are a miraculous creation or at the very least a talented, symbiotic part of who we are as human beings.

I was never taught to disrespect gay people or that gay people are 'unnatural'.
The negative things I hear about gay people are either theory, or equal in hetero people, so all the crazy, mean or murderous behavior against gay people has never made sense.
(sigh)
I'll do what I always do when confronted with the horrors like these executions.
Offer a prayer...for them.
For us all.
posted by Regan, at 7/21/2005 9:03 AM

Just curious Regan, what religion are you?
posted by Anonymous, at 7/21/2005 9:27 AM

"Organized religion is a lie."
--Sinead O'Connor

(posted by Johnny in Minneapolis)
posted by Anonymous, at 7/21/2005 11:31 AM

Johnny in Minneapolis, I think there may be something in what Sinnead O'Connor said. The longer I live, the more I observe that organized religion seems to be about "business and politics" today. They cherry-pick the pieces that serve their agenda but actually don't adhere to everything that appears in their bibles, qurans, talmuds, etc. They are all basically self-serving, hypocritical and bigoted and irrelevant to modern day living with a lot of frightened, insecure followers who need to be lead. I daresay there may be a few genuine adherents, but I think they're few and far between. Judge not and ye shall not be judged applies to all of them, but I've not found any that practice what they preach.

Robert, Bayside, NYC
posted by Anonymous, at 7/21/2005 12:39 PM

Follow-up to Robert's posting--
Buddhism seems to be the most humane and least hypocritical of them all. It is the only major world religion that has never had a war fought in its name. When the Taliban blew up the ancient Buddha statues carved into the mountains in Afghanistan, Buddhists did not go on a bloody rampage and only said it was a painful lesson 'in the impermanence of all things'.
Can you imagine what the muslims would have done if someone else had blown up several of their ancient holy sites?!
posted by Anonymous, at 7/21/2005 1:22 PM

Regan: I know you probably think that born-again christians are hateful like Pat Robertson and James Dobson, but I know of at least a couple and I would have to say the vast majority of born-again christians aren't hateful like that they just aren't vocal like the hateful minority is. Being a born-again christian isn't a one time I pray to god and all is forgiven and I don't have to worry about sins no more. It is a continual process, I constently have to deal with anger and the sins I committ each day I just know that by following the teachings of Jesus like those from the surmon on the mount I will become a better person. So I will live life trying to constantly improve myself, not for salvation, but because living the teachings of Jesus in the gospels gives me peace and happiness, I also am not like others in criticizing others for different beliefs, I feel that even though christianity is the way for me, I also realize that it also might not be true and maybe your religion is the way or the buddhist or whatever. It doesn't matter what you believe in, there is a quote from Final Fantasy X-2 game that I would like to give you in it Yuna says "It's true that we all have different beliefs and sometimes we may not agree, but our hearts and minds must always be one," It is my prayer that the human race learns this before it is too late.
posted by Adam Kautz, at 7/21/2005 6:32 PM

Adam, me darling...I have been blessed to know some amazing and big hearted Christians, so I won't paint all with the same brush.
The hateful fanatics are making this world horrible and are trying to reverse the clock on so much human progress and integration.

This is for anonymous:
My grandmother's Chicasaw spiritual belief came in small doses. She retained some, and recovered from the forced Christian identity.
I know just a few words of her language and she was forgetting much of the little she learned when young.
Even her name was anglo sized and she hated it.
It was Lil'iah...but white people kept calling her Lillian.
White folks always called people of color by their first names. A show of disrespect.
Her sisters had equal trouble being called by their correct names.
Cam'a and Pochehont'as
It was hard to get all of the whole of our religion.
But the essentials are there.
It's been enough for me. It's helped me a lot in my anti hate scholarship and learning from other cultures and people.
So many indigenous people's have lost their spiritual hearts.
Many of which in Asian, Africa and here in the Americas...accepted homosexuals.
It's the Muslim and Christian influence that's turned into violent repression.
Looks like the original Crusades are coming back and those of us with simpler and more logical approaches to justice and religion too...are going to be in the middle of the mess.
I went to go see a wonderful movie..."The March of the Penguins" it's about the natural journey that the Emperor penguins of the South Pole take yearly to mate and raise their young.
Gender roles are reversed and child rearing is taken on by ALL the penguins...male or female, gay or not.
Made me fall in love all over again with this marvelous planet and the amazing life upon it.
posted by Regan, at 7/23/2005 1:24 PM

Wayne, you need to really do better research. These men were hanged for raping a 13 year old boy, not because they were gay.
posted by Peter O, at 7/23/2005 7:04 PM

Peter:

You need to read the Iranian penal code sometime. Okay?
posted by Anonymous, at 7/23/2005 10:28 PM

Peter - I did read the same report of a rape as you did - however, other sources now say that there was no rape. The rape charge (or fabrication of a charge for the media) may just be a red herring to distract from the hanging.
I sure could be very very wrong, but take a look at the two boys in the photo in the police station (behind wire screen). One is weeping. He sure does not look like a rapist to me. He looks like a normal adolescent. Perhaps they were "fooling around" with a thirteen-year -old and tht was classified as "rape."
posted by Dave, at 7/23/2005 11:29 PM

Whoever this Peter is, he seems like an apologist for Iranian propaganda, and not particularly bright. He ought to take a look at HRC's statement.
_________________________________

For Immediate Release --
Friday, July 22, 2005

SECRETARY RICE URGED TO CONDEMN EXECUTION OF GAY IRANIAN TEENS

"Atrocities committed by foreign governments against all people must be
condemned swiftly and forcefully by the world's greatest democracy," said
HRC President Joe Solmonese

WASHINGTON - The Human Rights Campaign sent a letter today to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice asking her to condemn the recent execution of two
gay teens in Iran as well as other horrific human rights abuses against
gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people across the globe. The text
of the letter follows:

July 22, 2005

Dear Madam Secretary:

This week, the world learned of a horrific case of brutality
against two young Iranians. This crime warrants an immediate and strong
condemnation from the Department of State.
This week, two Iranian teenagers were hanged in a public square
after being tortured for 14 months, simply for being caught having
consensual sex. Pictures of their execution have been published in
various newspapers around the world and can be found at the following
Internet link:
http://direland.typepad.com/direland/2005/07/iran_executes_2.html
Unfortunately, images like these are all too common in parts of
the world where gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender individuals are
persecuted and treated with gross injustice by their governments. Just
two weeks ago, a Nigerian man was sentenced to be stoned to death for
admitting past sexual acts with men.
Atrocities committed by foreign governments against all people
must be condemned swiftly and forcefully by the world's greatest
democracy. We urge you to do so.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was signed by the
UN General Assembly in 1948, declares that every human should be
guaranteed the fundamental right to life, liberty, and security of person
and every human should be free from torture and cruel, inhuman or
degrading treatment or punishment. Tragically, this guarantee of basic
human rights does not exist for GLBT individuals in certain regions of the
globe.
According to research done by organizations such as the
International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission and Amnesty
International, human rights abuses are perpetrated against the GLBT
community in all corners of the globe. As we have seen in recent weeks,
the barbarous punishments for sexual acts in these countries run contrary
to the letter and the spirit of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
For that reason, these acts must be condemned.
We hope you join us in our belief that every inhabitant of this
world, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity, has the
inherent right to be free from human rights abuses, and will take action
to highlight these injustices and condemn those countries that commit such
inhumane acts.

Sincerely,
Joe Solmonese
President
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