Ed Brayton is a journalist, commentator and speaker. He is the co-founder and president of 
Take a look at this report about the militias in Iraq targeting homosexuals for death.
"In the past three months, more than 30 gays have been executed in Baghdad. The bodies have been found tortured, mutilated - sometimes with signs of rape," said Mustafa Salim, spokesman for the Rainbow for Life Organisation (RLO), a Baghdad-based gay rights NGO."Notes were found near some of the bodies with messages saying that this is going to be the fate for any Muslim who denies the Islamic religion," Salim added...
"In the past three months, more than 30 gays have been executed in Baghdad. The bodies have been found tortured, mutilated - sometimes with signs of rape," said Mustafa Salim, spokesman for the Rainbow for Life Organisation (RLO), a Baghdad-based gay rights NGO.
"Notes were found near some of the bodies with messages saying that this is going to be the fate for any Muslim who denies the Islamic religion," Salim added.
Don't try and tell me that Islamic radicalism is not an enormous threat to freedom and decency. There is no more malevolent, reactionary or destructive ideology in the world.
Comments
No Ed, Islam is the religion of peace! The religion of peace that for some reason is the motivating ideology behind dozens of terror groups who do unspeakable acts every day. Oh, and whose believers regularly try to silence anyone who says anything bad about them.
Posted by: Stuart Coleman | April 18, 2007 10:26 AM
"There is no more malevolent, reactionary or destructive ideology in the world."
Oh? Try the White House.
Posted by: Roy | April 18, 2007 10:26 AM
Acts like this performed in the name of Islam is no different than the Inquisition or jingoism or any other form of extremism: saying they're doing it for God and country give their hate a veneer of righteousness.
What I'm trying to figure out is they consider homosexuality so terrible, who exactly is raping the homosexuals before killing them?
Posted by: Algerine | April 18, 2007 10:43 AM
I don't believe that any religion is a religion of peace. Ok, maybe Janism. The Abrahamic religions don't seem all that peaceful to me at any rate.
This is especially true the more radical their beliefs are. Radical christians would also like to hang homosexuals up by the ging gang goolies - secular law stands in the way for the moment.
Posted by: beepbeepitsme | April 18, 2007 10:47 AM
Algerine said what I wanted to. Who's raping them or are they using objects that make it seem like rape as part of the torture?
Posted by: llDayo | April 18, 2007 10:48 AM
Algerine and IlDayo: Islam has a fundamentally different definition of sexual roles, which can be crudely defined as the male role, which is active, and the female, which is acted upon. There is no stigma to a man using a homosexual for his pleasure, it just means he is so manly and virile that he can afford to waste a bit of it. In this country, Roy Cohn had the same attitude back in the day.
Numerous studies have shown that rates of same-sex intercourse are far higher in Arab countries than in the West. It's just that they don't think screwing a gay person makes you gay. Apparently, however, they don't like seeing gays any more than Western fundamentalists do.
Posted by: kehrsam | April 18, 2007 11:07 AM
I highly recommend this uncharacteristic piece from Adbusters
'In Search of New Comrades' by Max Dunbar
http://adbusters.org/the_magazine/70/In_Search_of_New_Comrades.html
An excerpt (but please read the whole thing):
"Callinicos's SWP allied itself with a group called the Muslim Association of Britain. At the great London march in 2003, this organisation handed out leaflets proclaiming that the punishment for apostasy (leaving the Islamic faith) should be death. The MAB also supports the establishment of a caliphate ...
This is a disgusting betrayal. ...
We forget that most victims of Islamic zealotry are Muslims - from the bombings ordered by the cleric Sheik Abdullah bin Jabreen to the genital mutilation suffered by countless young women in the Islamic world. It shouldn't make the slightest difference that some of the fanatics also have a problem with Dubya. By supporting these fanatics, the left is backing the oppressor over the oppressed ...."
Posted by: Colugo | April 18, 2007 12:08 PM
Does anyone really argue that Islamic radicalism is not a threat to freedom and decency? At least to the people who are surrounded by them?
Posted by: Steve Reuland | April 18, 2007 12:28 PM
Absolute nonsense. Have some perspective. I don't care for the current administration, but they are not advocating the rape and murder of homosexuals -- nor would they even if they could . If you cannot see the distinction between mainstream Christian conservatives in the U.S. and this particular form of Islam in Iraq, then you've got a problem.
Posted by: Sastra | April 18, 2007 4:40 PM
I hardly think that those perpetrating these crimes are "mainstream" muslims. But still, they are getting their ideas and feelings of righteousness and vindication from Islam. In the US the are many extremist christians who no doubt feel as strongly as these criminals (Fred Phelps?) and would do or at least advocate this kind of thing if they thought they could get away with it.
Posted by: Robert | April 18, 2007 5:03 PM
At first, I was going to say you're way off base about that second sentence in this paragraph for lumping all moderate and liberal muslims in with the terrorists... until I reread the first that specified "Islamic radicalism".
But I still disagree for a different reason. Are you sure that Islamic radicalism is more malevolent, reactionary and destructive than Christian radicals who, in the name of God, kill abortion providers?
I would argue that Christian radicals are just as bad as Islamic radicals... IMO, the only difference is that Islamic radicalism is more prevalent in the world (or at least gets more press here in the US). But given the opportunity, I guarantee that the Christian radicals would be just as manipulative of their religion as the Muslim terrorists are.
Posted by: doctorgoo | April 18, 2007 6:02 PM
"Don't try and tell me that Islamic radicalism..."
This sort of raised my hackles. The following is not really directed at the author of the post.
Sorry, but sometimes it seems as if there is this unspoken assumption by people that all religions have to be equivalent in worth. What rubbish. I don't hear anybody running around praising the virtues of the religion of Moloch today. Thanks, but I'd still rather live in a Christian theocracy than an Islamic one.
A big problem is that in Islam someone who pushes for a division between religion and state is considered the true radical, by both moderates and the Jihadists. Until that and many other basic flaws are dealt with, then Islam is predestined to the kind of tyranny it so often engenders...
Posted by: Patrick (gryph) | April 18, 2007 6:26 PM
Geez, these poor militias are just doing the Lord's work, as they are commanded in Leviticus 20:13, and you jump all over them.
Is this where you want to be when Jesus comes back?
Posted by: Tex | April 18, 2007 10:54 PM