Condemn the Murder and Attacks on LGBTs in Iraq, Oppose Continuing Imperialist support for the Iraqi Regime

Condemn the Murder and Attacks on LGBTs in Iraq, Oppose Continuing Imperialist support for the Iraqi Regime Radical Socialist (13.03.2012) “Never again”, was the cry after the Holocaust. But we tend to forget that Jews were the most visible, but by no means the only group targeted by the Nazis. Though not in such massive scales, it is estimated that some ten thousand gays were murdered by the Nazis for being gay. But mass killings of gays continue. In 2010, a UN resolution condemning extra-judicial, arbitrary and summary executions (i.e., murders) saw an amendment being brought to remove sexual orientation from the kinds of executions being mentioned. The amendment passed with 79 countries voting for the amendment, 70 voting against, 17 abstaining and 26 being absent. People are hanged in Iran, people are beheaded in Saudi Arabia, people are killed in many African countries. Christian evangelists are whipping up serious pogromist atmosphere in Uganda against gays. It is in the context of this world wide violence on gays that one needs to look at the recent events in Iraq. The Iraqi regime is one put in place by the United States of America. It is supposedly a democratic alternative to the regime of Saddam Hussein. And it has gone on record expressing approval for the Shia militant organisation that has chosen to identify real or assumed gays, to put up lists of names, and to torture them, kill them by brutal means such as hitting them with huge concrete building blocks or by pushing them off high buildings. Estimates vary, but one report says that in the last six weeks alone some fifty eight gays have been murdered. Words fail to express the horror and anguish at this. And once again, this is done in the name of God, with the utterance that begins the Koran and is repeated throughout the Koran 114 times – In the name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate. Iraqi LGBTs need our support. And people in the US, in Europe, as well as in India, must realise that they have to stand up against the continuing imperialist backed regime in Iraq. The two issues are connected, rather than being separate.