"In Iran we don't have homosexuals like in your country." So declared Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, as he in effect proclaimed the Islamofascist tyranny over which he presides (and in which known homosexuals are arrested and executed) to be gay-free. Chillingly, Ahmadinejad went on to defend the use of capital punishment against anti-social elements, saying:
Can a physician allow microbes, symbolically speaking, to spread across a nation? We have laws. People who violate the public rights of the people by using guns, killing people, creating insecurity, sell drugs, distribute drugs at a high level are sentenced to execution in Iran, and some of these punishments-very few are carried in the public eye, before the public eye. It's a law based on democratic principles. You use injections and microbes to kill these people, and they are executed or they're hung, but the end result is killing.
Some conservative sites have made much of Iran's murderous state-sponsored homophobia, as for example, on the Wall Street Journal editorial page:
His regime funnels sophisticated munitions to Shiite militias in Iraq, who use them to kill American soldiers. Oh, and by the way, his regime also executes homosexuals for the crime of being themselves. Maybe if Columbia University President Lee Bollinger were aware of the latter fact he would reconsider his invitation to the Iranian president to speak on his campus today.
A cynic might say that this is a tactic to divide the left (where some still feel if you hate George Bush with enough vehemence, it excuses all else). But it's still good to see the right take on gay bashing-even if it's in Iran.
Update. Iran's state news agency has censored all references to gays from the official Farsi-language transcripts of Ahmadinejad's remarks.
More. Right Side of the Rainbow is rightly appalled at left-wing students, "some of whom are surely gay themselves," who cheered and applauded the butcher, and who say they'd rather have him as president than Bush. Blogger Paul provides a video of an Iranian execution of gay teenagers, but don't expect anything to get through to some of these Ivy League idiots.
21 Comments for “Yes, It Is the Face of Evil”
posted by ETJB on
(1) A national leader is going to get invited to give speeches on Universities (and be protested), even if they are a total moron. I enjoy the thought of a dictator actually have to deal with dissident & protestors.
(2) It would seem that American press, especially when it is conservative still does not want to talk about the fact that gays are being killed for being gay in Iraq.
(3) The fact that a government is being critized (by the left and right) for its treatemnt of its gay citizens shows how much progress has been made.
(4) IT is not like the guy wanted to appear on the View ;0)
posted by steve on
He is evil personified and as is usually the case, he wraps his filthy existence in god and country. Yet little difference exists between him, bush, saddam, reagan, or multitudes of other hate mongers. Were that there were a God, perhaps on judgement day the boys executed for loving each other could stand at God’s side and point the way to hell for him.
posted by Xeno on
No one actually placed that nut under citizens arrest?? Where’s Peter Tatchell when you need him?
I would have shot him in the head if I were a Columbia student. Jump right on stage and empty a clip into him!
posted by lmargol on
And it is so sad to see the left in countries such as mine –Spain– head over heels in love with the Iranian president, the Cuban leader and in general any kind of homophobe, as long as he/she is either anti-American or anti-Capitalist. I call that treason.
posted by James on
There aren’t any gay Republicans, either.
I look forward to the day when evangelical Christians realize that they are, in fact, Muslims–I bet Pat Robertson heard this guy and thought, “No gays in Iran? Wow–sign me up! Uh, oops…”
posted by ColoradoPatriot on
Xeno: “I would have shot him in the head if I were a Columbia student. Jump right on stage and empty a clip into him!”
Such big talk Xeno…I didn’t know this humble little site had its own Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg. Please permit me to ask you a question. Why would you seek to assassinate a world leader?
posted by Karen on
Cute. When it’s gay Iranians in mortal danger, gay people are just “being themselves” and doing nothing else wrong.
But when it’s gay people in America trying to gain protections for their families, we’re a hedonistic, immoral radical left-wing special interest group faction who are out to destroy America, capitalism, democracy, “traditional” families, morality, and actually the whole human race.
posted by Amicus on
Very happy to see the international profile of the plight of gays and lesbians raised.
But the real entree to regional politics and change in that part of the world is through women’s issues, right now.
posted by Xeno on
Such big talk Xeno…I didn’t know this humble little site had its own Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg. Please permit me to ask you a question. Why would you seek to assassinate a world leader?
In order to make a statement to Iran and cause a deeper conflict between the Western world and the Iranian regime. Besides, I’d be curious as to how Columbia and the rest of the United-States would react.
posted by crankyd on
Finally! Something we can almost ALL agree on…HATE!
And it couldn’t be heaped onto a more deserving scumbag.
While i doubt Western disapproval will change one thing about the despicable and inhumane practices of so much of the Islamist world (not just Iran, sadly), i DO hope that maybe this will help to open the doors of communication between gays and the religious extremists here in America.
To anybody with a rational sense of reason, the Islamists and the Religious Right aren’t the same people. (i’m talking to you, Far Lefties.) Stopping me from marrying or adopting is one thing; hanging me in a public square is quite another. But they both finds gays to be anything between damaged or pure evil.
Maybe, just maybe, the people that have put so much effort into denying us our equal place at the table in this country will start to examine why they might share some remotely similar feelings to a Islamofacist culture that has proven itself to behave so reprehensibly.
Not likely, but maybe.
posted by Mark on
Iran has a deplorable government, but they have not yet killed a MILLION people in Iraq like the U.S. has. But let’s just ignore the totality of what’s going on in the world and focus on one issue, shall we?
posted by crankyd on
Yes, I’m sure if Iran was given the opportunity to do a full-scale invasion of Iraq, they would be “Greeted as Liberators.”
Oh, and by the way, regarding your “MILLION” hysteria: An argument is more convincing when you actually use information that as least has some semblance to reality:
http://www.iraqbodycount.org/
But for purposes of this very specific thread, yes, let’s “just ignore the totality of what’s going on in the world and focus on one issue, shall we?”
posted by Bobby on
“Iran has a deplorable government, but they have not yet killed a MILLION people in Iraq like the U.S. has”
—And where do you get your statistics? Frankly, from that standard, I guess you should be packing your backs and moving to Iran.
Typical self-hating American, pitty.
posted by ETJB on
(1) The President of the Univesity gave the President of Iran a good verbal slam. I would have prefered it if some American scholar or intelletual was allowed to speak at an Iranian University…
(2) Their is a difference between him and President Bush. Bush and the religious right do have to operate within certain legal norms that do not exist in Iran or Iraq.
(3) The Iranian President has less power then the clerics and the national army.
posted by ETJB on
Mark;
This is the gay message board, so LGBT issues are going to be talked about.
“Iran has a deplorable government, but they have not yet killed a MILLION people in Iraq like the U.S.”
It would be difficult to determine how many people the Iranian government has killed since the 1979 Islamic revolution.
posted by Mark on
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/10/11/iraq.deaths/
I stand by my figures if you include the 500,00 people killed by the Iraqi economic embargo (admitted by former Secretary of State Albright)
And Bobby, I hate the American government, not America. Do you understand the distiction?
Nowhere did I say that Iran is nice place and I am aware that this is a gay bulletin board. But things need to be kept in context of the complete world situation.
posted by ETJB on
“If you include the 500,00 people killed by the Iraqi economic embargo..”
Doesn’t Saddam have some responsibity for that economic embargo..?
posted by Craig2 on
Yes, there are leftist self-styled ‘anti-imperialists’ about who care nothing about the human rights record of particular opponents of US foreign policy.
However, let’s look at this critically. Iran’s current government is deeply homophobic.
To me, that is the bottom line. To say nothing of its persecution of Bahais, although religious freedom isn’t one of their strongpoints either.
Personally, I’d shed no tears if the Iranian people decided to get rid of their current president. Hopefully, enough external pressure will undermine his status at home.
posted by Bobby on
“And Bobby, I hate the American government, not America. Do you understand the distiction?”
—Sure, sometimes conservatives also hate the government. But we don’t say:
“Iran has a deplorable government, but they have not yet killed a MILLION people in Iraq like the U.S. has”
First of all, I’m sure Saddam killed more than a million people. Secondly, when Iraqui terrorists blow up a car bomb and kill their own people, it’s not our government or our soldiers doing the killing.
Besides, you shoudln’t be making excuses for Iran, or saying that their crimes don’t matter because we commit crimes of our own. That’s the “self-hating American” part I was talking about.
Liberal Americans have a problem criticizing any other nations but their own. Conservatives on the other hand, criticize both.
posted by crankyd on
Okay, this might be a first. I’m agreeing…(okay, half-agreeing) with Bobby on something.
Mark, at this point in the war in Iraq, virtually ALL of the civilian/non-combatant deaths are occurring because of other Muslims…their “brothers.” Right now, American forces are more bystanders in the bloodbath.
I won’t ignore the fact that if the U.S. had not invaded Iraq, Saddam would have continued his iron-fisted control of sectarian violence. But if totalitarian rule was the only thing that stopped these animals from doing what they’ve wanted to do for centuries, is that really our problem? I’d say no. Tough shit.
Keep in mind, i don’t think we should have invaded Iraq, but what’s happening now is of their own making (or their Muslim “brothers”), not ours.
Hell, look at Iran….30 years after after chasing out the “American Puppet” Shah…look what wonderful progress they’ve made. Fucking idiots. The problem is with Islamist fanatics…they need to sort out themselves.
But Bobby…really…
“Liberal Americans have a problem criticizing any other nations but their own. Conservatives on the other hand, criticize both.”
Give me a fucking break.
I’ll remember that next time i see more Republican automatons waving the flag for George W. Dickhead and the ham-handed fuckfest disaster he’s gotten us into.
Please, neither party is immune to being blindered by ideology. Just about the only thing we like to criticize within our own borders is the other party.
BTW? isn’t this thread supposed to be about something else?
posted by ETJB on
(1) Irrespective of sexual orientation/gender identity or politics, most students know, hear or read little about LGBT people in the classroom, and probably dont really known of the global LGBT rights movement.
(2) How many LGBT conservatives do I know who supported the Iraq War, but get rather silent when we talk about LGBT-rights in Iraq? Many. So this is not a problem with only gay people or only liberals or only Democrats.