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Good thing gay activist Chris Stedman came out so strongly against Pamela Geller and me for protesting against Sharia mistreatment of gays, eh? We wouldn't want anyone defending these 215 people arrested in Kuwait, now, would we? That would be "Islamophobic"!

Sharia Alert from modern, moderate Kuwait: "Over 200 homos, lesbians held in countrywide Net cafe raids," from Arab Times, May 14 (thanks to David):

KUWAIT CITY, May 13: Personnel from the Criminal Investigation Department during an extensive campaign at Internet cafes and suspicious places in the six governorates have arrested 215 young homosexuals and lesbians of various nationalities, reports Al-Anba daily.

A security source said 30 low rank officers took part in the campaign and some of the arrested persons are believed to be residence law violators and others wanted by law for committing petty crimes or on civil charges and yet others for gambling.

The violators have been referred to the authorities.

People often ask me why Leftists are so eager to collaborate with Islamic supremacists, as they find it curious that they would enable those who would destroy them for their moral transgressions under Sharia. There are many answers, including a shared taste for authoritarianism, and that may be what is in play here, since Chris Stedman openly avows that he is trying to silence us, trying to intimidate the fundraising site Indiegogo into shutting down our fundraiser. Certainly both Leftists and Islamic supremacists are enemies of the freedom of speech.

"Stop trying to split gays and Muslims," by Chris Stedman in Salon, April 2:

I have an earnest and sincere question for the LGBT community: Do you support Pamela Geller?

The link Stedman puts on Pamela Geller's name goes to the Southern Poverty Law Center's defamatory profile of Geller. The SPLC, while it may have once done good work against racism, has now degenerated into a well-heeled propaganda machine that smears conservatives for cash and is an integral part of the ongoing Leftist effort to demonize and destroy those who oppose them by labeling them "hate groups." The SPLC richly deserves its place on AFDI's Threats to Freedom Index.

Anyway, does Pamela Geller have support in the gay community? She answers this question in her American Thinker article today:

And he claims I have no support among gays. Let him talk to Michael Lucas, the famous gay adult entertainment magnate. "I just returned from Tunisia (and I travelled half the Muslim world)," Michael wrote me today, "and I think gay Muslims, or I should rather say gay Arabs, would agree with your ads because they know first hand the persecution they undergo on a daily basis, It is a shame that, instead of fighting for the rights of LGBT people in Muslim countries, 'political gays' are fighting against you. You are doing a fantastic job uniting people against evil and waking Americans up. Gays should join your movement."...

And gay activist Mark Koenig wrote: "I am a gay man living in Atlanta, GA, and I have an honest and sincere answer for Mr. Stedman: Not only do I categorically support Ms. Geller, I consider her to be a freedom-fighter of the highest order. She has endured years of slander and even death threats from supporters of the evil ideology that is Islam, simply for telling the truth about it. Mr. Stedman is evidently ignorant of the unconditional condemnation and death-sentence prescribed for homosexuals in the Islamic holy texts. This is more than just an aberrant interpretation or a small group of 'extremists' who take these writings literally and act upon them. Homosexuals are routinely executed in Islamic countries simply for BEING homosexual. In fact, Israel is the ONLY nation in the Middle East where gay people can be open about their sexuality without fearing for their lives."

In response to this, Stedman has already tried to smear Lucas as a bigot; he has completely ignored the others. And read on to see just how honest Chris Stedman, the Assistant Humanist Chaplain and the Values in Action Coordinator for the Humanist Community at Harvard, really is.

Geller, who is one of the most active proponents of anti-Muslim attitudes in the United States, rose to notoriety as one of the key instigators of the Park51 backlash, misrepresenting a proposed Islamic Community Center (think a YMCA or Jewish Community Center) by calling it the “Ground Zero mosque” and engaging in dishonest rhetoric and blatant fear-mongering. Her organization, Stop the Islamization of America, was identified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil rights organization, alongside extremist groups like the Ku Klux Klan and Nazis. And it’s earned that label — Geller and her allies have dedicated countless hours and millions upon millions of dollars to drum up hatred, fear and xenophobia toward Muslims.

"Anti-Muslim": Leftists and Islamic supremacists favor this label because it implies that those who are fighting to defend the freedom of speech, the freedom of conscience and equality of rights for all are actually against a particular group, and want to deny them rights rather than protect the rights of all. It is a particularly repugnant canard not only because it suggests that defending freedom and human rights constitutes bigotry, but because it paints a huge target on the backs of those to whom the label is applied -- a target that those who style themselves the defenders of Islam are all too eager to take a shot at.

"...misrepresenting a proposed Islamic Community Center (think a YMCA or Jewish Community Center) by calling it the 'Ground Zero mosque...'" A YMCA or a Jewish Community Center? Which of those house a church or a synagogue? In fact, it has recently been revealed that this "Islamic Community Center" is simply a mosque and nothing else, and it is at Ground Zero.

Re the SPLC: see above. While Leftists constantly invoke its "hate group" designation as if it actually means something, they never explain (and never could explain) why the SPLC actually has any credibility in designating "hate groups" in the first place.

Re "millions upon millions of dollars": This is based on a Center for American Progress report. The Center for American Progress is an extraordinarily well-funded and anti-Semitic hard-Left organization that conflates money received by "Islamophobic" organizations over a period of ten years to give the impression of a huge sum funding some coordinated machine -- when in fact the aggregate amount was less than the budget of the Center for American Progress for one single year, and was spread among seven quite disparate organizations. In reality, those resisting jihad and Islamic supremacism are few and ill-funded, facing a giant, fabulously wealthy media and propaganda machine of which Stedman is an exponent. AFDI has never had millions and millions of dollars, or even a single million.

Last week I learned that Geller and one of her biggest allies, Robert Spencer, are hosting a fundraiser for their anti-Muslim advertisements on the website Indiegogo. This disturbed me for a number of reasons, but particularly because Indiegogo’s terms explicitly prohibit “anything promoting hate.” (Despite reports from me and many others, Indiegogo has so far declined to remove the fundraiser; if so inclined, you can let them know what you think about that here.)

Amazing that a gay activist would smear an initiative calling attention to the Sharia oppression of gays as "promoting hate." Such is the Orwellian world we live in today.

While I was looking into this, I discovered that Geller recently announced plans to run a series of anti-Muslim advertisements in San Francisco quoting Muslim individuals making anti-LGBT statements. Why? Because members of San Francisco’s LGBT community criticized other anti-Muslim ads she has run there.

I tweeted my appreciation that the LGBT community in San Francisco is standing up against her efforts to drive a wedge between LGBT folks and Muslims. Soon after, Geller retweeted me, claiming that she in fact has “huge support in Gay community.” Immediately, her supporters began to lob insults and even threats at me; Spencer himself suggested that I should be rewarded for supporting Muslims by someone “saw[ing] off [my] head.” (Meanwhile, though Geller, Spencer and their supporters kept tweeting at me that Muslims “hate gays” and want to kill me, many Muslim friends and strangers alike tweeted love and support for LGBT equality at me.)

As things settled down, I realized that Geller had stopped responding to me when I requested more information to back up her assertion that she has “huge support in Gay community,” after the only evidence she provided was a link to a Facebook group with 72 members. I’ve since asked her repeatedly for more information, but have not gotten a response.

As Junaid Jahangir writes in a recent piece at the Huffington Post, “[Geller’s] selective references provide a misguided view of the current Muslim position on queer rights issues.” He rightly notes that her advertisements lift up the views of a controversial Muslim cleric, but ignore the “over 2,500 Muslim intellectuals from 23 countries [that] not only called for an international treaty to counter such clerics, but also called for a tribunal set by the United Nations Security Council to put them on trial for inciting violence.” In his piece, which is a must-read, Jahangir goes on to quote many influential, pro-equality Muslim leaders. Pointing to the activism they are doing to support LGBT rights, he demonstrates that Geller is unfairly — and dangerously — presenting a skewed picture of Muslim views on LGBT people.

So these 2,500 Muslim intellectuals called for an international treaty to counter the Muslim clerics who were calling for the execution of gays. In doing so, did they quote them? Almost certainly. But that is what Stedman and his allies are objecting to. Did Stedman denounce those Muslim intellectuals for quoting Muslim clerics who want to kill gays, and calling for action against those clerics. Of course not. He would say that the difference between us and those intellectuals is that they didn't claim that all Muslims want to kill homosexuals, but neither did we. Our ads never say such a thing. And anyway, the fact that some Muslims don't want to kill gays does not cancel out the fact that some do. To say that one cannot call attention to Sharia oppression of gays because some Muslims oppose that oppression would cut the ground out from under those Muslims who do oppose it -- for if they call attention to Sharia oppression of gays, by Stedman's logic they should be silenced along with Pamela Geller and me, since some Muslims oppose that oppression.

You'll never guess who Stedman drags in next:

“There’s no question that homophobia is rampant among the world’s 1.5 billion Muslims — but that doesn’t negate the fact that there are huge groups of Muslims who have easily reconciled their faith and sexual orientation, like LGBT people in other faith communities,” said Reza Aslan, author of “No God but God” and “Beyond Fundamentalism,” in a recent phone interview. “For a woman who leads an organization that has been labeled a hate group to try to reach out to a community like the LGBT community, by trying to make a connection based on bigotry, is harmful and ridiculous. Bigotry is not a bridge.”

I wonder if Stedman knows that Aslan likes to ridicule those whom he hates by claiming that they're gay -- like a sixth-grader on a playground. In any other context, Stedman would be denouncing Aslan as a homophobe for those emails to me. Aslan has also recently been unmasked as a Board member of a front group for Iran's bloody Islamic regime, which hangs gays from cranes. Stedman quoting Aslan in favor of gay rights is like quoting Josef Goebbels to denounce anti-Semitism.

Stedman's article goes on and on -- but all his subsequent criticisms are predicated on the false claim that our ads say that all Muslims want to kill gays. Even if the ads did say that, it is hard to see why Stedman would think that it is more important to denounce and defame us and shut us down than to devote his energies to opposing the Islamic supremacists who really do want to murder gay people. But that's why they call people like Chris Stedman Useful Idiots.

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Over at Atlas Shrugs, I discuss the paradox of the opposition to our latest AFDI ads in San Francisco:

In response to San Francisco officials’ self-defeating hostility to AFDI’s jihad truth ads, Pamela Geller devised a brilliant new ad campaign for that city, calling attention to Muslim persecution of gays. Theresa Sparks, the transgender head of the San Francisco Human Rights Commission, falsely claimed that Geller was “posting these ads to suggest that all Muslims hate gays,” and declared, according to the San Francisco Examiner, that it’s “actually easier to get insurance for sexual transition procedures in Iran than in America.” And it’s true – but, paradoxically enough, only because Iran is so very hostile to homosexuals.

An Iranian-born filmmaker, Tanaz Eshaghian, pointed out “the pressure felt by gay men and women in Iran to have sexual reassignment surgeries as a means of legitimizing their sexual orientation. As gay individuals, they are committing a crime. As transsexuals, they can exist under Iranian law.”

This is of a piece with the hypocrisy of a society that stations Muslim clerics in brothels, so that the customers can be given a Shi’ite temporary marriage (mut’a) to the employees, thereby avoiding the sins of fornication and adultery. But in reality, Iran’s – and Islam’s – hostility to gays is well-established.

The Qur’an contains numerous condemnations of homosexual activity: “And [We had sent] Lot when he said to his people, ‘Do you commit such immorality as no one has preceded you with from among the worlds? Indeed, you approach men with desire, instead of women. Rather, you are a transgressing people.’...And We rained upon them a rain [of stones]. Then see how was the end of the criminals.” (Qur’an 7:80-84)

Muhammad specifies the punishment for this in a hadith: “The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said, ‘Whoever you find doing the action of the people of Loot, execute the one who does it and the one to whom it is done.’” (Sunan Abu Dawud 4462)

And so one Muslim cleric concluded: “God is very straightforward about this — not we Muslims, not subjective, the Sharia is very clear about it, the punishment for homosexuality, bestiality or anything like that is death. We don’t make any excuses about that, it’s not our law — it’s the Koran.”

So spoke Sheikh Khalid Yasin in 2005. Yasin is an American-born, England-based Islamic preacher who is in great demand all over the U.S. as a speaker on Islamic issues. Yet despite the controversy generated by these views and others, Yasin continues to be an important figure on the Muslim Student Association’s college speaking circuit. Rather than repudiate Yasin’s views, Muslim groups that profess moderation have only sought to limit publicity of his speaking engagements, so as to head off negative criticism. In May 2008, for example, the Islamic Society of Greater Columbus, Ohio, a chapter of the Islamic Society of North America, announced that Yasin would be speaking at four local mosques on the day of his first appearance, after an earlier lecture at Sinclair Community College in Dayton, Ohio, sponsored by Dayton’s Masjid-at-Taqwa, brought publicity to his views on gays and other issues.

If MSA members were to turn to the popular website IslamOnline, one of the primary “go-to” sites for English-speaking Muslims, they would find only confirmation of Yasin’s death sentence on gays. In “Homosexuality Is a Major Sin,” the internationally renowned Al Jazeera and Muslim Brotherhood cleric, Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, agrees, saying that homosexuals should be executed. “While such punishments may seem cruel,” he explains, “they have been suggested to maintain the purity of the Islamic society and to keep it clean of perverted elements.”

Another IslamOnline scholar, Muhammad Saleh Al-Munajjid, in “Homosexuality and Lesbianism: Sexual Perversions,” quotes Muhammad: “Whoever you find committing the sin of the people of Lut [that is, Lot, the Biblical prophet who fled Sodom and Gomorrah], kill them, both the one who does it and the one to whom it is done.” Al-Munajjid adds: “That is, if it is done with consent.” Islamic scholars differ on how homosexuals should be executed. In another IslamOnline piece, “Death Fall as Punishment for Homosexuality,’ Sheikh ‘Abdel Khaliq Hasan Ash-Shareef states, “Some scholars hold the opinion that the homosexual should be thrown from a high building as a punishment for his crime, but other scholars maintain that he should be imprisoned until death….However, if the man survives death fall, the judge has the right to sentence him to death.”

Such views can be and are easily accessed by Muslim students on campuses in the United States. And of course the most famous incident involving Islam’s attitude toward homosexuals occurred on a college campus, Columbia University, in September 2007, when Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad – who is featured on one of the new AFDI ads -- declared: “We don’t have homosexuals like in your country. We don’t have that in our country.”

If Ahmadinejad’s claim was true, it was because his regime and its predecessors had killed them all, or has tried to do so. On July 19, 2005, two teenage boys, Mahmoud Asgari, 14, and Ayaz Marhoni, 16, were hanged in a particularly brutal manner in Iran for, according to the National Council of Resistance of Iran, the crime of homosexual activity – although Iranian officials insisted that the death sentence was for the rape of a third boy. But Asgari and Marhoni were not alone. According to the Iranian gay and lesbian rights group Homan, the Iranian government has put to death an estimated 4,000 homosexuals since 1980. According to Scott Long, director of the Human Rights Watch Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Rights Program, Iranians who are suspected of being gay commonly face torture. Hossein Alizadeh of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission said Iran gays live with “constant fear of execution and persecution and also social stigma associated with homosexuality.”

Legal views on punishment vary. Among the Sunni schools of Islamic jurisprudence (madhahib), the Hanafi school mandates a severe beating for the first offense, and the death penalty for a repeat offender. The Shafi’i school calls for 100 lashes for an unmarried homosexual, death by stoning for a married one. The Hanbali school requires stoning across the board. Muhammad, the prophet of Islam, directed his followers to “kill the one who sodomizes and the one who lets it be done to him” (‘Umdat al-Salik, p17.3).

In many areas these words are still heeded. The Islamic Penal Law Against Homosexuals in Iran calls for the death penalty for sodomy and one hundred lashes for lesbianism for the first three offenses, with death for the fourth offense. Homosexuality is a capital offense not only in Iran, but also in Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Yemen and Mauritania. In Malaysia, it can draw a twenty-year prison sentence, and is illegal also in Afghanistan, Algeria, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bosnia, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Malaysia, Morocco, Oman, Pakistan, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, the United Arab Emirates, and Uzbekistan, among others. In 2003 the Islamic bloc at the UN killed a resolution on human rights for homosexuals by introducing a series of amendments removing all reference to discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

Disapproving of homosexuality and considering it sinful is one thing; appointing oneself the executor of what one assumes to be the divine wrath is quite another. Everyone, Muslim and non-Muslim, regardless of his views on homosexuality, should stand against this religiously sanctioned brutalization and killing, and with Pamela Geller and AFDI.

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The San Francisco Examiner headline is particularly egregious, as is the video here: both try to give the impression that our first ad "targeted Muslims," and our new ad "targets gays." In fact, we are calling attention the the violence that jihadists justify by pointing to the texts and teachings of Islam, and specifically showing how those jihadists target gays. But instead of standing with us and calling upon peaceful Muslims to do so as well, San Francisco authorities are targeting the messenger.

Pamela Geller has more here, here and here.

"San Francisco Muni buses getting more anti-Islamic ads, this time with anti-gay message," by Will Reisman for the San Francisco Examiner, March 19 (thanks to Pamela Geller):

More controversial anti-Islamic advertisements are scheduled to be coming to Muni buses, with the new messages quoting anti-gay rhetoric from Islamic leaders. The head of the initiative said local gay leaders’ criticism of previous ads led to the latest effort.

A number of city officials, religious figures and community activists held a news conference last week to condemn a set of ads paid for by the American Freedom Defense Initiative that expressed views widely seen as anti-Islamic.

The messages, containing phrases attributed to notorious figures such as Osama bin Laden, were the second set of Muni ads paid for by the organization.

"Attributed to"? Documentation available on request. Apparently it was not requested.

In both instances, Muni dedicated revenue from the campaigns to the San Francisco Human Rights Commission. The $3,000 in revenue for the next ads also likely will be donated.

With Muni unable to refuse the ads because of First Amendment conflicts, initiative leader Pamela Geller has created another campaign to run on six Muni buses starting in early April. The new ads quote Islamic leaders making inflammatory comments, this time about homosexuality.

One message quotes Yusuf al-Qaradawi of the Muslim Brotherhood saying, “The punishment of homosexuality is the death penalty.” Each ad ends with the same line as the previous campaign: “That’s His Jihad. What’s Yours?”

Geller said she decided to embark on the campaign after hearing gay leaders in San Francisco denounce her previous ads.

“The ads will increase awareness about the subjugation and oppression of gays under Shariah law,” said Geller. “The gay community should be standing with me, not against me.”

Theresa Sparks, head of the Human Rights Commission, said the ad campaigns are another example of Geller categorizing an entire religion as intolerant.

“She is posting these ads to suggest that all Muslims hate gays,” Sparks said. “Some cultures do discriminate, and that’s wrong. It all depends who you’re talking to. But she’s trying to generalize and cast this wide net around a diverse group of people.”

Sparks, who is transgender, said it’s actually easier to get insurance for sexual transition procedures in Iran than in America.

In a post Tuesday on Geller’s blog, Atlas Shrugs, she dedicated the latest campaign to Sparks....

Heh.

Anyway, Sparks is completely wrong: nowhere do the AFDI ads say that all Muslims think one way. And the reason that it is "easier to get insurance for sexual transition procedures in Iran than in America" is because often that is the only way gays are allowed to live at all: if they get gender reassignment surgery, whether they want it or not.

Yet when Pamela Geller calls attention to the plight of gays under Sharia, it is she who is the villain.

"And [We had sent] Lot when he said to his people, 'Do you commit such immorality as no one has preceded you with from among the worlds? Indeed, you approach men with desire, instead of women. Rather, you are a transgressing people.'...And We rained upon them a rain [of stones]. Then see how was the end of the criminals." (Qur'an 7:80-84)

"The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said, 'Whoever you find doing the action of the people of Loot, execute the one who does it and the one to whom it is done.'" (Sunan Abu Dawud 4462)

"Gay Man Allegedly Stoned To Death In Somalia," from Identity Kenya, March 18 (thanks to Jerk Chicken):

MOGADISHU, March 18 - A GAY man was allegedly stoned to death as punishment for homosexuality, a gay Muslim group has said Saturday.

According to Somali Gay Community, the young man, Mohamed Ali Baashi ,18, was buried in a hole up to his chest and then pelted with rocks by members of the Al Qaeda link group Al Shabaab on Friday, March 15, in Barawe, about 50 miles from the capital, Mogadishu.

The group, through its Facebook page, Somali Gay Community, posted three photos of alleging they were from the stoning.

However, Identity Kenya could not independently verify this claims or the alleged stoning and efforts to reach the group have not been successful.

The group said the young man was accused of sodomy and was stoned to death by Islamic rebels while horrified villagers were forced to watch.

According to the reports, a judge announced that Mohamed Baashi, along with a man who had been accused of murder, had both confessed to their crimes. The alleged murderer got a more merciful punishment. He was shot to death, the group said over the weekend.

"This is their day of justice," the judge, told the hundreds of villagers who had been forced to attend.

"We investigated, and this man did what Muslims shouldn't do and as a result, he will be stonedto [sic] death and the one that killed someone will be shot because homosexuality is more punishable in Islam," the judge is alleged to have said.

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After San Francisco officials reacted with politically correct and morally myopic self-righteousness to our AFDI jihad truth ads, Pamela Geller devised some new ads that go right to the heart of those officials' hypocrisy. She explains:

In light of the irrational response by city officials to our jihad campaign in uber-left San Francisco, we have submitted another series of ads to that city. Considering what a mecca San Francisco is to the gay community, it is beyond belief that the city would be carrying water for the most brutal and homophobic ideology on the face of the earth.

We submitted these ads late yesterday featuring the President of a Muslim country, the spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood and a radio talk show host on Muslim radio in the UK, calling for the murder of homosexuals.

And they're not "extremists." The Qur'an says: "And [We had sent] Lot when he said to his people, 'Do you commit such immorality as no one has preceded you with from among the worlds? Indeed, you approach men with desire, instead of women. Rather, you are a transgressing people.'...And We rained upon them a rain [of stones]. Then see how was the end of the criminals." (7:80-84) Muslim clerics often use this as a justification for stoning gays. And Muhammad set the death penalty for homosexuality when he said: "The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said, 'Whoever you find doing the action of the people of Loot, execute the one who does it and the one to whom it is done.'" (Sunan Abu Dawud 4462)...

Our new ads carry this text:

“If there are two such persons among you, that do this evil, the shameful act, what do you have to do? Torture them; punish them; beat them and give them mental torture." -- Sister Ruby Ramadan on Radio Asian Fever, a Muslim radio station in Britain

The punishment of homosexuality is the death penalty" Leading Islamic cleric Sheik Qaradawi of the Muslim Brotherhood

"Homosexuality is ugly" "In Iran, we don’t have homosexuals like in your country" President Ahmadinejad, Iran where homosexuality is a crime punishable by death

See the other images and get more info here. And please do consider helping us keep on getting the truth out. Help us keep these ads going: contribute to AFDI's ad campaigns.

These soldiers quote the Qur'an to justify brutalizing and beating people, and no one says anything. We quote the Qur'an in an AFDI showing how Muslims use the Qur'an to justify violence, and the media outcry is intense.

Note also the use of the word "savage" to describe one of these beatings. Will Mona Eltahawy spray-paint the offices of the Mail and Guardian?

"Scourge of violence against transgender sex workers in Cote d'Ivoire," from the Mail and Guardian, December 10 (thanks to Pamela Geller):

Transgender sex workers in the Cote d'Ivoire have increasingly become the target of violence since President Alassane Ouattara came into power.

It seemed like a case of simple blackmail. Late one night last month, two cars carrying around 10 soldiers pulled up to a group of prostitutes in Abidjan's Vallon neighbourhood and began demanding bribes.

To save themselves, some of the women in the group approached the soldiers and told them what they knew would divert their attention: they pointed to a sex worker cowering among them who goes by the street name of Raissa. And they sold her out.

The soldiers cornered her, stripped her and discovered her secret: Raissa, who requested that her real name not be used out of fear for her safety, is not a woman at all, but rather a man dressed as one.

They savagely beat her with their belts. Such scenes have become routine since the Republican Forces of Côte d'Ivoire assumed control of Abidjan in April 2011 at the end of a five-month conflict to oust ex-President Laurent Gbagbo and install his elected successor, Alassane Ouattara.

In interviews with the Associated Press, five victims and activists say transgender sex workers have been regularly stripped and beaten.

Sexual violence In the most extreme case, those dressed as women who were discovered to be men were held overnight at military camps and raped with Kalashnikov rifles, they say. Others charge their heads were shaved with broken beer bottles.

Raissa said she has endured three attacks during which she's been stripped, beaten and forced to beg for her life as soldiers threatened to shoot her. "With the rage that's in their eyes, you never know when they'll stop," she said.

"It's hard to talk about the first time or the second time because it's just happened so many times," said a transgender sex worker who goes by the street name, Sara. "No one has escaped the army."...

Victims said they immediately noticed a difference under Ouattara compared to the Gbagbo years, when such abuses were not nearly as extreme or widespread.

Ouattara signed a decree creating the FRCI in March 2011, and it was composed primarily of members of the New Forces rebel group, which used to control Côte d'Ivoire's predominantly Muslim north.

Victims almost uniformly attribute the attacks to the fact that many soldiers in the new army are Muslim.

During one attack in Abidjan's Zone 4 district in July, Raissa said a soldier invoked the Quran in justifying the violence.

"He said, "in the Qur'an it says that when you kill a homosexual you go to heaven,'" she recalled....

"The Nawasi brigade...claims to be under the authority of the Ministry of Interior." Sharia descending upon brave new democratic "Arab Spring" Libya: "Extremists threaten mutilation and death for seized ‘homosexuals,’" from Libya Herald, November 26 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):

Extremists say they will execute a dozen men they allege are homosexuals, whom they abducted last Thursday at a private party in Tripoli’s Ain Zara district.

A body calling itself the ‘Private Deterrent Force’, which is believed to be part of the extremist Nawasi militia group, has posted images of the men on their Facebook page. One picture (above) shows them, heads covered, standing with their hands against a wall.

At the time of writing, the picture had received 315 ‘likes’ and had received comments such as “flog them hard”, “lets see the bullets”, and “ride them like camels”.

Accompanying text describes the men as “the third sex” and says that they are to be mutilated and executed.

The posting has also attracted comment from Human Rights Watch Libya, which has asked for the men to be treated humanely and handed over to the civil authorities. HRW Libya has also shared the image on their Facebook page, pointing out that the men are over 18 and were at a private party.

The Nawasi brigade has previously been linked to the desecration of Sufi shrines in Tripoli and claims to be under the authority of the Ministry of Interior.

Thought experiment: imagine that Abu Usamah at-Thahabi is not a Muslim cleric, or even a Muslim at all. Imagine Abu Usamah at-Thahabi as a non-Muslim saying exactly the same things about gays. Do you think he would be speaking at Brunel University? Or anywhere?

"London university to host anti-gay extremist Islamic preacher," by Scott Roberts for Pink News, November 22 (thanks to Lachlan):

Brunel University in Uxbridge, west London, has been criticised for allowing a cleric who supports the killing of gay people to attend a student event.

Abu Usamah at-Thahabi is due to make a speech on campus at Brunel’s Islamic Society on Tuesday 27 November.

His extreme views have already been documented in a Channel 4 programme and by the Centre for Social Cohesion.

Thahabi previously urged that gay people should be punished with death.

“Do you practice homosexuality with men? Take that homosexual man and throw him off the mountain,” Thahabi was recorded as saying in the Dispatches programme.

“If I were to call homosexuals perverted, dirty, filthy dogs who should be murdered, that’s my freedom of speech, isn’t it?”

The controversial preacher was caught on camera addressing worshippers at Green Lane Mosque in Birmingham.

He also mocked Western attitudes towards women and attacked Christians and Jews.

Following the broadcast, Thahabi was interviewed by Channel 4 News, where he refused to reject the comments.

Earlier this year, the cleric was prevented from speaking at the University of Warwick’s Islamic Society, following a backlash by students....

As Pamela Geller has quipped in connection with many similar stories, "Queers for Palestine" could not be reached for comment. But what Rubina Nasir has enunciated here is straight Sharia. Is Britain going to make pro-Sharia statements punishable by fine? Or just continue in its present state of denial and unreality until it is no longer possible to do so? "Muslim radio station fined for saying gay people should be tortured," from the Telegraph, November 23 (thanks to George):

A Muslim radio station has been fined £4,000 after a presenter said gay people should be 'tortured'.

Ofcom upheld two complaints from listeners about Leeds based Radio Asian Fever after presenter Rubina Nasir hit out at homosexuality and mixed faith marriages.

She said that homosexuals should be 'beaten up' and that a Muslim marrying a non-Mulslim was on 'the straight path to hellfire'.

The presenter, known as 'Sister Ruby', said: "What should be done if they do it? [practise homosexuality].

"If there are two such persons among you, that do this evil, the shameful act, what do you have to do? Torture them; punish them; beat them and give them mental torture."

"Allah states, 'If they do such a deed [i.e. homosexuality], punish them, both physically and mentally.

"Mental punishment means rebuke them, beat them, humiliate them, admonish and curse them, and beat them up. This command was sent in the beginning because capital punishment had not yet been sent down."

She was while giving her interpretation of a Qur'anic verse and Ofcom got an independent translation from the original Urdu into English.

In a broadcast the following day she focused her attention on another Qur'anic verse and said it was critical of mixed-faith marriages.

She said: "What happens when a Muslim man or woman get married to a Mushrak [a follower of another religion).

"Listeners! Marriage of a Muslim man or woman with a Mushrak is the straight path to hellfire.

"Have my sisters and brothers, who live with people of bad religions or alien religions, ever thought about what would become of the children they have had with them - and the coming generation?

"Where the filth of shirk (the sin of following another religion) is present, where the dirt of shirk is present, where the heart is impure, how can you remove apparent filth. How many arrangements will you make to remove the apparent filth?

"We are saying that Mushraks have no concept of cleanliness and uncleanliness."...

And yet gays in general, in Europe and the U.S., side against those who defend the rights of all people against Sharia and Islamization. More on this story. "Muslim extremists in tear gas gay Marais attack," by Dan Littauer for GayStarNews, November 5 (thanks to Blazing Cat Fur):

Five Muslim extremists attacked a gay club in Paris beating the bouncers and spraying some attendants, including the vice president of IDAHO, with tear gas

Several people suffered light injuries in an attack launched by Muslim extremists on club Cud, Paris

Several people were slightly injured when a homophobic attack occurred in the early hours of Saturday morning, at the entrance of club Cud, in the gay Marais area of Paris, France.

One of the victims, Alexandre Marcel, the vice president of IDAHO (International Day Against Homophobia) charity was among the injured.

A complaint was filed with the French police by Marcel, no arrests have been made so far.

Marcel described to the French press the attack: ‘At 2.30 in the morning, I left the bar to smoke a cigarette with my partner, when five guys arrived and started to hit the bouncers, saying: ‘by the Quran, we will kill you all, you faggots!

‘I wanted to return to the club to take refuge. One of the bouncers who was bleeding a lot asked me to call the police.

‘When one of the attackers saw that I started calling the police and sprayed my face with a pepper based tear-gas.

Marcel recounted: ‘the attacker told me “that'll teach you a lesson to call the police you faggot!”

‘It was violent.

‘After that, I lost my sight for ten minutes.’

Marcel stated that in total three bouncers were beaten, while he, a friend and some clients of the bar were sprayed with the pepper based tear gas

He said that his skin and eyes still have a burning sensation, and that he was coughing and spitting for many hours.

He stated: ‘The worse thing is, that the bouncers told me that they won’t file a complaint with the police because the attackers won’t be found anyway,’ he recounted.

‘The police arrived 15 minutes later but the attackers already fled. When I left the club the bouncers confirmed they do would not want to file a complaint.

‘Can you imagine? To be attacked in a club in the Marais and not file a complaint?’

Marcel filed a complaint to the police station the 3rd district of Paris, giving a description of the five attackers as of North African origin (Maghreb)....

Misunderstanders of Islam threatening death to gays in Paris on the basis of the Book of Peace, of all things: "Paris: On the Koran, We're Going to Kill you, Bunch of Peds!," by Cheradenine Zakalwe for Islam Versus Europe, November 4 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):

Alexandre Marcel, vice-president of the Comité Idaho, an NGO that organises the international day against homophobia and transphobia, confirmed that he had filed a complaint against X on Saturday, following an attack on Friday night while he was in "Cud", a gay club in the Marais district of Paris.

"At 2:30 in the morning I came out of a bar to smoke a cigarette with my companion when five guys arrived and started hitting the bouncers. They said: "On the Koran, we're going to kill you, bunch of peds!", he recalls. "I wanted to go back into the club. One of the bouncers, who was bleeding badly, told me to call the police," he goes on. "One of the attackers saw me calling, and sprayed me with tear-gas on the face," he added.

In total, three bouncers received blows, and himself, his companion and some clients of the bar were sprayed with tear gas, explains Alexander Marcel. "My eyes and skin don't burn as much, but I am coughing and spitting a lot more," he recalls, 16 houts after the facts. "The worst thing is that the bouncers told me that they weren't going to file a complaint because they wouldn't be found anyway," he says with regret.

Source: 20Minutes.fr

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 12 — A High Court ruling against Muslim transsexuals in Negri Sembilan yesterday is raising concerns that Islamic law is now supplanting the Federal Constitution as the country's supreme law, legal experts have said.

Civil liberties lawyer Syahredzan Johan and law lecturer Azmi Sharom told The Malaysian Insider that there is a worrying trend that the judiciary has been putting Islamic law above all other laws in Malaysia's dual-track court system - pointing to yesterday's judgment as an example of an erosion of the Federal Constitution.

“There is a worrying trend in which the judiciary appears to place Islamic enactments on a higher pedestal than the Constitution.

“Islam is the religion of the Federation, but that does not mean that 'Islam', or what the authorities deem as 'Islam', supersedes other Constitutional provisions,” Syahredzan said.

High Court judge Datuk Siti Mariah Ahmad had dismissed a challenge by a group of Muslim transsexuals to an Islamic legal provision barring men from wearing women's clothes or dressing up as females, saying Muslims cannot be exempted from Syariah [sharia] legal provisions.

The judge had also ruled that Part II of the Federal Constitution - which guarantees Malaysians fundamental liberties such as equality before the law, freedom of religion, and which prohibits slavery and enforced labour among others - is exempted by section 66 of the Negri Sembilan Syariah Criminal Enactment 1992, according to lawyer Aston Paiva, who represented the transsexuals.

He said the judge had relied on the religious opinion on the Negri Sembilan mufti to justify section 66 in making her oral ruling. He added that the written judgment of the case was not yet available and the judge had not indicated when it would be released.

Section 66 of the state's Islamic criminal code states that “any male person who, in any public place wears a woman's attire or poses as a woman shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding RM1,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months or both.”

Syahredzan said the Seremban High Court ruling followed an earlier Federal Court decision in which it was held that Islam must be protected “at all costs”. 

“The Supreme Court in the case of Che Omar Che Soh is clear on this; provisions relating to Islam must receive secular fiats to become law,” he said, adding that it meant the proposed laws must be passed by Parliament or the State Legislative Assemblies.  “It also means that laws enacted, regardless of whether they are Syariah enactments or Acts of Parliament must be subjected to and consistent with the Constitution,” he said.

Azmi, an associate professor at Universiti Malaya's (UM) law faculty, went a step further.

“It is going to give a carte blanche to state legislative assemblies, Islamic religious departments and muftis to make any laws that go against the Constitution simply by saying it is Islamic and circumnavigating the Constitution.

“If you do not respect this basic rule, then what safety net do we have as citizens?” he asked.

15 Homosexuality In Early Islam
Can Modern Islam Move Past Old Shariah Laws?
by James M. Arlandson, Ph.D.

This series on Islamic shariah law is written for educators, legislators, city council members, judges, lawyers, journalists, think tank fellows, government bureaucrats, TV and radio talk show hosts, and anyone else who occupies the “check points” in society. They initiate the national dialogue and shape the flow of the conversation. They are the decision and policy makers.

They have heard the critics of shariah and conclude the critics are exaggerating (and maybe sometimes they do). The critics are probably just “Islamophobes.” Islam is a world religion and deserves respect, after all.

Yet the elites also have heard about shariah rulings that cause them to question whether the critics are all wrong, all the time. However, the elites squelch their doubts and tell themselves that Islam is being hijacked by extremists.

An example of such a report that elites may have heard says gays might be executed in the Gaza strip:

Yesterday, the Palestinian Liberation Organization's ambassador to the U.S. wouldn't say whether homosexuals would be tolerated in a Palestinian state. At the Jerusalem Post, Benjamin Weinthal points out that the death penalty is the price for being gay in the Gaza strip:

The Hamas-controlled Gaza strip has declared homosexuality punishable by death. Hamas cofounder Mahmoud Zahar has said, “You in the West do not live like human beings. You do not even live like animals. You accept homosexuality. And now you criticize us?”

In an April broadcast on Hamas’s Al-Aksa TV, which was translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), Syrian academic Muhammad Rateb al-Nabulsi said, “Homosexuality involves a filthy place, and does not generate offspring. Homosexuality leads to the destruction of the homosexual. That is why, brothers, homosexuality carries the death penalty.”[1]

What does original Islam say? Can modern Islam cease executing homosexuals?

Join The Jamie Glazov Show tonight at 8pm Pacific (11-12 pm EST) on Blog Talk Radio. This week’s guest will be our own Raymond Ibrahim, author of the recent article, Sodomy “For the Sake of Islam.”

To listen to the program, click here.

Or go to: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/radio-jihad/2012/07/18/the-jamie-glazov-show

The call-in # is: (347) 857-1380.

The irony here is that Canadian authorities will likely do nothing but cite the freedom of speech and allow him to speak -- but counter-jihadists who preach the rule of law and equality of rights for all people? Forget it. Shut them down. "Controversial Muslim preacher to speak in Calgary," by Nadia Moharib for QMI Agency, June 9 (thanks to Don):

CALGARY - The controversial Muslim preacher who says homosexuals are evil and advocates for their death is set to speak at an upcoming event in Calgary.

Dr. Bilal Philips, a Canadian-born Muslim preacher with reputed links to terrorists who's been ousted from several countries, is to be a speaker at the Power of Unity Conference.

The event, being held by the Muslim Council of Calgary June 29 to July 1, aims to celebrate multiculturalism and more than a half-century of Islam in Canada....

Ald. Diane Colley-Urquhart said Philips' track record is concerning, but he will be monitored during his Calgary visit to ensure he doesn't cross the line from freedom of speech to pushing hatred.

"I absolutely believe in freedom of speech," she said....

Philips was kicked out of Kenya earlier this year amid security concerns.

Britain and Australia have barred him and Germany kicked him out last year.

On his website, the Islamic convert said AIDS is a message from God about the perils of homosexuality and last year in Toronto he was quoted as saying "according to Islamic law, homosexuals should be executed if caught in the act."...

Here is some astonishingly high-level anthropological/theological/physiological analysis from a Shi'ite cleric. Now we know why Reza Aslan, the apologist for the Islamic Republic of Iran and Sharia oppression, accuses his foes of being homosexual.

"London-Based Shiite Cleric Yasser Al-Habib in Anti-Sunni Rhetoric: The Caliph Omar Had an Anal Disease that Made Him Addicted to Homosexuality," from MEMRI, May 24:

Following are excerpts from an address by London-based Kuwaiti Shiite cleric Yasser Habib, which aired on Fadak TV on May 24, 2012. Fadak TV is dominated by Sheik Habib, who fled Kuwait in 2004 following a one-year prison term for cursing the Caliphs Omar and Abu Bakr and Prophet Muhammad’s wife Aisha. He was then sentenced in absentia for 10 years in prison. In September 2010, Kuwait revoked his citizenship.

Yasser Habib: Anyone who consents to being called “Emir of the Believers” is a passive homosexual. Omar Ibn Al-Khattab, for example, who willingly assumed this title, was, without a doubt, a passive homosexual. The same goes for the caliphs Othman Ibn Affan, Muawiyya, Yazid, and the rulers and sultans of the Umayyad and Abbasid dynasties, as well as some of the rulers and sultans of our day and age. For example, the king of Morocco bears this title, and he is referred to as “the Emir of the Believers” by the [Moroccan] media. This is how you know that he is a passive homosexual.

This is in addition to the evidence revealed by Western media, which showed that the current king of Morocco is indeed a passive homosexual who belongs to the homosexual community. This was leaked from his palace by his assistants, his servants, and his “boys,” whom he would penetrate and who would penetrate him. They fled to Europe, sought asylum, and exposed all this.

Another such example is the person who ruled Afghanistan for a short time – the so-called Mullah Omar.

[...]

It is told [in the hadith] that Omar Ibn Al-Khattab had an anal disease, which could be cured only by semen. One should know that this is a well-known medical condition, which is also mentioned in sacred texts. Someone who, God forbid, has been penetrated in the anus – a worm grows within him, due to the semen discharged in him... A disease develops in his anus, and as a result, he cannot calm down, unless... That’s right, it becomes like an addiction, and he cannot calm down unless he is penetrated again and again.

[...]

The Shiites are undoubtedly protected from this disease, and from committing this abominable and hideous act.

[...]

As for the Nasibis [who hate the Prophet Muhammad’s family], they are definitely afflicted with this homosexuality.

[...]

One of the devils is present at the birth of every human being. If Allah knows that the newborn is one of our Shiites, He fends off that devil, who cannot harm the newborn. But if the newborn is not one of our Shiites, the devil inserts his index finger into the anus of the newborn, who thus becomes a passive homosexual. If the newborn is not a Shiite, the devil inserts his index finger into this newborn’s anus, and when he grows up, he becomes a passive homosexual. If the newborn is a female, the devil inserts his index finger into her vagina, and she becomes a whore....

Yet most gay rights organizations in the West ally with the forces that foster Sharia and Islamization. Someday they may regret that alliance, if their friends succeed in their objectives and turn and come for them. "Four Iranian men sentenced to death by hanging for sodomy," by Dan Littauer for LGBTQ Nation, May 12:

An Iranian court has sentenced four men from the town of Choram, in the Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad Province, to death by hanging for sodomy.

The four men — identified as “Saadat Arefi,” “Vahid Akbari,” “Javid Akbari,” and “Houshmand Akbari” — were due to be executed shortly after their verdict was approved recently by high court judges, according to a report from the Human Rights Activist News Agency (HRANA) in Iran.

According to HRANA and JOOPEA, the men will be hanged for sodomy in accordance with Sharia law.

According to Iranian human rights campaigners, over 4,000 gay men and lesbians have
been executed since the Ayatollahs seized power in 1979.

A gay activist based in Iran said, “Although being gay is not a crime based on Iranian criminal law but this is the most clear statement against same sex-acts in past months.”

He added that “there wereof [sic] our other men hanged in past five months.”

London based Iranian Human Rights Lawyer, Mehri Jafari said, “I am horrified and saddened to have heard the news about these four men. Not only with regards to the execution which is about to take place, but the fact that is beyond our control.”

“There are two important issues in this case; the location of the alleged occurrence and the interpretation of the Sharia’ law that a Hodud (strict Sharia punishment) is eminent.

“Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad is one of the most undeveloped provinces in Iran and it is obvious that a lack of access to lawyers and fair trial can be considered a serious issue in this case. After this announcement it is very likely that the execution will be carried out soon, and the remote location makes it difficult to exert any influence on the process.”

Jafari further pleaded, “I hope international organizations act quickly and effectively on this specific case.”...

But remember: to speak out against the words of Ayatollah Javadi-Amoli, and to uphold the dignity of every human person, would be "Islamophobic"!

"Homosexuals are inferior to dogs and pigs, says Iranian cleric," by Saeed Kamali Dehghan in The Guardian, April 18 (thanks to all who sent this in):

An influential Iranian cleric who is entitled to issue juristic rulings according to the Sharia law, has condemned western lawmakers involved in the decriminalisation of homosexuality, saying those politicians are lower than animals.

Ayatollah Abdollah Javadi-Amoli, an Islamic scholar based in Iran's holy city of Qom, said in a speech among his followers that homosexuals are inferior to dogs and pigs, according to the news website Khabaronline.

"If a society commits a new sin, it will face a new punishment," he said while interpreting Qur'anic verses about prophet Lot whose tribe Isalmic [sic] scholars say was punished by God for sodomy. "Problems like Aids did not exist before."

Citing the Qur'an, Javadi-Amoli said politicians who pass laws in favour of homosexuals are lower than animals. "Even animals ... dogs and pigs don't engage in this disgusting act [homosexuality] but yet they [western politicians] pass laws in favour of them in their parliaments."

Homosexuality is punishable by death according to fatwas issued by almost all Iranian clerics. Until recently, Lavat (sodomy for men) was punishable by death for all individuals involved in consensual sexual intercourse.

But under new amendments approved recently in the Iranian parliament the person who played an active role will be flogged 100 times if the sex was consensual and he was not married, but the one who played a passive role will still be put to death regardless of his marriage status....

"The interior ministry said on March 8 that it had not recorded any anti-gay or anti-emo killings." So they never happened. So there's nothing to investigate. So shut up. An update on this story. "Iraq must investigate 'emo' killings: rights groups," by Prashant Rao for Agence France-Presse, March 16:

Three major international human rights groups called on Iraqi authorities on Friday to immediately investigate a spate of brutal killings of teenagers widely perceived to be gay.

Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission said in a joint statement that the attacks, which officials say have killed at least 15 youths, had "created an atmosphere of terror among those who see themselves as potential victims."

But security officials say these accounts are not true and that any violence against the teenagers, described as "emos" for their tight-fitting black clothes and alternative hairstyles, was unrelated to their style of dress or appearance.

"The government has contributed to an atmosphere of fear and panic fostered by acts of violence against emos," said Joe Stork, New York-based Human Rights Watch's deputy Middle East director.

"Instead of claiming that the accounts are fabricated, Iraqi authorities need to set up a transparent and independent inquiry to address the crisis."

Medics say at least 15 teenagers have been stoned, beaten or shot to death in the past month, while local activists put the toll far higher. Reports have said that some of the victims had their heads smashed with concrete blocks.

In Western youth culture, the term emo refers only to appearance and musical preference and carries no connotation about a person's sexual orientation.

In Iraq, however, the term is widely conflated with being gay, which remains taboo in the conservative Muslim country.

According to Friday's statement, the victims "appear to represent a cross-section of people seen locally as non-conformists. They include people suspected of homosexual conduct, but also people with distinctive hairstyles, clothes or musical taste."

And it has all been conflated with devil-worship, sparking a literal witch-hunt, wherein suspicion equals guilt.

The three rights groups highlighted a string of anti-gay violence in 2009, but noted that unlike those killings, "the recent campaign has generated strong condemnation within Iraq."

The interior ministry said on March 8 that it had not recorded any anti-gay or anti-emo killings. It said the recent murders in the capital had been for "revenge, or social, criminal, political or cultural reasons."

In a February 13 statement that has since been removed from its website, however, it described emos as "devil-worshippers" and added that the ministry "has official approval to eliminate them as soon as possible."

Homosexuality is forbidden in Islam, frowned upon in Arab society and illegal in many Middle Eastern countries. Iraq has no law against homosexuality but prominent religious authorities have harshly condemned it.