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LGBT People At Extreme Risk of Death In ISIS-Controlled Territory

LGBT People At Extreme Risk of Death In ISIS-Controlled Territory
Mon, 3/2/2015 - by Charlotte Dingle

The tweet read: “#We_Are_Coming_O_Rome, we will conquer & establish the justice of #shariah. We will use your leaning tower of pizza to throw off homosexual.” In response, Twitter users last week mocked ISIS supporter @abu_britani2's gaffe with cries of “I'll have a stuffed crust please!”, “Does it come with garlic bread?” and “Extra pepperoni on mine!”

In the wake of the Charlie Hebdo tragedy, the price of satirizing or poking fun at aspects of Islam became clearer than ever. But what is the price of being LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual or transsexual) in the Islamic State? We hear a lot about the group's treatment of women and non-Muslims, but what of ISIS's distaste for gender non-conformity?

The Islamic State is a dangerous place for many types of people, but the plight of LGBTs there is not often highlighted. Now, ISIS appears on a mission to highlight its intolerance to this community in particular, expressing open disgust at the act of sodomy between male partners – and showing exactly what happens to those who partake in it.

On Jan. 16, and then again on Feb. 2, the militant group released footage of gay men being thrown from high buildings to their deaths. One man, in his 50s, survived the fall. In the video he is seen sitting blindfolded in a plastic chair on the edge of a tower block roof, then falling headfirst through the air. The next photo shows him on the ground below, with bystanders appearing to comfort him – a deceptive image, for he is soon stoned to death as a baying crowd eggs on the killers.

A cluster of similar footage also showing men accused of sodomy being executed was released last summer. In response, in late 2014, the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) published a report entitled "When Coming Out is a Death Sentence," looking at the “persecution of LGBT Iraqis.”

The report claimed that “anyone believed to be LGBT under the Islamic State control is likely at imminent risk of death.” While having “little concrete information [about] the daily suffering of LGBT persons in the areas controlled by the Islamic State,” the report said that ISIS “has made clear that there is no place for gender non-conforming individuals under its rule – these views are expressed in the group's published interpretation of Islamic law, as well as in practice.”

Such interpretations are “accorded different weight by different schools of Islamic jurisdiction,” and although they mainly cover issues of attire and gender presentation, the implicit condemnation of homosexual behavior is clear. Online, ISIS insists that “[Islam commands] each [gender] to differentiate itself from the other.” It also dictates that “the Sharia ruling is to punish sodomy by death, whether or not the person is unblemished. Every person for whom sodomy is proven, whether actively or passively, shall be executed for an offense against God.”

Hossein Alizadeh, IGLHRC's Middle East program director, worries not only about the persecution of sexual minorities living under ISIS, but also the persecution of those who have been accused of certain practices simply because a neighbor, family member or other acquaintance wishes to seek revenge.

Alizadeh told Occupy.com: “ISIS claim that they are punishing the act of sodomy but nobody knows how they prove you have been engaged in this act. They say they have a court system they take people through but those courts are not recognized. We don't know a lot about the circumstances under which people are detained, tried and executed. We don't know if they really engaged in the act of sodomy or were framed. We also don't know if all these acts of sodomy were consensual or not. The arrests and subsequent executions seem to us to be arbitrary.”

Drawing parallels with the treatment of women who've been accused of adultery while living under ISIS control, Alizadeh said, “Women who are accused of adultery are executed but the men involved never are.” He also added that the sodomizer and sodomee aren't dealt with equally.

“It is often the man who is alleged to have been sodomized rather than the sodomizer who is executed,” he asserted. “Being sodomized is perceived to be an effeminizing act.”

The killings of LGBT people that ISIS has chosen to publicize are likely only the tip of the iceberg, said Alizadeh, whose organization has received many reports they've been unable to verify without photographic or other evidence.

If being LGBT – or presenting oneself as such – in the areas controlled by ISIS was hard before the group took over, it now seems to be an almost-certain death sentence.

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