Gays should be hanged, says Iranian minister

[Undisguised Sockpuppet]

And people wonder why I'm not a fan of allowing Islam to have a presence in western democracies. Yes some muslims can be digesteD(but only a few at once and it's more effort than it's worth. It's easier to digest latin immigrants or any other group of immigrants). Nothing personal against Muslims but I don't feel that the values espoused by Islamism are values I want anywhere near my daily life.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article2859606.ece

Gays should be hanged, says Iranian minister
Dominic Kennedy

Homosexuals deserve to be executed or tortured and possibly both, an Iranian leader told British MPs during a private meeting at a peace conference, The Times has learnt.

Mohsen Yahyavi is the highest-ranked politician to admit that Iran believes in the death penalty for homosexuality after a spate of reports that gay youths were being hanged.

President Ahmadinejad, questioned by students in New York two months ago about the executions, dodged the issue by suggesting that there were no gays in his country.

Britain regularly challenges Iran about its gay hangings, stonings and executions of adulterers and perceived moral criminals, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) papers show.

The latest row involves a woman hanged this June in the town of Gorgan after becoming pregnant by her brother. He was absolved after expressing his remorse. Britain said that this demonstrated the unequal treatment of men and women in law and breached Iran’s pledge to restrict the death penalty to the most serious crimes.

A series of reported executions of gays, including two underage boys whose public hanging was posted on the internet, has alarmed human rights campaigners.

The Pet Shop Boys dedicated Fundamental, their Grammy-nominated album, to Mahmoud Asqari and Ayad Marhouni, who were hanged in Justice Square in Mashhad in 2005. Graphic photographs of the execution of the youths, who were under 18 when arrested, were released by the Iranian Students News Agency.

Gay rights groups in Britain, such as Outrage!, accuse Iran of cloaking executions for homosexuality with bogus charges for more serious crimes.

Under the Freedom of Information Act, the FCO released papers to The Times about the death penalty being used in Iran for homosexuality, adultery and sex outside marriage.

Minutes taken by an official describe a meeting between British and Iranian MPs at the Inter-Parliamentary Union, a peace body, in May. When the Britons raised the hangings of Asqari and Marhouni, the leader of the Iranian delegation, Mr Yahyavi, a member of his parliament’s energy committee, was unflinching. He “explained that according to Islam gays and lesbianism were not permitted”, the record states. “He said that if homosexual activity is in private there is no problem, but those in overt activity should be executed [he initially said tortured but changed it to executed]. He argued that homosexuality is against human nature and that humans are here to reproduce. Homosexuals do not reproduce.”

Nicole Pichet, a researcher who also took notes of the gathering, told The Times that the discussion began with British MPs discussing the underage gay hangings. Mr Yahyavi responded by saying homosexuality was to blame for a lot of diseases such as Aids.

Ann Clwyd, the Labour MP and head of Britain’s delegation, said yesterday: “It is of great concern that these attitudes persist and we made it clear what we felt.”

Iran, Mauritania, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, the United Arab Emirates, Yemen and Nigeria apply the death penalty for homosexuality, according to the International Lesbian and Gay Association.

[Eraserhead]

Honestly we should at least look at the idea of outlawing religion as a global community.

[Undisguised Sockpuppet]

No. There is no such thing and will be no such thing as a 'global community' until one ethnic group conquers all the rest and exterminates them or if we have a situaiton where globalization sticks and increases and we become one people.

[Hash]

Oh, crazy religion of tolerance and healthy friendship!

[opebo]

Very similar to christianity.

[Silent Hunter]

Very similar to christianity.

No, opebo, it isn't. There's nothing in the Bible that states gays should be hanged and no decent Christian would say that.

Of those opposed to homosexuality, the view is very much "hate the sin, not the sinner".

[Gabu]

Very similar to christianity.

No, opebo, it isn't. There's nothing in the Bible that states gays should be hanged and no decent Christian would say that.

Of those opposed to homosexuality, the view is very much "hate the sin, not the sinner".

There's as much in the Qu'ran that states that gays should be hanged as there is in the Bible.

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

Very similar to christianity.

No, opebo, it isn't. There's nothing in the Bible that states gays should be hanged and no decent Christian would say that.

Of those opposed to homosexuality, the view is very much "hate the sin, not the sinner".

I've heard street preachers that have said different.  Though it's stoning, not hanging. 

[afleitch]

Very similar to christianity.

No, opebo, it isn't. There's nothing in the Bible that states gays should be hanged and no decent Christian would say that.

Of those opposed to homosexuality, the view is very much "hate the sin, not the sinner".

Well they are instructed to be put to death in Leviticus, though these laws were overturned in the NT (not that it stops some idiots quoting from it) and you'r right no decent Christian would advocate anything close to that.

 If Christianity devolved to it's lowest base however and the same idiots imposed a theocracy (as with what has happened to Islam in some countries) it is likely gay people (and adulterers etc) would be subject to similar punishment.

[Undisguised Sockpuppet]

Very similar to christianity.

Indeed. The only difference is that most christians aren't as extreme as the average muslim.

[Silent Hunter]

Very similar to christianity.

Indeed. The only difference is that most christians aren't as extreme as the average muslim.

That's not fair either, Straha.

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

Very similar to christianity.

Not really - just because I don't want to give them gov't privileges doesn't mean I don't love them the same as everybody else - and I have gay friends.

[Undisguised Sockpuppet]

Very similar to christianity.

Indeed. The only difference is that most christians aren't as extreme as the average muslim.

That's not fair either, Straha.

How is it not fair? Compare christian societies with islamic ones.

[Silent Hunter]

Very similar to christianity.

Indeed. The only difference is that most christians aren't as extreme as the average muslim.

That's not fair either, Straha.

How is it not fair? Compare christian societies with islamic ones.

That's their governments, not the people who are actually Muslim.

[Undisguised Sockpuppet]

Governments rule by the consent of the people.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Homophobia isn't unique to Islam.

[Michael Z]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article2859606.ece

Gays should be hanged, says Iranian minister
Dominic Kennedy

But wait a minute, I thought there were no gays in Iran? *confused*

[Silent Hunter]

Governments should rule by the consent of the people, Straha. Sadly, that's not necessarily the case in real life.

Stop trying to say that the dictatorships of the Middle East are automatically the same as their people. And don't try the "they'll always elect Islamists" argument, either.

[opebo]

Very similar to christianity.

Not really - just because I don't want to give them gov't privileges doesn't mean I don't love them the same as everybody else - and I have gay friends.

Nobody wants your 'love', bigot, they want equal rights.

[Undisguised Sockpuppet]

Homophobia isn't unique to Islam.

You're right but Islam is the worst about it.