The whole Western world knows of the atrocities carried out by The Islamic State (ISIS). The videotaped beheadings of Western, and now Japanese, journalists and humanitarian aid workers have gone viral. Major media in the West report almost daily, it seems, on the latest barbarism committed by these deranged fanatics. The West is mobilizing against them but, in the eyes of many, not fast nor strongly enough.
What we are not hearing much about are ISIS’ atrocities against gay men. That such religious extremists take a highly negative view towards homosexuality and homosexuals will come as no surprise to anyone; it’s part and parcel of who and what they are. But be forewarned: what you are about to read is profoundly disturbing.
Those accused, or even suspected, of being homosexual are beaten, publicly humiliated, then taken to a roof of a high-rise building and thrown, bound and blindfolded, off the roof to their deaths – if they are lucky.
In at least one instance, a man appearing to be in his 50s and executed in Syria, survived the fall from a seven-storey building only to have a large crowd gather around his bloody and broken body and proceed, after reviving him, to stone him to death.
Death by stoning is a gruesome and long process; a tortuous, barbaric, painful way to die. Death is not always immediate. In the meantime, the rocks pummel various parts of the body, face, and head, and continue to do so until the individual either dies from blood loss or a final heavy blow to the head, caving in or splitting the skull and imposing fatal brain damage.
The killings were part of an escalation on the part of ISIS in late January 2015, which also included two other men accused of being thieves publicly crucified then shot in the head as they hung from their stakes, as well as the stoning death of women accused of adultery.
This is the justice ISIS metes out to anyone they deem unfit, or some sort of threat, to the establishment of Allah’s Kingdom on earth, through their proposed caliphate. According to a document released via social media by ISIS in December, 2014, ISIS’ ‘penal code’, and the punishments it entails, include public flogging and amputations of hands or limbs. Men and young boys are expected to witness the punishments.
The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that the latest flurry of public executions follow a series of assassinations of key ISIS leaders, and is likely a response by ISIS to the intervention by Western coalition forces that have slowed the group’s overall military advance across Syria and Iraq.
A statement released by the American-based International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, however, cautioned media against accepting ISIS’ accusations of homosexuality at face value.
"...[O]ne cannot assume that the executions were for sodomy solely on the basis of information from the Islamic State. Without evidentiary basis, or independent confirmation, this sweeping allegation could be applied to anyone the Islamic State seeks to discredit – including human rights activists and anyone opposed to the Islamic State. Accusing opponents of homosexuality is a tried and true tool used to discredit political adversaries throughout the world."
While this is certainly true, ISIS has shown it is fully capable of carrying out any number of horrific punishments and executions (murders, to be more accurate) against those opposed to it. The throwing of an individual from the highest point possible – traditionally cliffs, but an office tower seems to meet the requirement – as set out in the Qur’an, is specifically reserved for those accused of homosexuality, in general, and sodomy specifically.
ISIS began these killings of alleged homosexuals in November 2014, at which time two men, aged 18 and 20, were stoned to death in separate incidents. The men were known to be opponents of ISIS, and the men’s supporters allege the untrue charge of homosexuality was used against them. Prior to their killing ISIS had not publicly accused anyone of being homosexual, or murdered anyone for being so.
Throughout the Islamic world homosexuals are routinely arrested and imprisoned for long periods under harsh conditions; often publicly executed, as we saw a couple of years ago with the public hanging of two young men in Iran. In this instance, even though the one youth was under the age of 18 and therefore technically ineligible for execution, his birth date was allegedly altered in court documents.
In 1998 the Afghanistan Taliban ordered the execution of three allegedly gay men in Kandahar. Their execution involved burying them alive under a pile of rocks, then pushing a wall onto them with a tank. Their lives would be spared if they survived a half-hour beneath the rubble and were still alive when the stones were removed. They did not. They had been slowly crushed to death.
Such punishments are based on the Qur’an and fall under Sharia law, which states homosexual acts are "a vile form of fornication, punishable by death". As is the case with fundamentalists of any religious stripe, there are those within Islam who take whatever their scriptures might say regarding same-sex activity literally, choosing – and it is a choice – to ignore the historical context or the possibility of either poor or outright mistranslations. Keep in mind, however, that unlike the Christian Bible, for instance, which was written originally in Hebrew in the Old Testament and in Greek in the New Testament, and has undergone numerous translations in the interim, the Qur’an has not. Modern translations are based on the original Arabic text, but the source material remains unchanged.
While the Qur’an is about as specific regarding homosexuality as the Bible – in other words, not terribly clear and open to interpretation – it is the Hadith, or religious commentaries on the teachings of Muhammad and Qur’anic text, that set out the various punishments for a variety of transgressions/sin. Punishment for homosexuals ranges from being thrown off the highest possible point to stoning to death, to burning alive – depending on which scholar one ascribes to. So far, ISIS prefers the more traditional. The burning alive was used against Jordanian pilot Lieutenant Moaz al-Kasasbeh, captured after his plane was shot down on a mission against ISIS near Raqqa, Syria. It is assumed he was killed for being ‘a spy’.
I don’t pertain to know what ISIS is; but certainly they are more extreme than even the Taliban were. The sooner coalition countries can blast these barbarians back to the Stone Age the better. One can only hope, by whichever name He is called, they burn in hell.
