In what's being
hailed as a major victory for Iraqi gays, the Grand
Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani has removed from his Web site a
fatwa calling for the murder of gay men. But the fatwa
against lesbians remains on his site, Sistani.org, and
the fatwa against all gay people is still in effect
offline, according to the London-based gay-rights group
Iraqi LGBT-UK.
"We welcome the decision to remove the most
murderously homophobic part of Sistanti's fatwa
from his website," Ali Hili, the head of Iraqi
LGBT-UK, said in a statement. However, "this decision
does not go far enough. The fatwa has been removed from
Sistani's Web site only. It has not been
revoked. We want the entire fatwa withdrawn, including
the hateful denunciation calling for the punishment of lesbians."
The removal online of the fatwa against gay
men, which stated that "people involved" in sodomy
"should be killed in the worst, most severe way
possible," came on Wednesday after two weeks of
negotiations between Iraqi LGBT-UK and Sistani's
representatives in London and Najaf, Iraq. Sistani's
people had first contacted Iraqi LGBT-UK, which
coordinates a network of gay activists inside Iraq,
demanding that the group remove anti-Sistani criticisms from
its own Web site and renounce its questioning of
Sistani's religious authority.
The group refused and made its own demand that
Sistani remove the anti-gay fatwa from his Web site.
The fatwa, which appeared on Sistani's site earlier
this year, has been blamed for a rise in anti-gay killings
in Iraq, including the recent execution by Iraqi police of a
14-year-old boy in Baghdad.
In its statement, Iraqi LGBT-UK called on
Sistani to revoke the fatwa entirely, and to issue a
new one condeming such "vigilante" murders, saying
they're against Islam.
"We believe that Sistani's fatwa has encouraged
and sanctioned the current wave of execution-style
assassinations of lesbians and gay men," Hili said.
"He owes gay Iraqis an apology. He owes all Iraqis an
apology for setting straight Iraqis against gay Iraqis.
Endorsing the murder of other human beings is unIslamic. Our
Muslim faith is one of love, compassion, tolerance,
and mercy. Hatred and prejudice have no legitimate
place in our religion." (The Advocate)
