LONDON, August 16  –  As Iraq wrestles with its planned constitution, the country’s gays and lesbians face blackmail, rape and murder, a LGBT human rights group charged today.

“We urge solidarity with our queer brothers and sisters in Iraq,” pleaded gay Muslim Ramzi Isalam of Outrage!.

“It is time for an international queer movement to defend the victims of Islamist terror in Iraq.

“We support Iraqi feminists, gays, democrats and socialists who oppose the imposition of Shariah law.  The current shooting, bombing and stoning of women and queers in Iraq fills us with horror.

“And we are shocked that the anti-war and LGBT movements are not speaking out in defence of the victims of Islamist, Baathist and Al-Qaida terrorism,” said..

“We reject the foreign occupation of Iraq, and stand shoulder to shoulder with all Iraqis who are campaigning for a free, democratic and secular Iraq.

“All liberal, progressive Muslims who are being victimised by the fundamentalists deserve solidarity and support," said Mr Isalam.

Mr Isalam is a refugee from Islamist terrorism in Algeria.  He was forced to flee his homeland after armed fundamentalist groups discovered he was gay and came to his house to kill him.

Also from UK Gay News

August 8:  Iraq:  Focus on Teens Trapped In Commercial Gay Sex Trade in Iraq.  Hassan Feiraz, a 16-year-old boy, has started a desperate new life since being forced into the sex trade in Baghdad, joining a growing number of adolescents soliciting in Iraq under the threat of street gangs or the force of poverty.  “Every day I cry at night,” Feiraz said.  “I’m a homosexual and was forced to work as a prostitute because one of the people I had sex with took pictures of me in bed and said that, if I didn't work for him, he was going to send the pictures to my family.”

LINK

Outrage! website

16 August  2005