Photo by the Associated Press
By Brody Levesque (Washington DC) Sept 16 | The photograph at the left conveys the ultimate horror of war and violence. It is not, however, a photo of the mother who experienced unspeakable grief of the loss of her son who was murdered only because of his sexuality. It is NOT meant to titillate, exploit, nor be crassly graphic. No, it is meant to depict the human cost and the affect on very real people that unbridled and unchecked violence in a war-torn society unleashes on innocent families. These are my edited notes/impressions from an interview a colleague arranged via Skype with the services of an Arabic speaking interpreter last evening.
(see http://brodylevesque.blogspot.com/2009/09/brodys-notes-harsh-reality-of-being.html)
Here is a mother's grief:
(see http://brodylevesque.blogspot.com/2009/09/brodys-notes-harsh-reality-of-being.html)
Here is a mother's grief:
It is now 7:10AM in Sadr City, 12:10AM here in Washington. A professional friend in the press corps stationed in Baghdad graciously arranged an interview with one of the mothers of the dead boys you see in the picture I had published on Monday. I spoke to her by Skype, with her at a prearranged safe location in Baghdad, where we verified that Internet protocols were secure. For her safety & security I will not reveal her name nor specify which murdered child was hers. Needless to say she is shattered by the events that have overtaken her family. Like the other victims mentioned in the above referenced article, her son was mutilated, beaten, and had also been shot.
His sexual reproductive organs had been removed and stuffed down his throat which had apparently been sealed with a fast glue agent. His rectum had been abused and his hands had been tied with a ultra thin wire behind his back which, due to his struggling under the torture, had cut into his wrists deeply. His mother told me that he was alive while these gross indignities had been perpetuated upon his person. She also said that her son was as gentle as a baby goat and very intelligent.
The family had recently returned to Sadr City because they felt that there had been significant enough changes that made it safe to return home to their neighborhood. He has older brothers and a sister and his father was killed by insurgents after the fall of the Hussein regime in 2004 whereupon the family fled the surrounding violence, escaping to neighboring Jordan.
Warning signs that something was terribly wrong began around 5 months ago she said, when he was set upon by a roving gang who tore his clothes off of him and beat him chasing him naked back to the family home. Apparently his mode of dress had offended this particular group of hooligans. She also indicated that he had spent hours going to a nearby cafe to go on-line and she was not aware that it was to make contact with other LGBT persons around Iraq and the globe. She also found him spending alot of time alone in his room, barely talking to other family members.
She says that he was a good boy, helped raise his sister and worked part time at a bakery to help the family. He was soft spoken and did attend prayer at mosque daily as required by his religion.She is devastated by this terrible loss and wants people to know that her son did nothing wrong. "He was a good boy," and he was only 20 years old at the time of his death.
Posts
12 comments:
This mutilation is nothing whatsoever to do with Islam. Not right thinking member of that or any faith could possibly countenance vile and violent acts like this.
These vile abusers are getting their own kicks out of chasing kids and effectively raping them, and doing this for their own vile purposes.
This is some foul ritual performed for the personal and perverted gratification of the abusers. There are huge overtones of sexual satisfaction derived form another's terror, pain and death.
There is no place in any heaven for such people. May their god put them to death slowly and terribly.
This is so sick and evil, it leaves me speechless. Don't anyone try and say this is Allah's will or any excuse like that. No god would expect perpetration of a crime like that.
Sick, sick, sick.
Crackerwriter.
Who can disagree with these comments people use religion as a cover for hatred and the violence that is their own.
However the fact is that authorities in Islamic countries are unlikely to condemn it outright, nor will many of the Imams - just as the Pope would not excommunicate IRA members - by doing nothing these leaders condone acts like this and they should be held accountable for not standing up and risking the anger of the fanatics
It is the horrible plight of the gay youth in the Islam world. You don't hear of more than you do because the families have no choice but to ignore the actions or be though complicit and approving. This warrants the same treatment, being stoned to death. Often they themselves must pick up a stone in order to preserve their own life or the lives of the rest of the family.
The horrors and terror are real and all to common. Being gay in Islam is not an option. My heart bleeds for them. I wish I could make it stop. It is a helpless feeling.
Can you imagine your twelve or thirteen year old son or daughter standing before a crowd waiting as the stoning is about to begin. Cornered against a wall, no where to run. Looking pleadingly at you, their parent for salvation which they know will not, can not come. Then the pain as you are struck, unable to protect themselves, listening to their screams of pain from the constant barrage until . . .
The sad truth about homosexuality in the Islamic world is (and I talk from experience having lived and worked there for over 40 years) that it is far more prevalent than one imagines. There is however a sick attitude that only the person who plays a passive role is actually considered to be homosexual while those that take a dominant role consider that they are not. Whether these men are bi-sexual or simply using other males where women are unavailable is immaterial. The activity none the less continues. The real shame is that we in the West say nothing and that the UN continues to allow countries like Saudi Arabia and Egypt to quash any protection these young men may otherwise have. Do not forget that only a couple of years ago two fifteen year old boys were hanged in Iran for homosexuality, and that those who are not condemned to death are forced to undergo sex-change operations, regardless of their own wishes.
I find it difficult to think about this kind of cruelty. These murderers, they were once sweet little babies, weren't they? How could they ever have become capable of such unspeakable cruelty.
They perform these barbaric acts because they are barbaric people. Whereas most people, even if they dislike homosexuality for reasons that are, to them, valid, will simply ignore it, these people get off on extreme and perverted violence.
They torture people for the fun of it, and they kill them because they can. It is a sexual perversion.
Their religion makes use of such people to do its dirty work for it while washing its hands of them.
This is not unique to Islam, but they are about 400 years behind the rest of the world in their barbaric ideas. Alleged christians were the same. And, in the redneck areas of the USA, there are folk who wish they could get away with doing the same to black, gays, men with red hair, in fact anyone who does not hold their own views.
Yes, they were once sweet little boys, but they gained their perversions along the way. Some folk like being tied upo for sexual fulfilment. These, who I say advisedly are just like pigs, get their rocks off with pain, screams and blood.
I can hardly write because of the tears in my eyes. What a horror! All due, ultimately, to religion. The sooner that mankind understands that all religion is false and that humanity has to face existence and death as a naked reality, the better it will be.
Colin.
The great religions of the world proclaim that humanity is created in the image of the Deity. We know that at least 10% of humanity is GLBT, ergo at least 10%, the Biblical tithe, of the Deity is GLBT. It is the ignorance of human sexuality, the indifference of others, and the pure unbounded hatred of the twisted souls who perpetrate these acts of unspeakable horror. It is from the depths of their insecurity in their own sexuality, their fear of anything or anyone different from themselves which leads them to strike out with violence, hatred and bloodshed. One of the hardest things I do is to pray for those filled with this ignorance, hatred, anger, insecurity and blindness. It is only through the true Spirit of the Deity being poured into their souls that the ignorance and hatred and bloodshed can and will be stopped and the full realization of our TRUE oneness in God/Yahweh/Allah/Adonai/Buddha/whatever other name you wish to use for the Deity who truly is the Source of Creation, Source of Life and Source of Divine Love.
Pray my sisters and brothers for all those who hate, those who are insecure, those who are ignorant and those who, in blindness of heart, reach out in violence solely because they do not understand another human being.
"Pray my sisters and brothers for all those who hate, those who are insecure, those who are ignorant and those who, in blindness of heart, reach out in violence solely because they do not understand another human being."
I imagine the poor boys these bastards tortured to death tried to pray, but the opportunity was denied to them.
I suspect Matthew Shepard prayed while on the barbed wire fence.
I would imagine the boys hanged in Iran prayed, too.
There was an awful lot of prayer in the trenches in World War One. There was substantial prayer in World War Two.
Iraq is in the mess it's in because of two prayerful ignorant christian swine, Blair and Bush who declared war on Islam because of their fundamentalist beliefs
While violence is not the answer nor is prayer. Prayer is unhelpful. In fact prayer is pointless. All prayer does is sits and waits to be slaughtered by the guy with a bigger gun.
Or, to put it another way, I disagree with you totally about that paragraph.
Buddha, by the way, is not now, nor was ever, anything like a deity or an all powerful being. Buddha was a philosopher. He was a man who sat under a tree until he reached a state of enlightenment. He stated that he should not be worshipped.
But I digress.
It is, of course, possible that I have over reacted. Your prayer is for the right thing. But I do not see prayer as an effective instrument. I have seen no evidence of it having been in any way useful in the past and see no use for it in the future.
The martyrs in your faith which I assume to be Christian, were doubtless better able to stand their awful suffering because they felt that prayer might help, but agony is agony. An awful death is an awful death. It made no difference to them as they died in torment.
And praying for these arrogant murdering, self gratifying, torturing swine is not going to win any hearts or minds.
Post a Comment