FrontPageMagazine.com | Tuesday, October 02, 2007
At Columbia University on Monday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared: “We don’t have homosexuals like in your country. We don’t have that in our country. We don’t have this phenomenon; I don’t know who’s told you we have it.”
If there were any truth to this – and there is none – it would be because because the Islamic regime in Iran had killed them, since homosexuality can be a capital crime in that country. One notorious case occurred on July 19, 2005, when two teenage boys, Mahmoud Asgari, 14, and Ayaz Marhoni, 16, were hanged in a particularly brutal manner in Iran for the crime of homosexual activity. Although Iranian officials insisted that the death sentence was for the rape of a third boy, the National Council of Resistance of Iran, has said otherwise. But Asgari and Marhoni were not alone. According to the Iranian gay and lesbian rights group Homan, the Iranian government has put to death an estimated 4,000 homosexuals since 1980. According to Scott Long, director of the Human Rights Watch Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Rights Program, Iranians who are suspected of being gay commonly face torture. Hossein Alizadeh of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission said Iran gays live with “constant fear of execution and persecution and also social stigma associated with homosexuality.”
This is true not only in Iran, but in all too many areas of the Islamic world. The Qur’an characterizes those who “practice your lusts on men in preference to women” as “transgressing beyond bounds” (7:81). A hadith pronounces “the curse of Allah” upon those who engage in homosexual activity. A contemporary Muslim writer, Shaykh Abdul-Azeez Al-Fawzaan, called homosexuality “one of the most sinful acts known to humankind” and said that it was “evidence of perverted instincts, total collapse of shame and honor, and extreme filthiness of character and soul.”
Legal views on punishment vary. Among the Sunni schools of Islamic jurisprudence (madhahib), the Hanafi school mandates a severe beating for the first offense, and the death penalty for a repeat offender. The Shafi’i school calls for 100 lashes for an unmarried homosexual, death by stoning for a married one. The Hanbali school requires stoning across the board. Muhammad, the prophet of Islam, directed his followers to “kill the one who sodomizes and the one who lets it be done to him” (‘Umdat al-Salik, p17.3).
In many areas these injunctions are still followed. The Islamic Penal Law Against Homosexuals in Iran calls for the death penalty for sodomy and one hundred lashes for lesbianism for the first three offenses, with death for the fourth offense. Homosexuality is a capital offense not only in Iran, but also in Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Yemen and Mauritania. In Malaysia, it can draw a twenty-year prison sentence, and is illegal also in Afghanistan, Algeria, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bosnia, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Malaysia, Morocco, Oman, Pakistan, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, the United Arab Emirates, and Uzbekistan, among others.
Of course, Afghanistan under the Taliban regime drew international attention for killing gays by toppling walls onto them. Pakistani law mandates two years in prison for homosexual activity, but the traditional Islamic penalties of lashing and stoning are still widely popular. When authorities in the United Arab Emirates arrested twenty-six men whom they accused of participating in a mass gay wedding – with twelve dressed as grooms and twelve as brides, plus a disc jockey and a man who was to perform the wedding ceremony – in November 2005, they announced plans to subject the men not only to lashings and jail time, but also to hormone treatments.
In light of all this, the silence of campus gay rights groups and the so-called “progressive” Left generally about the global efforts by Islamic jihadists to impose Islamic Sharia law is appallingly short-sighted. While they attack Christians, who are not calling for gays to be imprisoned or killed under any circumstances, they say nothing about a genuine threat to their survival. While they attack Israel, a gay-friendly country, they are silent about the murder of gays in Islamic Iran.
The late columnist Cathy Seipp recounted a telling incident in March 2006, when a friend of hers went into San Francisco’s City Lights bookstore and asked for a copy of the late and much-missed Oriana Fallaci’s The Force of Reason. “We don’t carry books by fascists,” sniffed the clerk, prompting Seipp to muse: “Strangest of all is the scenario of such a person disliking an author for defending Western civilization against radical Islam -- when one of the first things those poor, persecuted Islamists would do, if they ever (Allah forbid) came to power in the U.S., is crush suspected homosexuals like him beneath walls.”
Brain-Eating Killer Amoeba
The False Black Widow Spider
Deadly Irukandji Jellyfish
The Disease-Bearing Mosquito, Tick, and Mouse
Vibrio Vulnificus — The Flesh Eating Bug
1. The Pinta Island tortoise - Without argument, this turtle is one of the few species of Giant Galapagos tortoises and the rarest animal in the world since there is only one left alive. Lonesome George is the sole surviving member of the Pinta Island race, the giant tortoise being a symbol for the fragility of the Galapagos islands, and a constant reminder for vigilence and conservation of the species. The species was considered extinct until 1971, when a lone example was located by rangers. Since then, the Charles Darwin Research Station has been searching for a female tortoise, even posting a reward of $10,000 to those that find one.
the dolphin is one of the world’s rarest mammals, and a victim of China’s breakneck economic growth, competing for food with the human beings. It has been driven to extinction due to the activity in 50 years, this being the fourth time when an entire evolutionary line of mammals has vanished from the face of the Earth since the year 1500. The main reason for this fact are the numerous dams and barrages, built starting in the 1930’s, that have fragmented the population and reduced the amount of available habitat. There are news that the species is functionally extinct, experts still searching for members of the species. Fingers crossed!
3. The Vancouver Island Marmot - This marmot is found only in the high mountainous regions of Vancouver Island, in British Columbia, the Canadian Species at Risk Act listing it as endangered in May 2000. In 1998, the population reached an all-time low of 75 individuals, a captive breeding programme being started during that time. In captivity, there are around 90 Vancouver Island marmots in four breeding facilities, while an estimated 30 members of this species live in the wild ibn 2004. The ultimate goal is to restore a sustainable population of 400-600 Vancouver Island marmots in the wild, so there’s still much to be done. 2005 was a successful year, with 150 individuals in captivity and over 44 pups born.
the bat is part of our list, being one of the most endangered animals since fewer than 100 are believed to exist in the world. It was once commonly found in Seychelles, but the species has undergone a dramatic decline in population during the mid to late 20th century. More research needs to be done in order to understand how the species behave and what needs to be done in order to save them. Scientists believe that, with a heavy amount of effort, 500 individuals may be sufficient to guarantee long-term persistence of the population.
5. Javan Rhino - This scarce animal is one of the rhino species with fewer than 60 animals surviving in only two known locations: one in Indonesia and the other in Vietnam. Though once widespread throughout Asia, by the 1930’s the rhinoceros was nearly hunted to extinction in Peninsular Malaysia, India, Burma and Sumatra. It was poached for its horn, that is believed to have medicinal uses, and driven to extinction to the intense agricultural practices. Even with all the conservation efforts, the Javan rhinoceros’ chance of survival is small: the population is reduced, hence there are risks of disease and inbreeding.
mountain chain, Nepal, , Bengal, and Assam. Deforestation, cultivation, and human settlement had the most negative impact on the species, isolating the rabbits in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal and Assam. This animal was feared extinct in 1964, but in 1966, one was spotted. There were an estimated 110 hispid hares worldwide in 2001, numbers continuing to plunge due its unsuccessful adaptation to captivity.
7. Northern Hairy-nosed Wombat - In the 19th century this species of wombat was present in New South Wales and Victoria but now can only be found in a small national park near Epping Forest Station in tropical Queensland. While this area has been protected as a National Park, the native grasses that the wombat eats are overtaken by non-indigenous plants. The Northern hairy-nosed wombat is the rarest Australian marsupial, and probably the world’s rarest large mammal. In the latest population study, there are an estimated 113 (range 96 to 150) individual. A major recovery program is underway, funded by the Queensland and Commonwealth governments to the tune of $250,000 per year.
endemic Phillipine bovine. In 1900 there were an estimated 10,000 tamaraw on Mindoro, 120 in 1975, 370 in 1987 . It was declared critically endangered species in 2000 by the World Conservation Union and remained so until today, being threatened by agriculture, hunting or disease brought by domestic species. The current population was estimated in 2002 at a number between 30 and 200 individuals. Although protected by law, the illegal capture and killing of this species continues to occur.
9. Iberian Lynx - The Lynx, the most endangered of the world’s 36 cats, stands on the edge of extinction. This lynx was once distributed over the entire Iberian Peninsula but now its area is severely restricted in Andalusia. Threatened by destruction of habitat and of its prey, the cat was killed by traps set for rabbits or hit by cars as the number of roads increase. The Spanish Government is now in the process of developing a national conservation effort to save the Iberian Lynx. Studies from March 2005 have estimated the number of Lynx to be as few as 100, down from about 400 in 2000. On March 29, 2005, the birth of 3 cubs, the first born in captivity, was announced, a hope for the future reintroduction of the species.
United States to Florida and Texas. Now, their home is the 1.7 million acres throughout northeastern North Carolina, including Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge and Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge. Only 20 pure red wolves were estimated in 1980, however the number increased to 207 captive red wolves, found in 38 captive breeding facilities across the United States. With the successful breeding programs, over 100 red wolves currently live in the wild.
species of caprid found in China and Tibet. The dwarf blue sheep population in the world has declined to a total of 70–200 individuals, currently being listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. The species is hunted, and in their limited range cannot escape from humans and livestock. As of 1997, China did not recognize them as a seperate species so efforts to conserve the species have not been initiated.
