 | This article needs to beupdated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(June 2024) |
LGBTQ rights in Islamic State | |
|---|---|
_(orthographic_projection).png) | |
| Legal status | Ongoing |
| Penalty | Execution, imprisonment, lashings, fines, vigilante tortures, beatings, honor killings, vigilante executions, and stonings |
| Gender identity | No |
| Military | No |
| Discrimination protections | No |
| Family rights | |
| Recognition of relationships | No recognition ofsame-sex relationships |
| Adoption | No |
Violence against LGBTQ people is part of the ideology of theIslamic State (ISIS), which mandatescapital punishment for homosexuality withinits territory, inIraq,Syria, andLibya.
Law enforcement in ISIS-controlled areas purports to carry out punishments. This means that homosexuals caught engaging in same-sex affairs should be thrown from rooftops. If they do not die on impact then they should bestoned to death.[1][2]
ISIS has published a list of offenses that will result in automatic execution, including homosexuality.[3]
According to Subhi Nahas, a gay Syrian who escaped Syria fearing for his life, he had heard that while ISIS was sparing effeminategay men "for the pleasure of older men", the "masculine" men suspected of being gay were being killed. He also stated that gay men joined ISIS to protect themselves and their families, sometimes reporting on fellow gays to conceal themselves more effectively.[4]
On November 23, 2014, ISIS fighters stoned to death a 20-year-old unidentified man inMayadin, Syria, and fighters stoned to death an 18-year-old unidentified man inDeir Ezzor, Syria. The men were known opponents of ISIS, and their supporters say ISIS had used the allegation that they were gay as justification to execute them. This was the first reported execution ofLGBTQ people by ISIS.[5][6]
On April 30, 2015, it was reported that three men, accused of being homosexual, were executed by being shot in the head by the ISIS inDerna, Libya. Human rights activists consider this the first death sentence against homosexuals in the history of modern Libya.[7]
From December 9, 2014, to May 7, 2016,OutRight Action International estimated that 41 gay men were executed in ISIS controlled territories in Iraq and Syria.[8]
Pulse nightclub shooting: OnJune 12, 2016, 29-year-oldOmar Mateen shot and killed 49 people and wounded 53 more in amass shooting atPulse, agay nightclub inOrlando, Florida, United States before Orlando Police officers fatally shot him after a three-hour standoff. In a911 call made shortly after the shooting began, Mateenswore allegiance to the leader of theIslamic State,Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and said the U.S. killing ofAbu Waheeb in Iraq the previous month "triggered" the shooting.[9] He later told a negotiator he was "out here right now" because of the American-led interventionsin Iraq andin Syria and that the negotiator should tell the United States to stop the bombing. The incident was deemed aterrorist attack byFBI investigators.
On July 22, 2016, it was reported by activists that ISIS executed a young Iraqi man inKirkuk,Iraq, by throwing him from the top of a building on charges of being gay. His corpse was later stoned by the crowd. ISIS arrested the man under the pretext that he was a homosexual.[10]
On August 10, 2016, a video was released by ISIS showing ISIS religious police, known as "hisbah", in "Wilayat al-Jazirah", Iraq, which shows a gay man being thrown off a building. According to the Terrorism Research & Analysis Consortium, Wilayat al-Jazirah used to be considered part of Wilayat Ninawa, which contains Mosul. Vulnerable cities in Wilayat al-Jazirah include "Tal 'Afar, Al-Ba'aj, Al-'Ayadiyyah, Al-Mahlabiyyah, Sinjar, Wardiyyah, Sanuni, Khana Sor, Ibrat al-Saghira, Al-Badi, Al-Qanat."[11]
On August 20, 2016, a local source inNineveh province, Iraq, revealed that ISIS executed four men on charges of homosexuality and sodomy, including two of its own members, by throwing them off a building.[12]
On December 5, 2016, ISIS threw a gay man accused of 'homosexual relations' off top of a building in Maslamah City inAleppo, Syria.[13]
On January 9, 2017, a 17-year-old male was arrested and thrown off a building by the Diwan al-Hisba inMosul under the pretext that he was "a homosexual".[14][15]
On March 27, 2017, IS Diwan al-Hisbah published photos showing a gay man being thrown off a roof and being stoned to death for being gay in Mosul.[16]
On June 14, 2016, theHouse of Commons of Canada voted 166–139 against aConservative parliamentary motion to recognize the atrocities targeting Yazidis, Christians, Shia Muslims, other ethnic and religious groups, and gays and lesbians to be defined as genocide.[17]
TheU.S. Department of State's Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2016 for the countries of Iraq and Syria stated that:
Da'esh published videos depicting alleged executions of persons accused of homosexual activity that included stoning and being thrown from buildings. In July, UNAMI reported a young man had been abducted and killed in Baghdad because of his sexual orientation. Sources reported the abductors were known members of armed groups. Some armed groups also started a campaign against homosexual persons in Baghdad, UNAMI reported at least three more LGBTI persons had disappeared since July.[18]In previous years photographs and videos appeared showing Da'esh pushing men suspected of "being gay" from rooftops in Raqqa governorate or stoning them to death. According to Outright International, on May 7, Da'esh's media office issued a "photo report about the imposition of sharia punishment" on those suspected of belonging to the LGBTI community. The photographs included images of a boy pushed from the top of a building.[19]
In 2023, during the early stages of theGaza war, a video described as“Hamas executes people by throwing them off a roof of a building!” was shared widely on social media.[20] But the video did not depict Hamas or any other group based in Palestine; it was a video ofISIS in Iraq from 2015.[20] A July 2015 report fromAl Arabiya included identical images that were originally shared by ISIS and showed the execution of four gay men by ISIS inFallujah, Iraq.[20]
