Tuesday, November 13, 2007
The Iranian mask slips yet again
It is a great tragedy that this is not in the least bit surprising:
Homosexuals deserve to be executed or tortured and possibly both, an Iranian leader told British MPs during a private meeting at a peace conference, The Times has learnt.
Mohsen Yahyavi is the highest-ranked politician to admit that Iran believes in the death penalty for homosexuality after a spate of reports that gay youths were being hanged....
Minutes taken by an official describe a meeting between British and Iranian MPs at the Inter-Parliamentary Union, a peace body, in May. When the Britons raised the hangings of Asqari and Marhouni, the leader of the Iranian delegation, Mr Yahyavi, a member of his parliament’s energy committee, was unflinching. He “explained that according to Islam gays and lesbianism were not permitted”, the record states. “He said that if homosexual activity is in private there is no problem, but those in overt activity should be executed [he initially said tortured but changed it to executed]. He argued that homosexuality is against human nature and that humans are here to reproduce. Homosexuals do not reproduce.”
Then there is this bit of comedy gold:
Ann Clwyd, the Labour MP and head of Britain’s delegation, said yesterday: “It is of great concern that these attitudes persist and we made it clear what we felt.”
Does Ann Clwyd seriously believe that Iran's mullahs are going to stop persisting in "these attitudes" because some Western politician gives them a lecture? No doubt she also thinks that "negotiation" without the implicit threat of violence will persuade them to give up their nuclear weapons program.
3 Comments:
By 
, at
Tue Nov 13, 08:46:00 AM:
Well, Ann no-Clued, if you don't "feel" good about the Iranian state torturing and murdering it's citizen's we're all eager to see how you react next. If the mullahs can murder their own without a second thought for crimes against their own peculiar beliefs, what do you think they'll do once they have a nuclear weapon?
Ann?
By 
Andrew X, at
Tue Nov 13, 06:56:00 PM:
Gotta go to bat for Ms. Clywyd. I do not know the details of where she stands vis a vis Iran, but she did at one point write the following:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/thunderer/article1120757.ece
"Many Iraqis wonder why the world applauded the military intervention that eventually rescued the Cambodians from Pol Pot and the Ugandans from Idi Amin when these took place without UN help. They ask why the world has ignored the crimes against them?"
...
"I do not have a monopoly on wisdom or morality. But I know one thing. This evil, fascist regime must come to an end. With or without the help of the Security Council, and with or without the backing of the Labour Party in the House of Commons tonight."
The author is Labour MP for Cynon Valley.
----
Not easy for a Labour MP, so, let's chill and give her credit for her anti-idiotarianism when it was needed.
By , at
Wed Nov 14, 12:55:00 AM:
So wheres the UN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMITY where AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL wheres the ACLU and what about that bunch of hoodelums ACT-UP
