New ISIS Video Shows ‘Gay’ Man Thrown to Death & Destruction of Churches

In a new video purportedly released by the Islamic State titled “The Voice of Virtue in Deterring Hell,” ISIS religious police are shown implementing sharia law with stonings, executions, and beheadings in ISIS-occupied lands. The video was released on April 6, 2016 on ISIS terrorist channels. An alternative translation of the title is “The Voice of Virtue in Deterring the Underworld.”

The video is ontage of ISIS religious police carrying out sharia law, with both the destruction of Christian structures, along with “haram” things like cigarettes and alcohol, and also doling out punishments. Punishments in the video include hand amputations for thieves, the murder of accused homosexuals with stonings, and a variety of beheadings. Read more via Heavy

Turkey: Meet three LGBT Syrian refugees who fled ISIS brutality

Millions of people have fled Syria due to the civil war, the rise of the Islamic State’s self-styled caliphate and the brutality of the Assad regime, desperate to escape regime barrel bombs, Islamic State sadism and persecution by other intolerant, hardline groups. And for Syria’s LGBT citizens, the threat of violence within ISIS-controlled regions is even greater.

Under ISIS rule, even those simply suspected of being gay have been publicly tortured and executed. The Islamic State’s penal code for those accused of engaging in sodomy dictates death is the penalty “for both the receiver and the giver,” Vocativ deep web analysts have found.

Even before the horrors of the Islamic State’s persecution of gays became a daily reality, Syrians were largely intolerant of any variation on “traditional” sexuality. In addition to being abused at home, Louay says he faced dangers on the street in his home city.

“I grew up with this curly blond hair and green eyes … I was the cutie in my family,” he says. By the time he was a teenager, when he could no longer conceal his sexual orientation, his looks and demeanor made him the subject of ridicule and beatings. He was also accused of being a “prostitute,” he says. “My life was in danger.”   Read more via Vocativ

Syria: Teenager thrown from roof 'for being gay' - but the ISIS chief spared

Militants of the Islamic State (ISIS) executed a teenage boy by throwing him off a roof in Syria’s eastern city of Deir ez-Zor for being gay, local sources reported. The 15-year-old boy was arrested by ISIS militants on charges of homosexuality. 

“The horrific execution took place in front of a large crowd,” a local media activist and an eyewitness said. An informed source reported that the victim was captured “in the house of an ISIS leader." Media activist Sarai al-Din revealed the boy was accused of homosexual relations with prominent ISIS officer Abu Zaid al-Jazrawi. While the boy was executed, Abu Zaid was expelled to Iraq after being deprived of his position.

According to pro-ISIS sources, the Sharia Court in Deir ez-Zor had demanded the execution of Abu Zaid for being homosexual, but the ISIS top commanders insisted to let him join the battlefronts in Iraq instead, as the group has been recently exposed to heavy losses in battles both in Syria and Iraq.  Read more via ARA 

Iraq: 2 blindfolded men thrown off a roof in Fallujah for being gay

The Islamic State (Isis) terrorists have released a new photo report from the Iraqi city of Fallujah, showing the execution of two men, "punished" for being homosexuals. The photo report released on social media on Monday by Isis supporters shows two blindfolded men being thrown off a roof in Fallujah on charges of "sodomy."

The images shows an Isis Sharia judge reading out their crimes before a crowd of onlookers while the two gay men stand on the roof of a high-rise. After the reading out of the verdict, the Isis fighters throw down the two men, one by one as the crowd looks on in horror. Read more via International Business Times (disturbing images) 

A Dutch ISIS Fighter Takes Questions on Tumblr

Usually, by the time the public learns the names and biographies of Islamic State militants, or radicals from other groups who attack civilians, they are already dead, and so unable to speak for themselves, except occasionally in the ritualized form of martyrdom videos or manifestoes posted online. This week, however, a Dutch citizen who says he is fighting on behalf of the Islamic State in Syria, and who documents his life in the self-proclaimed caliphate on Tumblr, has been taking questions from readers.

Israfil Yilmaz, who is of Turkish descent and who abandoned a career in the Royal Netherlands Army in 2013 to join Islamist rebels fighting to topple President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, has turned to Tumblr since his accounts on Instagram, Ask.fm and Twitter were suspended.

The exchanges reveal that the former soldier is well aware of his notoriety back home in the Netherlands. Asked his age recently, he referred his questioner to the Dutch government’s list of banned terrorists, to which his full name and details of his birth — Salih Yahya Gazali Yilmaz, born on Sept. 29, 1987, in Brunei — had been added just the week before. 

Read more via New York Times
 

Iraq: 'Being gay isn't as sexy as ISIS': one young man's fight for rights

"Being gay isn't as sexy as ISIS. So no-one pays us any attention."--These are the words of Amir Ashour, a 25-year-old Iraqi and founder of IraQueer.

Amir left behind his home and family a year ago and is currently living in Sweden. There, he hopes to register and expand his charity, as it is illegal to do so in Iraq. He has received multiple threats from both officials and his friends because of who he is and the work he does.

One of the main threats to the queer community in Iraq, Amir explains, is the armed militias in Baghdad and other cities: “The main one that has been practising all the killing campaigns in Iraq actually announced a partnership with our government a few months ago, under the name of ‘fighting ISIS’. The last campaign we documented was in January this year, while in July 2014, [the militia] killed 35 gay people and sex workers in one day. Not even one report was made about that."

And, Amir adds, that’s just the numbers they’re aware of. “How many more people have just disappeared? Especially with what’s happening with ISIS and people being displaced.. We can’t keep track. And the government is making it impossible for civil society organisations to run safe houses. If an organisation wants to do that, then they are charged with running brothels and prostitution.”

“Even if homosexuality is against religion and Islam is the main force of law in Iraq, killing is illegal. That is not something people can debate and argue.”  Read more via Huffington Post

Two gay men who fled ISIS just made UN history

Refugee Subhi Nahas never could have predicted that so soon after being granted refugee protection he would become one of the first people in history to address the U.N. Security Council on LGBT persecution. The historic meeting, an informal session known as an “Arria,” was prompted by attacks by ISIS and other extremist groups in Syria and Iraq against LGBT individuals.

The meeting, organized by the U.S. and Chilean delegations, was held behind closed doors to protect the privacy of an anonymous Iraqi gay man who used the pseudonym “Adnan” and delivered testimony via telephone. It was attended by 13 of the 15 member nations of the powerful chamber, with only Chad and Angola refusing to participate. Four countries with troubling LGBT rights records of their own — China, Russia, Nigeria, and Malaysia — declined to speak, but remained present for the entire meeting.

“This is the first time in history that the council has held a meeting on the victimization of LGBT persons,” U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power said. “It is the first time we are saying, in a single voice, that it is wrong to target people because of their sexual orientation and gender identity. It is a historic step. And it is, as we all know, long overdue.” Read More via Buzzfeed

Iraq: ISIS throws 9 homosexuals from tall building in Mosul

According to a local source in Nineveh province, ISIS organization threw nine civilians from a tall building on charges of homosexuality in the city of Mosul. The source, who asked anonymity, added: “ISIS militants rounded up a number of citizens in the city to see the implementation of the judgment of the so-called Shariah judge.”

In June 4, 2015 ISIS threw three civilians from the top of an insurance company building located in Dawasa area in the city of Mosul on charges of sodomy. Read More via Iraqi News