From the Times Online:
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.
President Ahmadinejad, questioned by students in New York two months ago about the executions, dodged the issue by suggesting that there were no gays in his country.
The latest row involves a woman hanged this June in the town of Gorgan after becoming pregnant by her brother. He was absolved after expressing his remorse. Britain said that this demonstrated the unequal treatment of men and women in law and breached Iran’s pledge to restrict the death penalty to the most serious crimes.
A series of reported executions of gays, including two underage boys whose public hanging was posted on the internet, has alarmed human rights campaigners.
I consider myself a Conservative Libertarian. I believe that people should be left alone unless something they do interferes with my life. If two guys want to fall in love, and express that love to each other, then as long as they don’t interfere with my life they should be allowed to live as they please.
While I’ve never been a homosexual, and while I’m not a great fan of their lifestyle, I cannot see how an official religious minister of a country can make a public statement calling for the public execution of one. Doesn’t that go against the commonly accepted definition of “minister” as a person that gives aid or comfort?
Fundamental Islam is still stuck in the 7th century. Maybe the rest of civilization should treat them as such.
