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Subscribe to RSSBAGHDAD -- At least 14 youths have been stoned to death in Baghdad in the past three weeks in what appears to be a campaign by Shiite militants against youths wearing Western-style "emo" clothes and haircuts, security and hospital sources say.
Militants in Shiite neighborhoods where the stonings have taken place circulated lists on Saturday naming more youths targeted to be killed if they do not change the way they dress.
The killings have taken place since Iraq's interior ministry drew attention to the "emo" subculture last month, labeling it "Satanism" and ordering a community police force to stamp it out.
"Emo" is a genre of punk rock music that originated in the United States in the 1980s. Fans are known for their distinctive dress, often including tight jeans, T-shirts with logos and distinctive long or spiky haircuts.
At least 14 bodies of youths have been brought to three hospitals in eastern Baghdad bearing signs of having been beaten to death with rocks or bricks, security and hospital sources told Reuters under condition they not be identified because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
Nine bodies were brought to hospitals in Sadr City, a vast, poor Shiite neighborhood, three were brought to East Baghdad's main al-Kindi hospital and two were brought to the central morgue, medical sources said.
Six other young people, including two girls, were wounded in beatings intended as warnings, the security sources said.
"Last week I signed the death certificates of three of those young people, and the reason for death I wrote in my own hand was severe skull fractures," a doctor at al-Kindi hospital told Reuters. "A very powerful blow to the head caused these fractures which totally smashed the skull of the victim."
Other sources put the"emo" death toll much higher. Hana al-Bayaty of Brussels Tribunal, a nongovernmental organization dealing with Iraqi issues, said the current figure ranges “between 90 and 100,” Arabic-language newspaper Al Arabiya reported on its website.
A leaflet distributed in the Shiite Bayaa district of east Baghdad seen by Reuters on Saturday had 24 names of youths targeted for killing.
"We strongly warn you, to all the obscene males and females, if you will not leave this filthy work within four days the punishment of God will descend upon you at the hand of the Mujahideen," the leaflet said.
Another leaflet in Sadr City bore 20 names. "We are the Brigades of Anger. We warn you, if you do not get back to sanity and the right path, you will be killed," it said.
In a statement last month the interior ministry said it was monitoring "the 'emo' phenomenon, or Satanism" which it said was spreading through schools, particularly among teenage girls.
"They wear tight clothes that bear paintings of skulls, they use school implements with skulls and wear rings in their noses and tongues as well as other weird appearances," it said.
After reports of the stonings circulated on Iraqi media, the interior ministry said this week that no murders on its files could be blamed on the reaction to "emo".
"Many media have reported fabricated news reports about the so-called 'emo' phenomenon -- stories about tens of young people killed in various ways, including stoning," the ministry said in a statement on Thursday.
"No murder case has been recorded with the interior ministry on so-called 'emo' grounds. All cases of murder recorded were for revenge, social and common criminal reasons."
Clerics denounce killings
Iraq's leading Shiite clerics have condemned the stonings.
Abdul-Raheem al-Rikabi, Baghdad representative for Iraq's most influential Shiite cleric, Ali al-Sistani, called the killings "terrorist attacks."
"Such a phenonomenon which has spread among young people should be tackled through dialogue and peaceful means and not through physical liquidation," Rikabi told Reuters.
In a response to questions on his website on Saturday, Muqtada al-Sadr, a Shiite cleric whose followers dominate Sadr City, described "emo" youths as "crazy and fools," but said they should be dealt with only through the law.
"They are a plague on Muslim society, and those responsible should eliminate them through legal means," he said.
Abu Ali al-Rubaie, a leading Sadr aide in Sadr City, said the cleric's followers had nothing to do with the killings.
"In this issue and in all such problems we always use peaceful and educational methods to correct any wrongdoings. We are not connected in any way to those groups allegedly responsibility for killing those young people."
Another revered Iraqi cleric, Ayatollah Mohammed al-Yakoubi, said in a statement on Friday that the killings of “emo” teens in the country was exaggerated and aimed at tarnishing the image of those who are religious and have problems with the current government. “Media outlets have published some news on the killing of 'Emo' teenagers in Baghdad and other provinces but did not confirm the authenticity or the correctness of neither the news nor the numbers mentioned,” he said, according to Al Arabiya.
In the years after the fall of Saddam Hussein, most of Baghdad's neighborhoods were under the firm grip of Sunni and Shiite religious militias which enforced strict dress codes.
Today, the militias have largely disappeared, Baghdad is far more peaceful and many youths experiment with Western styles, although much of Iraqi society remains conservative.
On the streets of Baghdad, people said they had heard of the killings through the media. Many expressed disapproval of the "emo" style, but said murder was no way to respond.
"I saw them a couple weeks ago ... a bunch of girls, high-school aged, walking together, dressed in black. They had long black eye makeup and bracelets with skulls and chains on their handbags with skulls," said Abdullah, 31.
"If they are close friends who have something in common, that's all right. If other things we hear about them are true, like sucking each other's blood or worshipping the devil, that is not accepted in our society. But I think this is just a trend to imitate the West."
Reuters and msnbc.com staff contributed to this story.
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Leave a Comment:
*stunned*
isn't that a little...extreme?? regardless of culture, gender, religion... kids will always be kids- experimenting with clothes and music like any teenagers the world over.
It is a predatory response. You dress up as a rabbit and venture into a tiger cage unless you have a death wish.
yo Plantagenet,
You do not have to dress up as a Rabbit and enter Tiger cage, just go in as you are. Besides I do not think a Tiger can catch a Rabbit.
OK, How about dressing up as a cheesburger and fries at a fat man convention.
Rabbits are pretty good preditory cat bait.
Yo, Mr. Plantagenet Palliser: tell that to the blacks who sat at Woolworth's counter and did the Freedom Rides. Moron.
yo LoriB-1166417,
we all should not be stunned about what they will do, they kill their daughters for what our girls do that is the daily norm. it is a matter of having respect for what your parents tell you not to do or what to do. if you refuse to obey, you will die because my friends will not respect me if you do not obey me. in our society we take away your cell phone or put a bullet through your Laptop. i am sure it played out like this; a member of the iraqi government has a son or daughter that behaves and dresses this way and is showing this child what will happen to them if they do not stop, by causing the deaths of these children.
Plantagenet
i could go for that,, i don't need to dress up, i already look like a cheeseburger and fries.
?man,
you called this writer a Mr, heck this writer could be someone's sister for all you know
Good News!! The Muslims have come up with yet another reason to slaughter each other.
The character of Islam remains predictable.
@ RonHickman: it's a literary reference.
?man
It is not the same thing unless the emo Iraqis were protesting for the right to be emo. What a sad thought.
Who is to say they are not? Would you like to live in a political culture that allows being stoned to death for wearing a Pixies T shirt? I understand what you are saying: don't confuse recklessness (bravery without intelligence) with courage. But your point is at least controversial.
Humans are not as advanced as we would like them to be.
People choose up sides based on gut reaction as much or more than real facts, and they allow others to lead them by the nose down the path of servitude on the promise of something unattainable.
"on the promise of something unattainable."
Although that may not be as bold of a claim as religion, that's still a bold claim seeing as that is not backed by any evidence. You do, however, have that technicality to be able to call it fact. Odds are you are correct.
If people weren't typically such lame brains the world would be a pretty uncomplicated place.
As it is, we live moment by moment, fancy, phantasm and nightmares our map and compass.
"If people weren't typically such lame brains the world would be a pretty uncomplicated place."
I can agree that for as long as there is a difference in opinion, tolerance is needed to grow as a species.
"As it is, we live moment by moment, fancy, phantasm and nightmares our map and compass."
Not for everyone.
"Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind"
Quite an agnostic statement.
It's harder, if not impossible, to argue with someone who admits that they really don't understand the unknown than it is to argue with someone who claims to "know" something about the unknown.
Is mujahideen arabic for nazi thug???
the literal translation is "tea party patriot"
You can just call me, Master.
Now there's some real fashion police , I guess ....
Torch...we are NO LONGER in that country. except for a few hundred State Department personnel in the embassy.
And secondly they do not live in caves or tents dracula, unless you are referring to a nomadic minority of Bedouins.
Why do people weigh in here before they fact check...it would make things a WHOLE lot simpler.
we are talking about killing children!
Whenever an apologist tries to tell you that religion doesn't cause any real harm, remember this article.
Is it religion that's to blame or the stupidity of the stone throwers?
These kids really have guts to go "emo".
Seems like Santorum should relocate. He'd find a welcome home there.
Better be nice to us or we'll bring democracy to your country too!
They don't like sweater vest either have ever seen on wear one?
xvet
Killed because the way they dress, those people are sick.. there is no religion that permits this killing.
Better off walking around nude there..you might live longer.
I mean, since he (Santorum) speaks like he's in the Dark Ages, he should go live where it still is the Dark Ages.
I wonder if the six million Jews in Israel sitting in the cross hairs of a bunch of lunatics feel that it is more important that Obama gets reelected than for him to do something that is not Politically correct for his base????
Obviously, we in the US have not spent ENOUGH US DOLLARS to teach the Iraq civilization to be like us in the US. Oh wait, we in the US are vindictive, violent, and vengeful, just like Iraq! All is ok! Mission Accomplished!
This story is a little wake-up call to the "entitlement" culture we've got going on in America. If you think you have rights to do what you'd like, try traveling the world and see if those rights would be observed elsewhere. If you went to Iraq dressed like that, nobody would differentiate if you're American or not; they'd simply look at your clothes and beat you as punishment. After all, women get that treatment in Arab countries for not wearing a headscarf.
You're argument is all over the place and sloppy.
Well, rights are political and different countries have different constitutions. So your point is, well, unclear as nolan points out.
It is a shame that the "Cradle of Civilization" is the most uncivilized place on the Earth.
Islam kills way too many good people and should be eradicated from this planet for all time by whatever means are necessary.
how?
How .... ??
Send Obama and their debt will be so high , that they won't be able to afford a rock to throw ....
They are murdering zealots, we should kill them all.
Ah, beautiful irony.
Hiroshima. Nagasaki. Iraq. Afghanistan. Kill the killers. Except the real killers dont seem to be easily killed. Just millions of innocents.
Yea Julia ....
Everyone says they're innocent ....
Since we're talking the stone age, the leaders of these grisly belief systems could get into an arena and fight it out.....along with politicians......
Now your talking Julia ....
Could make money at it , at the same time ....
Would go over big ....
More monomaniacal behavior from the so-called religion of love. Like all religion, it deems abstract and artificial words inside an ancient book to have more importance and value than the blood, bones, and breath of right-here and right-now human life. When will human beings finally "see" the difference between living inside a book and living outside in the real world?
The US should never tolerate these murderous people. MASS MURDER of the young for these reasons are crimes against humanity. The most severe consequences against these people must be put in place by all means possible. If it means entering this country (AGAIN) to get this problem under control then so be it.
wait wait wait....Let me wrap my brain around this one; So, it's evil to wear clothing that a religion disagrees with yet, good to murder someone?
Yes... Yes... Because "Emo" clothing is so EVIL compared to a stylish woman in a black Berka!
What a terrible shame. Sounds like some of those folks are still in the 12th century.
Well, that was clearly a waste of 4,000 american lives, not to mention billions and more billions of american dollars..........the entire middle east needs to be sterelized and start over. These people are just evil.
So true. And, most of this evil is inspired by their religion. What a worthless piece of crap.(quran,koran)
If it weren't for America's insatiable thirst for oil, we would never have had a reason to go over there in the first place.
They would still be doing their thing and we would be doing our thing and no one would know any different.
But we had to go over there and introduce our Western ways and of course that pissed off the radicals, and thus 911.
We see their religion as evil, and they see ours as evil.
It's all relative.
If you ask me, all religion is evil.
How sad that these murderers don't know that they, if there is one, are going to burn in hell. Can we send some leaflets portraying that scenario?
Kind of self-righteous, aren't you?
A lot of people are going to burn in hell, but it isn't your place to point that out to them.
What's the punishment for wearing your pants so low your underwear shows?
Maybe we can learn something here.
Don't wear dirty under wear?
Or those who wear their pants down to their knees ....
When my sons did that I shot them with a rubberband. Works real good on exposed flesh :)
What a sewer .......how can anyone be religious anymore.
exactly my sentiments
Holly $hit I mean Shiite.
More killing in the name of God (or Allah). And they think of themselves as righteous - how sad.
So true. They also want their religion to ruled the whole world. What a bunch of idiots.
They think of themselves as righteous, we think of ourselves as righteous.
Sad on both counts...
Muslim on Muslim violence and without support from the west it will grow. However, the west is tapped out and they will have to sort this out for themselves. The terrorists will continue to harass or murder all those who do not conform and convert to their brand of Islam. Muslims have turned a blind eye to this problem and blamed everyone but themselves and now with the west leaving they will have to face up to it whether they want to or not.
Stone age muslims strike again.