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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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You do realize, all of you people talking about how backwards it is over there, that tens of millions of Evangelical Christians over here think Harry Potter is Satan infiltrating our youth? That millions of fundamentalist Christians in the United States think dancing is evil? That we have crazy Christians who bomb abortion clinics?
Religion is crazy, period. Here, there, everywhere.
Not all people who have faith and are religious are crazy. Just factions of them.....extreme left wing conservatives, Rick Santorum, fundamentalist Islamists, etc. I know lots of really good and not crazy spiritual people. I think our religious extremism battle going on right here in the good ole USA is sounding a lot like crazy right nowl......
If you are a Liberal you should feel lucky Christians do not stone people any longer:)
There is a vast difference between spirituality and religion. Only one of them has books that condemn non-believers to hell. One is about the belief in a god/gods, the other seeks to wield it like a club. Organized religion has about as much to do with god as politics has to do with honesty.
I'm a liberal and am not Christian, but I'm not a relativist. I think those stoning others to death for wearing a certain style of clothing should be put to death.
Well said. But I do have religious friends (i.e., people who are "churched") who are actively spiritual too and are very good people. Just don't want to throw the baby out with the bath water. I just dont know what the hell has happened to separation of church and state in our country. So much blah-blah about contraception, having babies, single women having sex, etc. Why are people who are wanting to be elected to civil leadership so hung up on this stuff???? Evangelism? Will people look that word up and read the definition? Stone age beliefs are on the rebound here. This is not only scary but unconstitutional, re: separation of church and state. Why is the Left's God being shoved down everyone's throat?
Above comment to Taziar
I think Plato, Aristotle, and Kant should be shoved down everyone's throat. LOL.
yeah, but they aint killin they chillins
Julia, I have no doubt that there are good spiritual people as members of churches. Church involvement in the community can certainly be a good thing, often acting like a giant support group. It is church involvement in politics where everything goes wrong.
I say eliminate all stones and rocks. Period.
Rocks don't kill people, crazed religious zealots do. -National Rock Association
lol. the best.
@ Tazier.
Winner. Everyone else go home.
I think they hide those rocks that they throw , in their heads ....
For safe keeping ....
While this is probably an isolated incident (14 kids, not 14000 kids), it is indicative of how backwards of a culture they have. For anyone beating war drums for any middle eastern country (Syria, Iran), they need to understand that it is not our job to police the world. Let them take care of themselves. When you sit back and watch this unfold, these truly horrifying cultures will dissolve from within. Some people aren't worth helping. (Meaning they don't help themselves, it's throwing good money and effort after bad).
Clearly ....
You mean like how Nazi Germany dissolved from within?
What a foolish and short-sighted comment you've made. "Truly horrifying cultures" -- like, oh let's say Iran and North Korea -- are all on the verge of having nuclear weapons. Yeah, let's just sit back and let them BOMB THE WORLD INTO OBLIVION.
I see some things never change, we should have just nuked that place from orbit.
This religion is a cancer on society and civilization as a whole and should be eradicated by any means possible. Killing because of clothes, religion, cartoons, books and the list goes on. Believing in false prophets is more important to them then life itself. Women and girls treated worse then their camels or dogs killed outright on the whims of the males. If this is what their religion professes then it's satan at his best.
Religion of peace , my as$s!
Sure. They are killing hundreds of people and must be stopped. Lets eradicate all 2 billion of them to save lives.
Radical Islam and Liberty are mutually exclusive terms. This is a perfect example of why a free people cannot live side-by-side with a majority Islamic population, and why most Islamic states are despotic.
I would wish for tolerance, across the board, but it can't work one-way, and when the actions, however innocuous, are at odds with radical Islamic culture, mayhem and murder result. The world is on the threshhold of a decision; and the ramifications are frightening.
Religion and Liberty are generally incompatible. You cannot govern yourself when forced to follow the rules written in a thousands-year-old-book on pain of death and eternal damnation.
Hence separation of church and state.
War on religion is not the answer, however. The internet is a far better weapon in this fight. You fight ignorance with knowledge, not weapons. Their kids expressing themselves in a way learned from westerners is just the start.
@Taz
Too true, but when the entire country, including the government, uses words like "infidel" in referring to their neighbors, and "jihad" to justify murderous actions, and steadfastly refuses to come to the bargaining table in good faith, what is the alternative? If this was only ignorance, I would agree, and I truly believe that peace cannot be achieved by prosecuting war, but this is not ignorance - it's hate, plain and simple. They hate us for what we believe, and that cannot be solved by diplomacy or education. Sooner or later, in the face of that hate and persistent violence, the "house divided" scenario will play itself out, and the world will suffer greatly. What will be left is an interesting question. You can't un-invent a religion, any more than you can un-invent drugs or guns. We have to learn to live with each other, but that lesson may come at the hands of global war.
Emo Armageddon!
That's what's wrong with America...we don't respect the cultural sensitivities of other cultures. Here, we allow our children to dress and act pretty much as they like. It is part of the freedom of our society. If other societies want conformity in their young, and that is all right too.
I wonder which is the greater evil....beating an 'emo' child to death with a rock, or sending our young men to a foreign land to die for that country's right to beat an 'emo' child to death with a rock.
Beating an emo kid to death.
Being tolerant doesn't mean respecting things like this. That is just dumb. If a culture is so backwards that they murder children who did nothing more than dress a certain way, they have not earned our tolerance or respect.
There's a little difference between cultural sensitivities and stoning kids to death for wearing the "wrong" clothes. I understand Iraqi's don't think like Americans, spent some time there, I know. But people killing people for the clothes they wear is simply uncivilized.
You can see that these people believe the twisted propaganda they are fed. Like there is a huge percentage of American youth who worship the devil and suck each others blood. Their views of America are based on lies, fabrication and exageration, which of course no one including the so called enlightened one here in the US, bothers to correct. Keep them ignorant and violent, thats the way they want to live!? They sure seem to embrace it.
Worse. Americans worship sparkly vampires. Vampires. That sparkle. Seriously. The good old days of demon worship are sadly gone.
Not me. I still worship the old fashioned emo ones: The Lost Boys.
?man, that really shows your age..... and good taste.
Sounds like two trillion dollars and thousands of lives well spent.
On the one hand, it's nice to see a firm stance being taken against the Emo subculture, on the other hand, likening EMO to satanism is about informed as calling Jazz music Rap.
All that aside, I wish my lawn were emo, so it'd cut itself.
lol i kinda thought the same thing. Emo kids are super annoying.
"All that aside, I wish my lawn were emo, so it'd cut itself."
No, no, dude, you're thinking of Goths.
Yes, Emo's cry and blog, Goths brood and pierce.
LOL seriously you need to do research on Emo and Goth
two different cultures,two different lifestyles,big difference.
Well into the Iraq war, two of their top tennis players were shot dead in the street for having the audacity to appear briefly with their shorts on before getting into a car. This incident only deepens my conviction that leaving Saddam Hussein in place, along with other 'strongmen', was appropriate, as these folks aren't ready for anything like democracy. They haven't emerged from the stone age and won't for some time. Now, observe the Israelis spitting on a little girl going to school in her choice of garb, perfectly ordinary here, and you will see what trying to survive in this backward part of the world has done to a once noble culture. The "When in Rome" philosophy has acquired a special significance here. Whatever their original and significant contributions to world culture were, the religious extremists of every flavor have torn their societies asunder.
And how much money did "W" and his neo-cons spend to bring democracy to Iraq??? Oh, One Trillion dollars, all of it borrowed from China, and we have advanced them no further than 750AD. As others noted, the crazy Christian evangelicals in this country are just as dangerous as the Taliban because they would impose their strict interpretation of Christianity on all of us. Strange though, these extreme Christians and ultra-conservative Catholics always cite the Old Testament as their basis for action; yet, correct me if I'm wrong, isn't Christianity based on the New Testament where all that stoning and thou shalt not was left behind.
And my buddy Mr. Rick wants to impose a theocracy on America if he wins the presidency. Even though we both belong to the same denomination, we're centuries apart in our thinking. I'm Vatican II, he's 1492 and the Inquisition. Just call him Torquemada the Second.
Religion teaches intollerance and divides people over invented conventions. Why do we believe that we need to worship invisible creatures who would otherwise torment us??? If there is a true Creator, can't imagine him/her torturing his/her creatures like little boys torture small animals.
Mass paranoid and schizophrenic behavior of Radical Muslims.
Wow! Just think how bad things would be if islam wasn't a religion of peace!
LOL, the Reformation anyone?
LIAR! Who ever wrote that is a liar, and they know it. Any punishment given will be given by the real obscene ones. The thugs they employ (yeah thugs, not Mujahideen) will murder peaceful people because of the barbaric ideologies of a few wacked out clerics. God has nothing to do with it, and they know it. Power and control is their motive.
The tight-ass clerics need to lighten up. Damn! Killing folks over a fad. That is one of the stupidest things I have ever heard of.
Boy our Nine years of war in that Crazy Damned country really did a lot of good didn't it? Any other country over there want "Democracy"?? Afghanistan will be the same way after we leave. You can't make insane people sane. All our money spent and our soldier's live's for what, WHAT. Nothing. Those people are nothing but Savages and alway's will be. We should get the hell out of Afghnistan before any more of our kid's are murdered by those Islamic Cave dweller's.
Someone tell me again why we're sending our best and brightest young men and women to fight and die for these Neanderthals!
Just another example of how religious extremism is ruining the human race. It's pathetic. Although it is rearing its ugly head here in the US with the right wing nuts who have decided that contraception and abortion are BAD and must be outlawed in the US in the 21st century. It's pathetic.
Worship on your own in your own way (I respect that), but don't dump your beliefs on me.
Damn! So this was what Bush sent our youth over there to die for. Maybe he was right: "Mission Accomplished".
Obama must have pulled out too soon.
"Obama must have pulled out too soon."
Wait, is this a Bush joke?
Too bad his father didn't too.
Jesus would kill all the people who didn't dress like him.
Hey, maybe we could get rid of Rap here!
Sadly, the Mujahadeen are the ones that are really imitating Western society: demonize and kill all who do not conform to the majority's specific religious tenants. See, e.g., Matthew Shepard, Lawrence King, all American Women, all American non-whites ,the American working class, the American poor, the list goes on....
Geez, wonder what would happen to them if they dressed like Elmo.
They would be sued to death.
LMFAO! You have just made my day, sir!