Quote Originally Posted by Phantom View Post
But the clear message is that, in this part of the world, a battle rages between the religion and rights, a battle that will going on for many years and may never end.
It's not between religion and rights, it's between Islam and rights. Don't generalize.

Apart from that ... yes, this is what happens in many Islamic extremist countries. Imadouchebag (err, Ahmadinejad) in Iran said of homosexuals, "We don't have that problem." Israel is a haven for homosexuals in the area that would otherwise be killed (or worse) in surrounding areas. Turkey is similar.

In Iraq, homosexuals were regularly beaten, tortured, and executed. Saddam -- and especially his sons -- targetted homosexuals more than most other groups, because they, for lack of a better way to put it, "wouldn't be missed". They were already looked down upon my most of the population, so they were a logical choice for "experimentation", because the majority of the population wouldn't have too much of a problem with it.

While their leadership has changed greatly, their culture hasn't. Especially when they have foreigners coming in, and bringing with them their (even more) extreme views and intolerance of anything different.

This is one of the reasons that some feminists, homosexuals, and environmentalists were proven to be hypocrites by their lack of support for the overthrow of Saddam's regime.