Iraqi cleric
removes antigay fatwa from his Web site

In what's being hailed as a major victory for Iraqi gays, the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani has removed from his Web site a fatwa calling for the murder of gay men. But the fatwa against lesbians remains on his site, Sistani.org, and the fatwa against all gay people is still in effect offline, according to the London-based gay-rights group Iraqi LGBT-UK. "We welcome the decision to remove the most murderously homophobic part of Sistanti's fatwa from his website," Ali Hili, the head of Iraqi LGBT-UK, said in a statement. However, "this decision does not go far enough. The fatwa has been removed from Sistani's Web site only. It has not been revoked. We want the entire fatwa withdrawn, including the hateful denunciation calling for the punishment of lesbians." The removal online of the fatwa against gay men, which stated that "people involved" in sodomy "should be killed in the worst, most severe way possible," came on Wednesday after two weeks of negotiations between Iraqi LGBT-UK and Sistani's representatives in London and Najaf, Iraq. Sistani's people had first contacted Iraqi LGBT-UK, which coordinates a network of gay activists inside Iraq, demanding that the group remove anti-Sistani criticisms from its own Web site and renounce its questioning of Sistani's religious authority. The group refused and made its own demand that Sistani remove the anti-gay fatwa from his Web site. The fatwa, which appeared on Sistani's site earlier this year, has been blamed for a rise in anti-gay killings in Iraq, including the recent execution by Iraqi police of a 14-year-old boy in Baghdad. In its statement, Iraqi LGBT-UK called on Sistani to revoke the fatwa entirely, and to issue a new one condeming such "vigilante" murders, saying they're against Islam. "We believe that Sistani's fatwa has encouraged and sanctioned the current wave of execution-style assassinations of lesbians and gay men," Hili said. "He owes gay Iraqis an apology. He owes all Iraqis an apology for setting straight Iraqis against gay Iraqis. Endorsing the murder of other human beings is unIslamic. Our Muslim faith is one of love, compassion, tolerance, and mercy. Hatred and prejudice have no legitimate place in our religion." (The Advocate)