Answering Muslims: More Than 90 Iraqi Students Stoned to Death over ...
{"Image ImageDescription": "From Chris Murphy 01634 686 515\nMore than 90 Iraqi students have been stoned to death for their Emo haircuts.\nThat\u2019s the shocking claim from an English version of an Iraqi online newspaper,  Al Akhbar.com.\nThey carried this story on Friday.\nAt least 90 Iraqi teenagers with \"emo\" appearances have been stoned to death by religious extremists in Baghdad in the past month after an inflammatory interior ministry statement dubbed it \"devil worshiping\", activists said.\nIraq's Moral Police released a chilling statement on the interior ministry's website condemning the \"emo phenomenon\" among Iraqi youth, disturbingly declaring its intent to \"eliminate\" the trend.\n\"The 'Emo phenomenon' or devil worshiping is being followed by the Moral Police who have the approval to eliminate [the phenomenon] as soon as possible since it's detrimentally affecting the society and becoming a danger,\" the statement read.\n\"They wear strange, tight clothes that have pictures on them such as skulls and use stationary that are shaped as skulls. They also wear rings on their noses and tongues, and do other strange activities,\" it continued.\nReligious extremists caught onto the interior ministry statement, and have been harassing and killing teenagers with \"strange\" or \"emo\" appearances.\nA group of armed men dressed in civilian clothing led dozens of teenagers to secluded areas a few days ago, stoned them to death, and then disposed their bodies in garbage dumpsters across the capital, according to activists.\nThe armed men are said to belong to \u201cone of the most extremist religious groups\u201d in Iraq.\n\u201cFirst they throw concrete blocks at the boy's arms, then at his legs, then the final blow is to his head, and if he is not dead then, they start all over again,\u201d one person who managed to escape told Al-Akhbar.\nIraq's moral police was granted approval by the Ministry of Education to enter Baghdad schools and pinpoint students with such appearances, according to the interior ministry's statement.\nThe exact death toll remains unclear, but Hana al-Bayaty of Brussels Tribunal, an NGO dealing with Iraqi issues, said the current figure ranges \"between 90 and 100.\"\n\"What's most disturbing about this is that they're so young,\" she said.\nAl-Bayaty said the killings appear to have been carried out by extremist Shia militias in mostly poor Shia neighborhoods and said she suspected \"there's complicity of the Ministry of Interior in the killings.\"\nPhotos of the victims were released on Facebook, causing panic and fear among Iraqi students.\nA young man with long hair expressed alarm at the government-ordained harassment of teenagers with Western appearances.\n\u201cI have long hair but that doesn't mean I'm an Emo. I'm not less of a man if I have long hair. Let's not say that if I have long hair, I'm a homosexual, but I have long hair because this is my style, this is me,\" he told Iraq's Al-Sharqiya television network.\nSafiyyah al-Suhail, an MP, said on Thursday that \"some students have been recently arrested because they were wearing American jeans or had Western haircuts.\"\nThe interior ministry has not disclosed the number of teenage victims, but released a follow-up statement on Thursday warning extremists \"not to step on public freedom of Iraqis.\"\nNews of the gruesome deaths drew a stern reaction from Iraq's prominent Shia cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, who criticized the stoning of the young men as \"an act of terrorism.\"\nThe Director of the Moral Police of the Interior Ministry released a statement, saying \"The 'Emo phenomenon' or devil worshiping is being followed by the Moral Police who have the approval to eliminate [the phenomenon] as soon as possible since it's detrimentally affecting the society and becoming a danger.\"\n'Emo' comes from the English word 'emotional' and the phenomenon is popular among teenagers not only in Iraq, but in most societies. They use their appearances and movements as a method to express their emotions and embody their will and their view of life in their behavior.\nColonel Mushtaq Taleb al-Mahemdawi said: \"The Emo Phenomenon was discovered a while back by members of our force in Baghdad. A report has been made and given to the Ministry of Interior to receive an approval to carry on with the investigation and to know how to eliminate the phenomenon.\"\nHe added: \"The Ministry of Interior took this situation very seriously and received an approval from the Ministry of Education to set a plan under my full supervision and to allow us to enter schools in the capital.\"\n\"There are some cases of the spread of this phenomenon specifically among schools in Baghdad, but we are facing great difficulty in the lack of women on the force who would allow us to carry the investigation more accurately since the phenomenon is more popular among girls between the ages of 14 and 18.\"\n\"They wear strange, tight clothes that have pictures on them such as skulls and use stationary that are shaped as skulls. They also wear rings on their noses and tongues, and do other strange activities.\"\nEnds\u2026", "Image Software": "Google", "Image Artist": "Al Tahreer News", "Image YCbCrSubSampling": "[2, 2]", "Image ExifOffset": "5164", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "468", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "350"}