Is bin Laden's successor a Republican?

The man who has taken over leadership of Al Qaeda from Osama bin Laden is Ayman al-Zawahri. Omar bin Laden, the son of the previous leader, had written a book Growing Up Bin Laden, detailing his life with his father. In it he recounts an incident with Zawahri.

He told of a friend of his, a teenage boy, who was grabbed by some men and raped. The men took photos of the abuse as it happened and then showed them around the camp where they lived. Zawahri had the boy put on trial for being homosexual and with the photos as evidence he was convicted and executed. I think Zawahri is out to win the Republican vote.

Consider figures on the religious right who have advocated the same thing.

Rev. Greg Dixon was the national secretary of the Moral Majority. In a sermon, he said, regarding gay people, "I say either fry 'em, or put them in the pen. Don't unleash them on the human race." He clearly meant execution and in a debate on WIND radio between he and I, he reiterated his support for executing gay people.

When Republicans in Minnesota were in the midst of pushing an anti-gay marriage initiative, they invited a fundamentalist minister, Bradley Dean, to open the state assembly in prayer. Dean previously praised radical Islamists for being willing to execute gay people. He said: "Muslims are calling for the execution of homosexuals in America... And it shows you that they themselves are upholding the laws that are even in the Bible of the Judeo-Christian God. They seem to be more moral than even the American Christians do." So, it is "more moral" to want to kill gays. The broadcast is below.



At National Organization for (sic) Marriage rallies, individuals have shown up with signs demanding the death penalty for gay people. In Indianapolis one NOM protestor had a sign saying "The Solution to Gay Marriage;" it showed two nooses. In the video below, of a NOM rally, you can hear Rev. Ariel Torres Ortega, preaching in Spanish, which was then translated into English. He says that gay people are "worthy of death, not only they that do it, but those who practice it."



Rev. Greg Bahnsen, in Homosexuality: A Biblical View, published by a major evangelical publisher (Baker Books), told his readers," Either we will discriminate against homosexuals, or we will discriminate against the Word of God." (p.9) He writes, "the state and its rulers must act as servants of God, avenging His displeasure against evildoers." (p.14)

Bahnsen says God calls homosexuals "dogs" (p.93) and that any kind of sympathy for them is "out of place when it comes to capital crimes like... homosexuality." This doesn't mean gay people "have no civil rights at all and can be treated in a shameful fashion. They would still retain, for example the right to due process of law, to a fair and speedy trial, and to legal defense." After that, you can kill them.

Gary North, a supporter of theocracy associated with the misnamed Mises Institute as well as a former staff member for Ron Paul, says: "The death penalty is God's required means of enforcing earthly restitution for certain crimes, irrespective of the opinion of any victims." He then lists some "crimes" that qualify for the death penalty: bestiality, homosexual acts and blasphemy. (Leviticus: An Economic Commentary, Institute for Christian Economics, p. 374) North says this "crime" is against God and the "convicted criminal is to be transferred from the civil court to God's heavenly court. The means of this transfer is execution." "Death is restitution to God." (p.375)

North argues that God "does not hate the sin and love the sinner. He hates the sin and hates the sinner. God is indeed a homophobe." (p. xxix) And stoning is "God's mandated method of execution." (p.336) The "integrity of the family," he says, "must be maintained by the threat of death." (The Sinai Strategy, Institute for Christian Economics, pp 59-60.) Just remember that the next time you hear a religious conservative invoking the "defense of the family" as justification for their prejudices.