we had more freedom

The BBC is reporting on violence and murder being committed against homosexuals in Iraq. Under the local interpretation of Islam, homosexuals deserve to be killed "in the harshest way," and people are accordingly being murdered. The most frustrating thing of all is the quote right at the end of the article:

"Saddam was a tyrant, but at least we had more freedom then," said Hussein. "Nowadays, gay men are just killed for no reason."

But this isn't the only group which has been experiencing greater intolerance from Islamists now that Saddam has gone. Christians in Iraq were scapegoated right from the start of the campaign for regime change, and it's not getting any better as time goes by. In another article from the BBC, it's reported that "in Iraq, the Christian middle class is emigrating in droves, fearful of the daily violence and the hostility it now encounters from Islamists," and throughout the Middle East, "says the Lebanese journalist Hazem Saghieh, 'being anti-Christian is a way of showing what a good Muslim you are'."

Whether or not there was any justification for invading Iraq in the first place (you probably know what side I come down on there), the outcome has only been to initiate the replacement of a one-man secular dictatorship with an equally repressive tyranny differing only in its religiousness, and, arguably, its thin veneer of democratic legitimacy. It's not a good thing.