Yesterday the International Heral Tribune reported:
At least 40 women have died this year at the hands of religious vigilantes in the southern city of Basra, the police chief said Sunday, describing the discovery of mutilated bodies accompanied by dire notes warning against “violating Islamic teachings.”
Maj. Gen. Jalil Khalaf blamed sectarian groups he said were trying to impose a strict interpretation of Islam by dispatching patrols of motorbikes or unlicensed cars with tinted windows. They accost women who are not wearing traditional dress and head scarves, he said.
“The women of Basra are being horrifically murdered and then dumped in the garbage with notes saying they were killed for un-Islamic behavior,” Khalaf told The Associated Press. He said men with Western clothes or haircuts are also attacked in this oil-rich city some 50 kilometers (30 miles) from the Iranian border and 550 kilometers (340 miles) southeast of Baghdad.
“Those who behind these atrocities are organized gangs who work under cover of religion, pretending to spread the instructions of Islam, but they are far from this religion,” Khalaf said. …
