BAGHDAD — Panic is spreading among young people in Iraq after reports by Iraqi media and rights groups that dozens of people have been threatened or killed in the past few weeks because they are suspected of being gay or because they dress in a distinctive, gothic style known as emo.

Lists threatening named people with death unless they change their attitude circulated anonymously late last week in Baghdad. Prominent clerics, as well as at least one police official, have condemned the emo — short for emotional — craze for its gloomy music and macabre look, which includes tight clothes and styled hair. The trend began in the 1980s in the West but has only recently become popular in the Arab world.