The Saudi Gazette,
Saudi Arabia
The Offensive Timing of Saddam's Hanging
“Supported by the Bush Administration, the breathtaking audacity and sheer disrespect of the Iraqi government in executing Saddam Hussein on Eid Al-Adha managed to insult the entire Muslim community in one fell swoop.”
EDITORIAL
December 31, 2006
Saudi Arabia - The Saudi Gazzette - Home Page (English) 
Supported
by the Bush Administration, the breathtaking audacity and sheer disrespect of
the Iraqi government in executing Saddam Hussein on Eid Al-Adha managed to
insult the entire Muslim community in one fell swoop.
Like a
sacrificial lamb, Iraq executed Hussein at the time of Fajr (morning) prayers
after he was convicted of crimes against humanity.
An
execution at the start of Eid is highly symbolic. The feast commemorates the
sacrifice that the Prophet Abraham [the first Jew] was prepared to make - the slaughter
of his son -at God's command. While many Iraqis might regard Saddam's death as
a gift from God, such symbolism will only further inflame most of the rest of
the Muslim World.
Afghan
President Hamid Karzai spoke for millions of Muslims when he heard of the
execution. “We wish to say that Eid is a day of happiness and reconciliation.
It is not a day for revenge,'' Karzai told reporters at the presidential palace
after offering Eid prayers at Kabul's main mosque.
A pilgrim
performing Haj in Makkah expressed the emotions of many Muslims. “His execution
on the day of Eid ... is an insult to all Muslims,” said Jordanian pilgrim
Nidal Mohammad Salah.
The logic
of executing Hussein on the Eid day defies explanation. Whatever his sins - and
they were many - Saddam Hussein was, to many Arabs, a courageous fighter who
stood up to the U.S. government. And to execute a Muslim on Eid when another
week's delay would have made no difference makes no sense.
We won't
debate the merits of the case against Hussein or whether he deserved to die for
his crimes. But surely the Iraqi and American governments were well aware of
the message they were sending when they decided that the former Iraq leader
should die on this day.
The
consequences of this insult are still unclear. Violence in Iraq is so
unpredictable that it's impossible to forecast the implications.
What we
have, though, in this lawless country, are leaders that are so dysfunctional
and so beholden to their nation's occupiers, that they failed to recognize the
insult that they hurled on their own religion.
[NEWSWIRE PHOTOS: Saddam Hussein].
