An Eid Holiday Gift, the American Way

To compensate the American people for the scuttled victory in Iraq and the loss of 3,000 U.S. soldiers who have died in the Iraqi quagmire for the sake of oil and illusive ambitions toward global domination, President Bush presented the head of Saddam Hussein as a New Year’s gift to the American people.

Neither did Bush fail to present an Eid Al-Adha gift to the Muslim world: the first trial and execution of an Arab-Muslim president at the hand of invaders, however farcical it was. Since the removal of the trial’s first judge, the assassination of a number of defense attorneys and the resulting terrorization of the defense team and the dismissal of some of the trial’s witnesses, the proceedings were dismissed by human rights organizations around the world. The trial eve violated the Geneva Conventions by sentencing to death a prisoner of war [Saddam] for resisting occupation forces.

[Editor’s Note: Eid Al-Adha is the Festival of Sacrifice held on the last day of the Hajj, celebrating the willingness of Abraham [the first Jew] to sacrifice his son Ishmael when Allah asked him to. Saddam’s execution at dawn on that day has been taken as an insult by many Muslims, particularly Sunnis. For this reason, Egypt, along with Saudi Arabia and the rest of the nations on the western side of the Persian Gulf [Sunnis call it the Arab Gulf] were appalled at the timing of Saddam’s hanging, to say nothing of the way his sentence was carried out].

Bush’s gift, in particular, is directed toward those Iraqis who used the sins of Saddam Hussein to justify the denial of religious freedom, patriotism and freedom of movement during the occupation, and to justify the destruction of a once strong nation and the enslavement of its people, not to mention the killing of over 655,000 people, in bloodshed that adds insult to injury after such a disgraceful verdict.

The idea that Saddam Hussein’s crimes and sins justify this verdict is something that we do not accept. His execution in this manner and with such timing, which was incompatible with all international and humanitarian laws and which reflects an utter disregard for the feelings of millions of Arabs and Muslims, is a itself disgraceful crime, for which its perpetrators will be prosecuted with anger by history – and for many years to come.