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bismi-lLahi-rRahmani-rRahiem
In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful
=== News Update ===
SADDAM'S EXECUTION : Hanging will haunt Bush
January 04, 2007
Haroon Siddiqui
HYDERABAD - I am taken aback by the reaction in India to Saddam Hussein's
hanging. The anger cuts across religious and political divides.
This secular nation of 1.2 billion the world's largest democracy and
emerging economic powerhouse has as many Muslims as Muslim Pakistan, at
about 145 million. But its majority is Hindu and it has significant pockets
of Christians, Sikhs, Zoroastrians and others. Yet the condemnation has
been near universal.
More tellingly, there has been little or no echo here of the Iraqi
sectarian divide, with the Shiites there celebrating Sunni Saddam's death.
There is even criticism, from both the right and the left, of the Indian
government's muted response to the execution, New Delhi's stance dictated
by the increasingly close relations with the U.S., exemplified by the
controversial nuclear co-operation agreement.
If India is a key barometer of the non-Western world, and it often is,
Saddam's hanging will come to haunt George W. Bush.
Far from being "an important milestone in Iraq becoming a democracy," as he
so brazenly put it, the hanging is widely seen as an occupying power's
jungle justice against a tyrant whose worst crimes were committed when he
was an American ally but who was condemned only after he went against his
benefactors.
He was responsible for killing 1 million Iranians in the 1980-'88 war and
murdering and gassing tens of thousands of his own Shiite and Kurdish
populations war crimes whose details, and with them the West's
complicity, went to the grave with him.
The lesson, said an editorial in the Deccan Chronicle, the regional English
daily, is that "the U.S. will not tolerate leaders who do not follow its
diktat."
The hanging has been the topic of conversation in both the public and
private spheres. You can't escape it in any gathering.
The reaction is all the more remarkable given that, unlike in Europe and
Canada, the death penalty is even more acceptable in these parts than in
the United States. Muslims, in particular, have historically seen it as the
price for maintaining law and order.
Burning Bush in effigy, Muslim crowds in several cities have been blaming
him for the timing of the hanging, on the day of Eid al-adha, the festival
that coincides with the end of the annual Haj pilgrimage and which
symbolizes forgiveness and reconciliation. The media here have carried the
quote of a pilgrim in Saudi Arabia: "Would it be okay if the president of
the United States were to be hanged on Christmas Day?"
Protestors noted with admiration that, notwithstanding the secularist
Saddam's frequent and brutal persecution of religious activities, he held
up a copy of the Qur'an on the way to the gallows and had on his lips the
kalima "God is great," the first testament of Muslim faith, which the
believers are also enjoined to repeat just before death.
An oft-stated sentiment has been that the wrong man has been hanged, given
the tens of thousands killed under Bush's invasion and occupation of Iraq.
Muslims and non-Muslims alike have spoken well of what they saw as Saddam's
dignified departure amid the mayhem in the hanging chamber, as captured on
videos.
His composure and defiance in refusing a hood have been hailed as signs of
personal courage. By contrast, his American and Iraqi captors and executors
have been characterized as cowards. Noting his 3 a.m. burial, away from
public spotlight, Siyasat, a secular Urdu language daily here, headlined:
"Now they are afraid of his grave."
Saddam's sloganeering also hit the right note for many Indians. The message
in his last letter ("Struggle on against the invaders," and "Long live Iraq
... Long live Palestine") and his last words on the gallows ("The nation
will be victorious and Palestine is Arab") have found resonance among a
people long supportive of Palestinian rights and vehemently opposed to the
occupation of Iraq.
The letters to the editor columns have captured these sentiments well, as
the following four by non-Muslims show.
"Saddam was fit to go down in history as a tyrant. Now he has been elevated
to the status of a martyr by an impatient America," wrote Rajneesh Tiwari
in the Hindu, the much respected English-language secular daily in south India.
"Although there were few sympathizers for Saddam, his execution will only
increase hatred for America and other Western nations," wrote Aditya
Deshpande in the same newspaper.
"It is because of American policies that terrorism is increasing in the
world," wrote Dr. Chandra Sekhar.
"The Bush administration has destroyed an ancient civilization and its
ruler. If Saddam deserved the death penalty for ordering the killing of 148
Shiites, what ought to be the penalty for Mr. Bush for the deaths of
600,000 Iraqis?" asked Ram Das.
When you think about it, the overall Indian response is perhaps not that
different than the sentiment of Canadians in this regard. By this I do not
mean the views of our political class and many in the media establishment,
which remain under the spell of the American spin, but rather those of
ordinary Canadians.
Haroon Siddiqui is the Star's editorial page editor emeritus.
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
source:
http://www.thestar.com/article/167592
===
-muslim voice-
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BECAUSE YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO KNOW
