Holy Day Execution: Stupidity or Spite
While few shed tears for the killing of Saddam Hussein - a ruthless dictator who was responsible for the death of scores of innocents - the wider symbolism of his execution on 10, Thul Hijjah, 1427 A. H. (Dec. 30, 2006) is sending blood boiling in the Arab and Moslem world.
Saddam was executed at 6am on the morning of Eid El-Adha, which is the holiest day of the Islamic calendar. It is a day for celebration and love. It is a day for sacrifice and giving. It is the day which represents the sacrifice that Abraham was willing to make of his son for God. It is a day in which all executions are stayed and amnesties are granted - because human beings are not to suffer or represent sacrifice on such a day!
Instead of his death being viewed as an act of justice for the many crimes he committed, the mother of all ironies is that executing Saddam on this day is placing him in the minds of many as the ultimate sacrificial lamb to the conquering Crusaders. It also flies in the face of the significance of the day itself as a day of forgiving, love and giving.
Does anyone think at all before such decisions are made????
Executing Saddam on this day out of the 365 options offered in a year is simply stupid, crude and insensitive to the sensibilities and morality of Moslems - at least one fifth of the world's population. If you add to that Europeans and others who view execution as barbaric, one can understand the disgust that is palpable the world over.
The gleeful Shias and other few on the streets of Iraq, Iran and Dearborn, Michigan have been assuaged by this act of mob vengeance, but the wider implications are anything but cathartic. (And while they celebrate - we should ask ourselves if such vengeance is worth the death of an additional near 1 million innocent Iraqis as a result of the US invasion and occupation! And as the families of the needlessly killed seek their own vengeance - the cycle of violence in the region has fuel for generations to come.)
I can't help but scratch my head in bewilderment. Why choose this day? If the US government was trying to offend the Moslem world - again - it couldn't have chosen a better way. If the Shia government of Iraq was trying to spit in the eye of the Sunni, it couldn't have chosen a better way. I can only think that even they are not that stupid. It must have been intentional and pure spite. Unfortunately, that is the way most people in the Arab and Moslem world are seeing it as well.... And that is hardly a way to quell the anger in the region - let alone diffuse the dangers of terrorism and ethnic violence.
Who benefits from this?
Saddam was executed at 6am on the morning of Eid El-Adha, which is the holiest day of the Islamic calendar. It is a day for celebration and love. It is a day for sacrifice and giving. It is the day which represents the sacrifice that Abraham was willing to make of his son for God. It is a day in which all executions are stayed and amnesties are granted - because human beings are not to suffer or represent sacrifice on such a day!
Instead of his death being viewed as an act of justice for the many crimes he committed, the mother of all ironies is that executing Saddam on this day is placing him in the minds of many as the ultimate sacrificial lamb to the conquering Crusaders. It also flies in the face of the significance of the day itself as a day of forgiving, love and giving.
Does anyone think at all before such decisions are made????
Executing Saddam on this day out of the 365 options offered in a year is simply stupid, crude and insensitive to the sensibilities and morality of Moslems - at least one fifth of the world's population. If you add to that Europeans and others who view execution as barbaric, one can understand the disgust that is palpable the world over.
The gleeful Shias and other few on the streets of Iraq, Iran and Dearborn, Michigan have been assuaged by this act of mob vengeance, but the wider implications are anything but cathartic. (And while they celebrate - we should ask ourselves if such vengeance is worth the death of an additional near 1 million innocent Iraqis as a result of the US invasion and occupation! And as the families of the needlessly killed seek their own vengeance - the cycle of violence in the region has fuel for generations to come.)
I can't help but scratch my head in bewilderment. Why choose this day? If the US government was trying to offend the Moslem world - again - it couldn't have chosen a better way. If the Shia government of Iraq was trying to spit in the eye of the Sunni, it couldn't have chosen a better way. I can only think that even they are not that stupid. It must have been intentional and pure spite. Unfortunately, that is the way most people in the Arab and Moslem world are seeing it as well.... And that is hardly a way to quell the anger in the region - let alone diffuse the dangers of terrorism and ethnic violence.
Who benefits from this?
posted by Dahlia at 4:05 AM
4 Comments:
"Death of scores of Innocents" ??
The monster slaughtered more Muslim women and children than Stalin did Russians.
100's of thousands in mass graves can find some solice in their surviving familys seeing a small justice imposed.
Last 25 years have shown most Muslim on Muslim death occurs during Holy Days and weeks.
John Burns' story at NYTimes.com notes that American officials tried to get the Iraqi gov't to reconsider the rush to judgment. It appears they didn't want the execution to happen on the day it did or in the way it did.
That being said, Americans essentially own Iraq & could have dictated any outcome they wanted regarding Saddam's execution.
So I think the faults regarding the execution are largely those of the Iraqi gov't. If you read Burn's coverage of the actual execution, it makes the gov't & all those representing it at the execution out to be thugs & ghouls.
But the faults involving the TRIAL (that it was neither free, fair nor credible) do involve the Americans. It was a sham affair for which we should be ashamed (though of course no one in this Administration is capable of that emotion).
Saddam's death was both too early and too late. He never faced his Kurdish opponents.
Holiday Greetings
I find it interesting he tried to become a martyr. I think the Iraqi government was concerned about security. Had he been there too long, in their custody, he may have been freed.
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