Saddam's execution exposes double-standards of Muslim World

This year (2007), on the day of the Islamic Feast of Sacrifice - Eid al-Adha - the Fatah and the Hamas factions of the Palestinians fought each other, in which several people were killed. On the same day, 20 Muslim extremists were killed in Tunisia and the clashes in Bangladesh continued over election procedure. In Somalia violence between the party of Islamic Courts and the government forces claimed the life of many fighters. All of them were Muslims and they wrangled with each other in the name of Islam. Each of the disputant party had politicians and clerics, supporting either side, none of whom bothered to appeal for the cessation of killings as this was supposed to be a sacred day in the Islamic calendar. But as soon as the news of the execution of Saddam hit the news-wires, there was an upheaval in the Arab media and in the political circles. Overnight, one of the most brutal mass-murderer of the century was turned into a "martyr" and "hero of the Arab world". No stone remained unturned in the Arab media, especially, that run by the Pan Arab nationalists (racists), to protest against�the execution of Saddam on the day sacred to all Muslims. Even if he had been executed on some other day, those who had objected to his trial in the first place and had considered the court to be illegal under occupation, would have had a million excuses to react with dismay at his execution.

Under the full glare of history, Saddam neither respected the sanctity of human life nor the sanctity of any religion. He killed his own sons-in-law in the Islamic sacred month of Ramadan. He invaded Kuwait and caused misery to the entire nation on the sacred day of Ashura. He killed his victims and tortured political prisoners and their families, including women and children throughout the sacred months, sacred days and sacred nights, without any trials. Ironically, the same media, politicians and clerics raised no question about the sanctity of the sacred days, as if Saddam was above all sanctities. This explains that the media furore over his execution was politically and not religiously motivated. For centuries, the ruthless dictators accustomed at looting their own nations escaped justice with the conspiracy of the court-clerics (or Ulama al-Su' - the wicked clergy). One of the historic achievements of the present Iraqi government, like it or not, is to subject a tyrant like Saddam to the rule of law; to stand trial in an open court according to the Iraqi and not American jurisdiction, and to grant him a fair chance of being heard. This was the first time in history that, an absolute dictator in the Muslim world, had to face justice for his crimes against humanity, which neither he nor the dictators like him in the region, would have ever imagined. But the poor Muslim populace has been trained throughout history by the court-clerics to glorify the tyrants and autocrats. Such a mind-set cannot and will not be changed overnight.

When the leader of the military junta grabs power through the barrel of the gun, his first task is to wipe out any sign of opposition. This process, in the case of Saddam, continued since the Ba'th Arab Socialist party assumed power in Iraq 35 years ago. The figure of the dictator is then magnified as the "father of the nation", and this is how, the man in the street starts corrupting his mind with mental pictures that portray the tyrants as heroes. In the schools, the children are taught to sing hymns and hail the dictator as soon as his name is mentioned. The cinema-goers are expected to clap and shout praises when the dictator appears on the screen. There is a history of more than a thousand years behind this tragic process, in which the lackeys of the regime who stand to gain most by way of position and wealth, together with the officially controlled media, are the co-conspirators in corrupting the mind of ordinary people. In the main news-bulletins on the TVs, a good half-an-hour is often spent (or wasted) showing the officials and tribal leaders shaking hands and kissing the cheeks and rubbing the noses with the tyrant, with no commentary but only background music. This is happening in this twenty-first century - the century of enlightenment and awareness.

The execution of Saddam exposed with a stroke, the rotten mind-set which has manoeuvred the sentiments and emotions of the Muslim people for centuries and is directly responsible for the backwardness of this community. The autocrats had to sympathise with him because they see their own image on the gallows if their people become aware and conscious of the great theft of national resources committed by the ruling elites and the members of their tribe. The Palestinians are bound to mourn Saddam's execution because their suicide bombers were given a cheque of US$ 25000 for each suicide attack, not from his personal wealth, but from the wealth he had robbed from the treasury of his nation. The malice of the Pan Arab nationalists turned his execution into "Jihad" in order to vent their hatred against the Kurds in the North and the Shias in the South, who have emerged as the main contestants for power that was monopolised as God-given right of the minority for more than a thousand years. The radicals had to turn his execution into "martyrdom" because the only criterion through which the doors of heavens open for people like them is to emulate al-Qaeda and the Saddami terrorists. Among the Arab rulers, nobody could understand the position of Saddam more than Gaddafi, who is engaged in grooming his son as his heir-apparent, after 37-years of dictatorship, precisely as Saddam was planning to leave his Presidency for his sons.

The reaction of the Palestinians against the execution of Saddam was double-faced. The question they should have asked themselves before offending the feelings of millions of Iraqis whose lives he had�traumatised forever is, can they ever forget and forgive a number of massacres that they hold the Israelis of committing, including the Sabra and Shatila? If not, then they should have known that Saddam had carried out massacres and genocide a hundred times worse against his own citizens. At least, Sharon will take a credit that he never killed any Jew. But Saddam will be remembered as a butcher whose main victims were his own people.

In the aftermath of the execution of Saddam, history is being boldly distorted in broad day-light and the Arab world is pretending as if there was nothing called the campaign of Anfal - the genocide of the Kurds in Halabjah, and the massacres and mass-graves in the South. There is a consensus among the secular Arabs, the extremist Islamists and the Arab political leaders, who are turning a blind-eye towards crimes against humanity committed by Saddam, including the torture-chambers in Abu Ghuraib which continued throughout his reign. The racists are only interested in Abu Ghuraib to highlight the American excesses against the political prisoners. With this type of crippled sense of justice, no wonder the other day, a Saddami declared on al-Jazeera TV that his followers will perform Hajj (pilgrimage) to the burial site of Saddam, who is now the "Amir (leader) of the martyrs"!

In the wake of the execution of Barazan al-Takriti and Awad al-Bandar, both of whom were found guilty for crimes against humanity in an open trial which continued for more than a year, Tariq al-Hashemi, the Vice-President of Iraq said that their execution is a set-back for political reconciliation (reported by al-Jazeera on 15 Jan. 2007). The political reconciliation process announced by al-Maliki, the Prime Minister of Iraq was heavily qualified from the inception that it will never include the terrorists and the Saddamis whose hands are dipped in the blood of innocent Iraqi people. But the position that the Vice-President adopted was obviously motivated by the sectarian affiliation, and not by national interest. Otherwise, full documentary evidences were presented in the open court against the high profile ciminals like Barazan and Bandar. Hence, to link their execution with the political process was equivalent to making a mockery of the Iraqi court and the Iraqi laws.

  Conclusion : Saddam was no less than Yazid ( may Allah curse him )