Saddam's Execution Heightens Sectarian Tensions
Saddam Executed, originally uploaded by Sabbaa7i in Dubai
So Saddam is dead. Nice job, since even in death Saddam heightens sectarian violence:
The tribunal...had a unique sense of timing when choosing the day for Saddam's hanging. It was a slap in the face to Sunni Arabs. This weekend marks Eid al-Adha, the Holy Day of Sacrifice, on which Muslims commemorate the willingness of Abraham to sacrifice his son for God. Shiites celebrate it Sunday. Sunnis celebrate it Saturday -- and Iraqi law forbids executing the condemned on a major holiday. Hanging Saddam on Saturday was perceived by Sunni Arabs as the act of a Shiite government that had accepted the Shiite ritual calendar.
The timing also allowed Saddam, in his farewell address to Iraq, to pose as a "sacrifice" for his nation, an explicit reference to Eid al-Adha. The tribunal had given the old secular nationalist the chance to use religious language to play on the sympathies of the whole Iraqi public.
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This is the permanent home of Saddam's Execution Heightens Sectarian Tensions. I wrote this post at 12:30 on December 30, 2006. This post is part of grubbykid.com, a weblog. If you liked this entry, why don't you read some other posts such as My Year in Music, 2006 or Goodbye 2006? Or you could go to the site archives or return home. All are good choices.
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Some descriptive tags for this entry are: Iraq, religion, Saddam, Shiite, Sunni, war.
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