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Saddam verdict further divides Shias and Sunnis
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Saddam verdict further divides Shias and Sunnis
Shia and Sunni Muslims in Uttar Pradesh - as perhaps in the rest of the country - stand divided on the death sentence awarded to ousted Iraqi president Saddam Hussein.
While leading Shia scholars and clerics see the verdict as divine retribution for a man who is accused of killing Shias when he ruled Iraq, their Sunni counterparts condemn Sunday’s ruling as an American design.
Protest demonstrations have been organised in a few cities of the state, which is the country’s most populous Muslim state. Around 30 million of the country’s estimated 140 million Muslims reside here.
Maulana Kalbe Sadiq, a Shia scholar and senior vice president of the All-India Muslim Personal Law Board, declared on Monday: “Saddam Hussein was responsible for the brutal massacre of hundreds of thousands of Shia Muslims in Iraq. Even a hundred death sentences would not be enough for him.”
Maulana Mirza Mohammad Athar, who heads the newly formed All-India Shia Personal Law Board, also came out in support of the Iraqi court verdict. “A tyrant must be punished for his tyranny,” he told journalists.
Asked if he was happy, Maulana Athar shot back: “This is not an issue over which one can be happy or unhappy. All I can say is that the man has met his nemesis, that’s all.” Sunni religious heads hold a diametrically opposite view and blamed it all on the US.
“It is not a court verdict; it simply demonstrates the high-handedness of the President George Bush who had personal scores to settle with Saddam Hussein,” Maulana Khalid Rasheed, the Naib Imam of Lucknow and head of Firangi Mahal, an internationally acclaimed Islamic institution here, said.
Maulana Rasheed pointed out: “After all, Bush’s repeated allegations that Saddam was secretly holding on to weapons of mass destruction turned out to be baseless and false.”
Nemesis</B>
All-India Muslim Personal Law Board legal adviser Zafaryab Jilani agreed with Maulana Rasheed. “This is not a judgement from an independent court. It is clearly a pre-determined dictat from Washington. We strongly oppose this,” he told reporters. “After all Saddam was targeted by the US simply because he refused to be their tool.” All India Muslim Women’s Law Board chief Shaista Ambar too denounced the death sentence.
“The whole exercise was a farce and carried out under US pressure. It is time the Indian government condemns the decision.” Ambar staged a symbolic protest demonstration before the Uttar Pradesh assembly here Monday.
An Iraqi court set up by the US Sunday sentenced Saddam Hussein to death for “crimes against humanity” along with his half brother Harzan al-Tikrit and former judge Awad al-Bander.
They were all accused of killing, torturing and deporting hundreds of people from a Shia town after a failed assassination attempt against Saddam Hussein in 1982.
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<B>Reactions around the world</B>
Saddam Hussein’s death sentence was celebrated by some as justice deserved or even divine, but denounced by others as a political ploy before critical US mid-term congressional elections. Worldwide, the range of reactions, including a European outcry over capital punishment and doubts about the fairness of the tribunal that ordered Saddam to hang, reflected new geopolitical fault lines drawn after the US decision to invade Iraq in 2003 and depose its dictator. India did not address whether it agreed with the verdict, but External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said in a statement he hopes the verdict “will not add to the suffering of the people of Iraq.” The European Union welcomed the verdict but said Saddam should not be put to death. At the Vatican, Cardinal Renato Martino, Pope Benedict XVI’s top prelate for justice issues, called the sentence a throwback to “eye for an eye” vengeance.
“This is not the way to present the new Iraq to the world, which is different from Saddam, who was behind hundreds of thousands of deaths as well as death penalty sentences,” said Hands Off Cain, an Italian organization working to rid the world of capital punishment. Islamic leaders warned that executing Saddam could inflame those who revile the US, undermining President George Bush’s policy in the Middle East and inspiring terrorists. “The hanging of Saddam Hussein will turn to hell for the Americans,” said Vitaya Wisethrat, a respected Muslim cleric in Thailand. “The Saddam case is not a Muslim problem but the problem of America and its domestic politics,” he said. “actually the American people will be in more danger with the death of Saddam.”
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