MINA, 31 December 2006 — They either hated him or loved him, but almost everyone here in the tent city of Mina was outraged at the hanging of ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein on Eid Al-Adha. The hanging was viewed by most pilgrims as a corruption of the occasion.
Those who had been the victims of his brutality welcomed his hanging.
“Our prayers have been answered,” said one Kurd woman in excitement as she prepared to perform the stoning of the devil ritual at Haj. “I lost many loved ones during the Anfal campaign,” she said. “He deserved to die. Good for him. I am very happy.”
But there were many who were shocked that Saddam paid the ultimate price for taking an unflinching stand against the United States. While it was announced that the timing of the death was the decision of the Iraqi government alone, many pilgrims had their doubts. They believe that Saddam’s execution was done at a convenient time in regards to security for the coalition forces, whose diplomatic missions are closed worldwide for the New Year’s holiday.
“Would it be OK if the president of the United States were hanged on Dec. 25?” shouted Anmar Al-Khodair, an Iraqi pilgrim from Anbar. When it was pointed out to him that it was the Iraqi government not the US government that executed Saddam, his reply was: “This Iraqi government is a puppet government. It is the US that is responsible for security and all other aspects in Iraq. The Iraqi government is based in the US-protected Green Zone in Baghdad and the writ of the government is confined to the Green Zone in Iraq. Go ask anybody. He was, is and will remain our hero.”
But other Iraqi pilgrim, Reda Jaffer from Tabiyah area near Baghdad, said Saddam had wreaked havoc on Iraq during his authoritarian rule.
“He gassed his own people. He never appreciated differences of opinion. He ruled by fear,” said Jaffer. “All dictators should meet the same fate that Saddam did. However, he should not have been hanged on Eid Al-Adha. As a human being I can’t approve that. Never. Even ordinary criminals are not hanged or executed on Eid.”
For Palestinian pilgrims also, the hanging was reprehensible. Bassam Abu Zannat, a pilgrim from Palestine, asserted that by hanging Saddam on Eid Al-Adha, the US administration sent a wrong signal to the Muslim community. “They could have hanged him if they wanted to either one month before Eid or one month after Eid. But why spoil this occasion for everyone? Things will now get worse in Iraq and the Middle East. The Americans are frustrated and this decision reflects that they have lost their ability to think.”
“Saddam was convicted of killing tens of thousands of Iraqi people and hanged. What about the tens of thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians killed since the US and British forces occupied Iraq. Who should be hanged for those crimes?” asked Basyuni Abu Al-Futooh, an Egyptian pilgrim. “Hang Bush and Blair too. Let a similar kangaroo court try these leaders of the civilized world.”
Few pilgrims have access to television while at Mina. Most learned of Saddam’s execution from text messages they received on their mobile telephones. Tareq Al-Shammary, a young Saudi pilgrim, was furious ever since he got a text message from his brother. “After creating so much bloodshed, these Americans are still not happy. They have compounded our injuries by hanging Saddam on this particular day. They have tried to hit us where it hurts the most as a Muslim. But the struggle will continue. Baghdad has seen the worst in its history.”
It is not only Arab pilgrims who had the execution of Saddam in their thoughts, pilgrims from nations far removed from Iraq were worried about what effect the ousted president’s execution would have.
“Throughout his rule Saddam claimed to be a Baathist and a secularist,” said a female pilgrim from Nigeria. “We saw though that during his trial before the kangaroo court he repeatedly invoked verses from the Holy Qur’an. That was enough for us to know that he was a Muslim and the way he was treated should be of concern to all Muslims.”
One northern Indian pilgrim was very upset at the execution. Shakil Rahman, was sitting under the open skies at Muzdalifah when the SMS came from his relatives in India about Saddam’s hanging.
“I could never have imagined that word of his execution would come at that time. It was awful! What a terrible thing to have happen on Eid Al-Adha!” Rahman exclaimed. “I never thought he would be executed or hanged. His sentence could very well have been commuted to life in prison. After all, he was the president of Iraq and the civilized norms of the world dictate that one should be sympathetic to heads of state. After all, Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic was given a fair trail in The Hague. If this is the behavior of the new government of Iraq then this is the rule of the jungle.”
Eid Al-Adha is a day of rejoicing throughout the Muslim world. It is also the day of Udhiyah or sacrifice, one of the great rituals of Islam. The image of Saddam being led to the slaughter was abhorrent to the pilgrims. “He was sacrificed like a sheep,” said Manzar Muhammad Baloch, a pilgrim from Pakistan. “This is a warning to all the leaders in the Third World. If America so chooses, this will be your fate too.”
