Saddam to sue over prison photos

[ayoub_ibrahim]

Saddam Hussein plans to take legal action after a British newspaper published photos of him half-naked in his prison cell and doing his washing.
"We will sue the newspaper and everyone who helped in showing these pictures," said Saddam Hussein's chief lawyer Ziad Al-Khasawneh, speaking from Jordan.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4567341.stm

[Brian Ellis]

This is a breach of common decency, as well as the Geneva Convention. The person who took these photos, his superiors to the highest level and the editor of the Sun (a low tabloid) should appear before the International Court of Human Rights. There is no excuse for it. I am particularly uptight about it because I am aware of the Muslim feelings towards modesty and this is very insulting to the Muslim mind. It is no excuse that SH may have committed the most heinous of crimes: he is still an innocent man as a recognised court of law has not yet found him guilty.

[schmosef]

Why is it that our Muslim brethren never seem to take our feelings into consideration?

[KvHagedorn]

The point here is not Saddam. He can burn in hell forever and I wouldn't give a damn if he were seen by all of Islam impaled on a stick naked over Baghdad. The point is US. OUR culture has no control over the lowest of the low-minded tabloid publishers to instill some standard of common decency into their puny, greedy little souls.

By the way, if Genghis Khan had captured Saddam, his dead mutilated body would have been paraded through every town in Iraq, so let's get a grip. This little episode does not serve to instill fear and respect like that would have been meant to do, however.. it simply confirms to the Muslim world what lowbrow manners we have. It's embarrasing.

[Jon P. Inghram]

Why is it that our Muslim brethren never seem to take our feelings into consideration?

Shhh, don't make waves...

[ZokesPro]

I think that Saddam SHOULD sue, cause really, who wants to see Saddam in his undies anyways??

[schmosef]

Hey KvH, it's only embarrassing from a LIBERAL perspective. Their culture is different than ours. They don't judge us by the same standards that we judge ourselves. True, by our own standards, publishing such photos demeans us as much as it does Saddam, but the message our enemies get is: a) America was able to humble a man that they themselves were not (they don't like being reminded of that); and b) this is an opportunity to use American values against America.

Where was the Islamic outcry against the filming of Daniel Pearl's assassination? Where was the Islamic outcry against the filming of the assassination of so many international foreign workers in Iraq? These war crimes are being done in the name of Islam and “moderate” muslims everywhere should be rioting over the perversion of their “peaceful” religion.

Take the koran in the toilet balagan. I know of so many instances of Islamic disrespect for other faiths that my mind boggles at the idea of listing just a few. I'm not talking about breakaway clerics here. I'm talking about mainstream Islam being preached in the middle east. Go visit Memritv.org for just a taste, if you dare.

The point I'm making here is that yes, it was wrong to publish photos of Saddam, but let's keep some perspective. We don't need to bend over backwards to appease the Islamists because what really offends them is our very existence. Our very ability to live and prosper is in direct contradiction to the teachings of the Islam and that offends them.

[Brian Ellis]

Why is it that our Muslim brethren never seem to take our feelings into consideration?

I have a number of practising Muslim friends from countries such as Tunisia, Egypt, Turkey, India and Malaysia. I would say that every one of them is far more sensitive to my feelings than I am to theirs. I have discussed politics with some of them and they all condemn extremism and violence of all forms, just as we do. Believe me, I've travelled extensively in all the cited countries and some others and never once did I feel unwelcome because I was an "infidel", even when visiting mosques (where permitted). In Brunei, which is possibly the most "puritan" of the Muslim countries I visited, I was even invited to attend a short prayers session by an Imam (even though I understood not a word!).

One could say "Why is it that our Protestant brethren never seem to take the feelings of the Catholics in Northern Ireland into consideration?" or "Why is it that our American brethren never seem to take European feelings into consideration?" or "Why is it that our Northern Cypriot brethren never seem to take Southern Cypriot feelings into consideration?" or vice versa in all cases. It takes two to tango in all racial conflicts.

Naturally, I condemn extremism in all forms. I come from a minority group (Scottish Presbyterian) in the UK and, when I was a student, I was very sympathetic to Scottish Nationalist causes, although I never joined the Party. When some SNs stole the Stone of Scone from Westminster Abbey, we thought it was great but, even in my youth, I distanced myself from them when they started to blow up electricity pylons on the Scotland-England border (Scotland was an exporter of both hydroelectricity and coal-fired electricity).

I respectfully suggest that your own ethnicity may be colouring your thinking, just as mine did when I was a student and Anglophobe. IMHO, it is stupid to label people because of their ethnic origin, the colour of their skin, their religion. If you have 1½ billion people in any group, you are sure to find a few hotheads amongst them. Even if they number 100,000 extremists, this represents only 0.0067% of their population. I respectfully suggest that you find much higher proportions amongst the Basques in Spain, the Corsicans in France, the Protestants in N. Ireland etc. In the wisdom of my years, I believe the greatest answer is "if we leave you alone to mind your own business as you see fit, I'm sure you will leave us alone to mind ours". If you take any conflict area in the world, the response to hotheads has always been armed suppression and no one ever wins. An ear to listen would be a far better weapon to resolve differences. The 99.9933% of Muslims would prefer this, I'm sure.

[schmosef]

Brian, I'd love to continue this discussion but I fear that you'll abandon it when it inevitably ends up in the temp forum. Would you be willing to follow this thread there or would I be wasting my time by giving you a proper response here?

[Brian Ellis]

Try it here. I won't go to Temp!

[Umfriend]

If the response is proper, why would it end up in Temp? Just don't let any warmonger get in the way.

[KvHagedorn]

Naturally, I condemn extremism in all forms.

Yet this in itself is extremism.

[Brian Ellis]

Sorry, that's a stupid platitude.

[KvHagedorn]

No.. it's teasing.. now put down that pen before someone gets hurt.

[ZokesPro]

Follow-up!


The Sun Says Saddam does not Deserve to be Pitied