Iraqi Sunni Arab fans of Saddam are in screaming protest mode over Saddam's execution:
Sunnis were not only outraged by Saddam's hurried execution, just four days after an appeals court upheld his conviction and sentence. Many were also incensed by the unruly scene in the execution chamber, captured on video, in which Saddam was taunted with chants of "Muqtada, Muqtada, Muqtada."
The chants referred to Muqtada al-Sadr, a firebrand Shiite cleric who runs one of Iraq's most violent religious militias. He is a major power behind the government of Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
Many Sunnis are also upset that Saddam was put to death the day that Sunni celebrations began for Eid al-Adha, a major Muslim festival. The judge who first presided over the case that resulted in Saddam's death sentence said the former dictator's execution at the start of Eid was illegal according to Iraqi law, and contradicted Islamic custom.
Yes, because Saddam was oh so concerned about Islamic practices when he slaughtered Shias from helicopter gunships or gassed Kurdish villagers or ran random people through plastic shredders or simply raped to terrorize. Yes indeed, Saddam always dotted the 'I's" and crossed the "T's" in high Islamic protocol when he killed. I'm sure each and every Shia in a mass grave was properly buried in accordance with Islamic custom. Saddam had a firm rule--never bulldoze on the eve of a major holiday.
As for the Westerners upset at the so-called barbarity of the execution, why don't we raise some questions about how Romanians put down the Coucescu family in 1989 and how the Italians strung up Mussolini by his heels from a lamp post in 1945.
Saddam was executed after a fair trial. Give the Shias a break if they are happy after what they endured for three decades from that monster.
