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[Al Jazeera] News Middle East Iraq bans visits to Saddam's grave

Discussion in 'BBS Hangout: Debate & Discussion' started by Air Langhi, Jul 7, 2009.

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  1. Air Langhi

    Air Langhi Contributing Member

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    http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/07/200976162830871835.html

    Iraq bans visits to Saddam's grave
    Supporters of the executed Iraqi leader regularly visit his grave in his hometown near Tikrit [AFP]

    The Iraqi government has banned all organised visits to the grave of Saddam Hussein, the country's former leader who was executed in 2006.

    The government issued the order on Monday after some schools began arranging trips for their pupils to visit the site in Saddam's native village of Al-Awja, outside the northern town of Tikrit, a government statement said.

    "The cabinet secretariat has sent instructions to the education ministry and to Salaheddin province and its provincial council banning the organisation of visits to the tomb of the president of the former regime," the statement said.

    Commemorations

    Thousands of Saddam's Sunni Arab supporters regularly visit the site to commemorate the former leader with poems and songs of praise.

    Many also visit to mark the anniversaries of his birth and death.

    Buried alongside him are his two sons Uday and Qusay, who were killed in a US attack in the northern city of Mosul in July 2003.

    Born poor in what was then a mud-hut village on April 28, 1937, Saddam rose to Iraq's highest office, attaining a wealthy lifestyle.

    He was hanged on December 30, 2006, after an Iraqi court found him guilty of "crimes against humanity" for ordering the execution of 148 Shia Muslims.

    The executions followed an assassination attempt against him in 1982 in Dujail, north of the capital, Baghdad.






    We spend billions to put democracy and freedom in Iraq and they themselves try to limit freedom.
     
    #1 Air Langhi, Jul 7, 2009
  2. JuanValdez

    JuanValdez Contributing Member

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    I don't think it's too bad an idea. It reminds me of European laws banning Nazism.
     
    #2 JuanValdez, Jul 7, 2009
  3. DaDakota

    DaDakota If you want to know, just ask!
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    Banning is always a bad idea....teach the children......show them his grave and explain what happened to him, and why.

    DD
     
    #3 DaDakota, Jul 7, 2009
  4. yo

    yo Contributing Member

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    Tell us 'why' then. I promise you many many many people will disagree.
     
    #4 yo, Jul 7, 2009
  5. Air Langhi

    Air Langhi Contributing Member

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    Let me quote president Andrew Sheppard aka Gordon Gekko:

    America isn't easy. America is advanced citizenship. You've gotta want it bad, 'cause it's gonna put up a fight. It's gonna say, "You want free speech? Let's see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil, who's standing center stage and advocating at the top of his lungs that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours." You want to claim this land as the land of the free? Then the symbol of your country cannot just be a flag. The symbol also has to be one of its citizens exercising his right to burn that flag in protest. Now show me that, defend that, celebrate that in your classrooms.
     
    #5 Air Langhi, Jul 7, 2009
  6. Ari

    Ari Member

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    No question he is still idolized by many Iraqis, especially Sunnis. This is no different than the millions of Russians who still idolize Stalin and consider him in many ways a positive and necessary force in building a powerful Russian empire.

    For all of Saddam's evils, he was also the guy mostly responsible for building a modern, secular Iraqi state and bringing his country into the 20th century. He gave women equal rights and championed their education and advancement in society, and built a country with one of the best literacy rates in the world, and the best in the Middle East.

    It still baffles me as to why the U.S. would bring down a secular leader in favor of a weak and chaotic democracy run by a religious bloc :confused: I can understand opposing the Iranian government, but our policies in the past simply served to weaken the forces of secularism in the region, which to me are FAR more important than championing democracy.

    Sheer incompetence is the only explanation really. Some times America can be its own worst enemy.
     
    #6 Ari, Jul 7, 2009
  7. Ari

    Ari Member

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    That is silly. There is absolutely no comparison between the two. It is more like banning visits to Mao's or Stalin's graves. It is pointless and will only serve to piss off a segment of the population that we finally got on our side in the fight to stabilize Iraq.

    Saddam is not an ideology akin to Nazism, that is a strange parallel.
     
    #7 Ari, Jul 7, 2009
  8. DaDakota

    DaDakota If you want to know, just ask!
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    The guy was a dictator and despot, who stole from his own country and murdered his own people.

    He was Iraq's version of Adolf Hitler.

    DD
     
    #8 DaDakota, Jul 7, 2009
  9. vlaurelio

    vlaurelio Contributing Member

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    you are being too nice to hitler
     
    #9 vlaurelio, Jul 7, 2009
  10. JuanValdez

    JuanValdez Contributing Member

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    I don't know if you're agreeing with me or objecting. "Advanced citizenship" is probably too ambitious for Iraq at the moment.


    Unfortunately, the schools organizing trips to his grave are probably not telling the children that Saddam was a dictator and a despot nor that he stole and murdered.
     
    #10 JuanValdez, Jul 7, 2009
  11. DaDakota

    DaDakota If you want to know, just ask!
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    Put up an information plaque at his grave, describing him as such.

    DD
     
    #11 DaDakota, Jul 7, 2009
  12. Mathloom

    Mathloom Shameless Optimist
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    Oh the irony. Yay for forced democracy!
     
    #12 Mathloom, Jul 8, 2009
  13. JuanValdez

    JuanValdez Contributing Member

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    Oh, there you go! Problem solved.
     
    #13 JuanValdez, Jul 8, 2009
  14. Ottomaton

    Ottomaton Contributing Member
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    At Nuremburg, the defendants were cremated in secret and their ashes were dumped in a random muddy ditch somewhere, precicely because such veneration was anticipated.
     
    #14 Ottomaton, Jul 8, 2009
  15. Rocket River

    Rocket River Member

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    I wonder how many of the 'Founding Father's ' have plaques describing them as racist slave owners etc.

    You are attempting to sway people to YOUR WAY of thinking
    regardless of what they want.
    You can only present the information and let them decide for themselves
    it is what freedom is all about . . .

    Rocket River
     
    #15 Rocket River, Jul 8, 2009
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