Region | Iraq
Shoe-throwing journalist a hero to some, a villain to others
Ten seconds of fame, and a total of 17 words uttered in anger against former US president George W. Bush were enough to make Iraqi journalist Muntadar Al Zaidi an international hero.
- By Sami Moubayed, Correspondent
- Published: 23:13 September 13, 2009
- Image Credit: AP
- Iraqi journalist Muntadar Al Zaidi throws a shoe at former US President George W. Bush. Al Zaidi was jailed for three years as a result, but is scheduled to be released today.
Damascus: Ten seconds of fame, and a total of 17 words uttered in anger against former US president George W. Bush were enough to make Iraqi journalist Muntadar Al Zaidi an international hero.
"This is your farewell kiss, you dog! This is for the widows and orphans of Iraq," he had said as he threw his shoes at the US head of state.
Al Zaidi has already been ranked third most powerful Arab of 2009 by Arabian Business Power, just behind Saudi Arabia's Prince Al Waleed Bin Talal and the UAE's Emaar Chairman Mohammad Al Abbar.
Al Zaidi is scheduled to be released today, after serving less than a year in prison. Al Zaidi, 30, was initially sentenced to three years in jail for assaulting a foreign head of state, but had that reduced to one year on appeal and will subsequently be released for "good behaviour".
Moqtada Al Sadr, Shiite cleric and a fellow resident of Sadr City who nevertheless has little admiration for Al Zaidi's communist background, could not help but praise the shoe-throwing incident and remark. "[Al] Zaidi was expressing his point of view about Bush in a democratic way," he said.
"The court should have adopted a more humane approach and released him!"
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Some Arab journalists were unimpressed by Al Zaidi's action. One journalist noted, "From now on, they will get thoroughly searched at press conferences, just like Arabs and Muslims were treated with disrespect at border checkpoints and airports after September 11."
Those who frowned at Al Zaidi's action claimed that he would not have dared to commit such an act of defiance had Saddam Hussain still been in power, using it as proof of how much "freedom of expression" is tolerated in post-2003 Iraq.
Others said Al Zaidi's action mirrored Arab weakness, claiming that while he was striking Bush with his shoes, the US president was signing the Security of Forces Agreement with Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki. The Arab world forgot about the essence of the agreement, remembering only the act of defiance, showing just how incapacitated the Arabs had become.
Most Arabs, however, prefer to see Al Zaidi as a hero, having brilliantly voiced Arab anger at the US occupation and at Bush. Today, the shoes are being auctioned off for a starting tag of $10 million (Dh36.7 million), while people are following the trail of the "golden shoes".
Today, a 3-metre high copper statue dedicated to him, depicting his famous size 10 shoe, stands in Hussain's hometown, Tikrit.
The infamous incident has sparked off similar acts of defiance worldwide. Canadians threw shoes at posters of Bush in front of the US consulate in Montreal and Toronto, while a reporter also threw a shoe at a Ukrainian politician. In February, a protester threw his shoe at Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, while a Sikh journalist did the same to an Indian minister in April.
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