Shoe thrower still hero to Iraqi people

Iraqi journalist Muntadar al-Zaidi received a 3-year prison sentence on March 12 for hurling his shoes at George W. Bush in a courageous act of contempt that reverberated around the world. Al-Zaidi took aim at the imperialist leader as he stood with U.S.-puppet Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki at a Dec. 14 press conference held in the U.S.-fortified “Green Zone” in Baghdad. Al-Zaidi and his defiant act came to characterize the hatred felt by the Iraqi people toward the U.S. occupation forces.

Shoe monument in Tikrit, Iraq.

When al-Zaidi threw his shoes at Bush, he shouted, “This is your farewell kiss, you dog! This is from the widows, the orphans and all those who were killed in Iraq.” Shoes, especially the soles of shoes, symbolize an extreme insult and contempt in Arab culture. Al-Zaidi’s defense attorneys said he told them, “At that moment, I saw nothing but Bush, and I felt the blood of the innocents flowing under his feet while he was smiling that smile.” (Associated Press, March 12)

Al-Zaidi, a correspondent for a small Iraqi-owned television station based in Cairo, Egypt, has been in jail since the December incident. As news and video of al-Zaidi’s heroic action spread around the world, demonstrations for his release erupted in Baghdad, An Nasiriyah, Fallujah and Kirkuk in Iraq and Gaza City in occupied Palestine. Protests occurred in Pakistan, Turkey, Venezuela, Lebanon, India, Great Britain and elsewhere.

Throughout Iraq, al-Zaidi became a national hero and source of pride for standing up to U.S. imperialism and its bloody war of conquest and occupation. In the town of Tikrit, once a stronghold of Ba’athist forces, artists erected a mammoth statue of one of al-Zaidi’s shoes that cheered the population until the regime took it down.

During the court proceedings, the chief defense lawyer moved that the charges be dismissed, stating al-Zaidi’s act was “an expression of freedom” and not a crime. He told the court, “It was an act of throwing a shoe, not a rocket. It was meant as an insult to the occupation.” Al-Zaidi then entered a plea of not guilty.

“Long live Iraq!” shouted al-Zaidi as an Iraqi judge imposed the sentence. The journalist’s lawyers denounced the verdict and said they would appeal the sentence.

An ABC News/BBC/NHK poll released March 12 found that 62 percent of over 2,000 Iraqis surveyed considered al-Zaidi a hero. After six years of war and occupation that have left over 1 million Iraqis dead, hundreds of thousands wounded, 4 million as refugees and the country virtually destroyed, al-Zaidi has come to represent what almost all Iraqis from different and competing political factions can agree upon: U.S. imperialism’s war and occupation of their country must stop immediately so the Iraqi people can determine their own destiny.