Ayloush: Saddam Trial Illegitimate and Unjust

Hussam Ayloush, the Executive Director of CAIR-Southern California, bemoaned the lack of fairness in the Saddam Hussein trial and suggested his execution was part of a deliberate plan to foster Sunni-Shiite violence in this sermon at the beginning of 2006.

Ayloush: What I want to stress on is the recent execution or what I would call the ‘sectarian lynching' of Saddam Hussein. And it's important to look at it from the Muslims' perspective. Very few Muslims would debate and disagree that Saddam Hussein was a brutal dictator, like many other dictators all over the Muslim world today. So nothing, unfortunately, nothing very unique. And he was made to look like a monster. He was made to look like a monster as there was no other monster. He was made to look like there was no other monster but him. But let's look at how the process went by turning this issue into an issue to make sure that they sent a message to the Muslim world today. Look at the timing of the execution. It was done on Eid al Udha to send the message to Muslims that we have no respect for your religious holidays. Look at the manner it was done, in the most brutal, barbaric way that it was handled. If this is the message we're telling the world today, that this is the democracy we're pushing, it tells us today what is happening.

Even a criminal deserves to be treated with human rights, with human respect, as the Prophet tells us. And then alone that the process of the execution and the trial was not a legitimate process to begin with. And we have to be very honest and brave to say what is right and what we see as justice. This is not to cover up for what you know –the brutality. But this is to know exactly what has been done. The process itself, my dear brothers, for those who watched the execution (of Saddam), unfortunately, showed an attempt to create a major sectarian division among Muslims today. The chanting during the execution, chanting the name of one of the leaders whose hands are filled with blood of people of Iraq - the name of Muqtada Sadr - during the execution is not something that went randomly in my humble opinion. It was done again to make sure that the division among Muslims get deeper and deeper. The timing again as I said, the process by which, is all these are messages for us to learn. This was not a just trial and this was not a humane or legitimate process of execution. And the date is very specific - the first day of the Eid al Udha.

The message, my dear brothers and sisters in Islam, is an attempt to deepen the division among Muslims, to create a Muslim-wide war, literally a war between Sunnis and Shias. This is not a secret anymore.

Reader comments on this item

Oh how Mr. Ayloush can spin a story

Submitted by David, Jul 22, 2008 12:00

First of all, having heard Mr. Ayloush live on more than a few occasions, my hat is off to him since I have heard only a few Muslim speakers that can spin a story and blame it on everyone else except the Muslims as well as Mr. Ayloush.

Firstly, Saddam Hussein was tried by a Muslim court and hung by Muslim men. It appears he failed to mention that in his speech.

Secondly, sectarian violence within Islam has been around since the day Muhammad died. While it may be true that the Umayyad family and Muhammad descended from Abd Munaf via his son Hashim, it is also true that when Muhammad 'supposedly' appointed Abu Bakr the first caliph, the sectarian violence started between the Sunni and Shia and from what history has taught us, won't abate until either all the Shia are dead or the Sunni's are dead.

Thirdly, I'm still waiting for Mr. Ayloush to come out against the stonings, beheadings, slavery, rampant discrimination against all non Muslims, and the plethora of amputations throughout the Muslim world or even suggest that Islam/Muslims might have anything to do with the wholescale and systematic ethic and religious cleansings of the Christian population throughout the African countries controlled by Arab people financed by Saudi Arabia. Oh, perhaps that wouldn't be prudent; would it?

Comment on this item