Page 226 - The Winter of Islam and the Spring to Come

THE WINTER OF ISLAM AND THE SPRING TO COME
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Saddam's Hypocritical Appeals to Religion
The most important feature of the mass hypnotism Saddam cast
over the people of Iraq is that he operated under a false religious mask.
Saddam always employed a religious style, aimed at the people, in his
domestic and foreign policies, and engaged in actions designed to pull
the wool over their eyes. That is why he sometimes resorted to portray-
ing himself as the defender of the Islamic world, and tried to take ad-
vantage of the people's religious sensitivities, as when the words
"Allahu Akbar" were added to the Iraqi flag during the Gulf War.
Looking at all the cruelty that is inflicted makes it quite clear that
this has nothing whatsoever to do with the religion of Islam or the val-
ues of the Qur'an. Allah reveals the situation of such people in a verse:
They swear by Allah that they are from among you while they are
not from among you... (Surat at-Tawba: 56)
Obviously, Saddam was nothing like a true Islamic leader. He was
a leading militant of the communist and Stalinist Baath Party. As a
member of the party he received military training based on Darwinism
and materialism. He adopted the social Darwinist Jamal Abdul Nasser
as a model and described himself as a socialist revolutionary. It is clear
that his actions are forbidden in the Qur'an, and strongly condemned.
For instance, racism played a prior role in Saddam's actions within the
country. Many innocent people were savagely slain, just because of
their ethnic origins. With the Halabja massacre, Saddam went down in
history as the murderer of 5,000 people. Like many other racist leaders,
Saddam claimed that his own ethnic roots were superior. In the Qur'an,
however, Allah makes it clear that superiority lies not in race, color or
any other such feature, but rather in godliness or closeness to Allah,
faith and morality. Racism, on the other hand, is described in these
words in the Qur'an:
Those who are disbelievers filled their hearts with fanatical rage –
the fanatical rage of the Time of Ignorance – and Allah sent down
serenity to His Messenger and to the believers, and bound them to
the expression of heedfulness which they had most right to and