Thai Muslims naming babies Saddam in protest over US invasion
Friday December 19, 4:02 PM
sg.news.yahoo.com
Muslims in southern Thailand are naming their new-born babies Saddam in protest over the United States' invasion of Iraq and in support of its ousted president, according to a community leader.
"We admired Saddam because he was brave enough to fight the world's only superpower and we believe that the war was unjustified," said Rawsedee Lertariyapongkul, chairman of the Muslim Youth Association of Thailand.
Newspaper reports from the Muslim-majority southern provinces bordering Malaysia said many babies were being given the name of the captured former leader, but exact figures were still being prepared.
Rawsedee said he expected many more parents would honour Saddam by bestowing his name on their sons, even though they often knew little about his history or even that he had now been captured by US soldiers.
"We don't care about his past. At least in the last decade we have not heard of him doing anything really bad. And all the serious allegations against him only came from the United States side," he told AFP.
The Bangkok Post quoted 36-year-old Navi Tohyor of Narathiwat province as saying that he and his wife had called their baby son Saddam out of admiration for the former Iraq leader.
"What Mr. Saddam did is right and legitimate. He stood up against the US, the foreign invader," Navi told the daily.
"He's a fighter, not a bandit. I'm proud to name my son after him."
Thailand is a predominantly Buddhist nation but five percent of its population is Muslim, and most live in the five southernmost provinces.
Thai Muslims also seized on the name "Osama" after the September 2001 attacks on Washington and New York allegedly carried out by Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda terrorist network.
Despite the phenomenon, Thai Muslims are relatively well integrated into the general population and while sectarian violence flares occasionally, relations with Buddhists are generally peaceful.
In Iraq meanwhile, public records show that while in past years many new-borns were named after the former Iraqi dictator, since the fall of Baghdad parents were opting instead for the names of religious leaders. |
