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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Rascal who wrote (39449)	8/22/2002 1:07:48 PM
From: JohnM	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

I thought Saddam was not a supporter of the religious mission of AQ. I thought he thought them a threat to his own gov't and was one of the least Islamic in the ME. I don't really have a serious answer for that question, R. I work with the following bit of information but if anyone has better they should correct me. There are several members of the thread who know a great deal more The Iraqi Baathist Party came to power as a secular, nationalist party, as a part of Arab nationalism, not religious reform. As such their regimes, like all nationalist, fairly secular regimes in the Arab ME were, at best, not friendly places for the Islamists. But much has changed since then. I've seen credible reports that Saddam has gone religious much as our Presidents go religious or are religious--assume the public mantle regardless of their private sentiments. And he's done so for the obvious reasons. There are reasons to think he would have nothing to do with Al Q and reasons to think he would be a supporter from a deniable distance. The former because of religious antagonism--he is Sunni, the Islamists are Shiites (someone correct me here if I am wrong--still learning); because of power fears, the Islamists might foster a revolution among Shiites in the South, etc. The latter because of his, apparent, deep seated hatred of the US; because he might be able to assist them in some ways without leaving footprints, etc. So I'm keeping my mind open on this question. But, for the moment, I agree with the formulation that says he is not a "supporter of the religious mission of AQ," as you put it.