observer
 ONLINE


OTHER PUBLICATIONS


OTHER LINKS

Marriage Proposals
Classified
Government Gazette

Should he hang?



Saddam Hussein - AP

Capital punishment is an established fact in most Arab societies and, in the case of Saddam Hussein, it is preferable to the alternatives.

Analysis in the international media of the likely consequences of the execution of Saddam Hussein has missed some of the points that relate to the regional culture and background. Even those who oppose capital punishment on principle, no matter where, need to consider them in relation both to execution and to the alternatives: imprisonment and/or exile.

Many of the factors that influence opinion in Britain, America and elsewhere also influence Arab opinion. An example is the concept of "victors' justice", which is reinforced by the awareness of military occupation, which most Arab countries historically have experienced, and which has left scars.

How could a trial by the foreign occupation be fair? But capital punishment is an established fact in all or virtually all Arab societies, and is not in itself controversial. It is recognised in Islamic law, and it is deeply rooted in tribal culture - and even though many or most Arabs today live largely outside tribal structures, they remain influenced by them.

A look at reports in the Arab media of reactions to the verdict on Saddam will explain what I mean. There is rejoicing at the verdict in some predictable quarters - Kurds, Kuwaitis, Iraqi Shias. There is a negative reaction in equally predictable quarters, compounded by the deep-rooted Arab tendency to look for complicated explanations of the simplest facts.

So Sunnis - including, for example, Palestinians who saw him as a champion, but especially Iraqi Sunnis and most of all people from Saddam's home town and tribal area - grasp at any explanation for the verdict other than the obvious one.

These range from procedural objections to the trial itself, the same objections that are voiced in the west, to conspiracy theories linking it, for example, to the American elections. But this negative reaction is not a reaction against capital punishment as such. It is a reaction from those who might feel that Saddam was certainly a son of a bitch, but was to some extent at least our son of a bitch.

The concept that Saddam's execution might turn him into a martyr, a rallying point for those who agreed with him, is not particularly convincing in terms of the regional culture.

Nor is it quantitively very significant, because as a leading Saudi newspaper commented yesterday the Ba'ath party adherents who still support Saddam are the smallest of the three broad groups causing violence in Iraq, much less significant than those whose motive is to fight the occupying power and those who are fighting each other, Sunni against Shia.

There is of course a cult of martyrs in Shia Islam, but these are perceived as religious leaders who died for the Shia faith. Clearly Saddam is not in that category. In Sunni Islam and more widely, martyr is the usual term for someone killed fighting for Islam, or by extension for the Arab nation. Not many people will see him in that light either.

At its most basic, the tribal imperative is the demand that blood should be paid for with blood. Many Iraqis including many Sunnis might have been willing to take Saddam's life themselves in revenge.

Some will see his execution, if he is executed, as satisfying the call for blood. But the saying goes "myself against my brother, my brother and I against my cousin, my cousin and I against the stranger".

To see one's brother or cousin killed by the stranger, however much he may have deserved it, is hard to swallow.

On the other hand, if his life is spared by the authorities he will not necessarily be safe from the relatives of those he slaughtered. And it would not be surprising if some of them, unable to reach Saddam himself, took revenge on members of his family or tribe.

I myself am opposed to capital punishment in the circumstances of present day Europe or America, but my opposition is not one of universal principle.

For non-fundamentalists like me, the case for or against depends in part at least on the expected results. No one can be sure, but my own judgment is that in this particular instance the results of carrying out capital punishment will probably be preferable to those of not carrying it out.

www.guardian.co.uk

EMAIL |   PRINTABLE VIEW | FEEDBACK

Gamin Gamata - Presidential Community & Welfare Service
www.srilankaapartments.com
Sri Lanka
TENDER NOTICE - WEB OFFSET NEWSPRINT - ANCL
www.srilankans.com
www.peaceinsrilanka.org
www.army.lk
www.news.lk
www.defence.lk
www.helpheroes.lk/
 

| News | Editorial | Financial | Features | Political | Security | Spectrum | Impact | Sports | World | Magazine | Junior | Letters | Obituaries |

 
 

Produced by Lake House Copyright � 2006 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.

Comments and suggestions to : Web Editor