Weapons Required, Prayers Optional

Abu Nidal shot himself in the head in August in Baghdad, or perhaps he
didn't. As is often the case with people who campaign under noms de guerre,
details are murky. It's certain that history recognizes him as the first
modern terrorist, that he is considered the father of the Palestinian
struggle for sovereignty, that religion had nothing to do with his obsession.
He has even been described as a "secular fundamentalist."

Maybe he was drawn to Saddam Hussein's capital in the end because he shared
with the Iraqi dictator a closet full of the scalps of former friends.
They're also alike in needing no pretense of religion to justify their
murderous ways.

Saddam has been as pious as a cobra throughout his life. In recent days,
however, he has found a veneer of Islam useful. He has gone on a
mosque-building binge, including the Mother of all Wars Mosque in the suburbs
of the capital. It comes with an inventive explanation of Iraqi glory in its
war with Kuwait. Saddam has banned the sale of alcohol in restaurants
(though it continues in liquor stores), ordered endless hours of Quran
reading on state television and even dispatched a cleric on a hajj to Mecca in
the leader's name. Pilgrimage by proxy. Could it signal a trend?

As the rhetoric regarding holy war between East and West ratchets up, it's
worth pausing now and again to ponder how little religion figures into the
thinking of some of the key players.

Ed Fowler

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(c) 2003 Millennium Relief & Development Services, vol. 2 no. 31
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