Whose victim did Saddam become?

Nations that trace their lineage to Isaac, but no longer have the slightest connection to Isaac, harbor an unceasing malice toward the Ishmaelites. The tensions arising from this malice and hatred submerge the world in corruption.

Muslims do not consider themselves exclusively Ishmaelites. Muslims trace their genealogy to all prophets, making no distinction among them. However, the fact that Prophet Muhammad descends from Prophet Ishmael is considered paramount from the perspective of a tradition rooted in racism at its core. They view descending from Isaac, a prophet, as a sufficient reason to lord it over other people in this world. In particular, the selection of the children of a Black woman for humanity triggers a series of their complexes.

If a proper analysis of these complexes has not been conducted, this stems from Muslims being overly naive on this matter. Yet, these complexes play a far more central role in producing waves of violence in the world, shedding blood, and multiplying corruption than both the 'clash of civilizations' and what Marx attributed to 'class struggles.'

Some label the resulting spectacle of corruption a "clash of civilizations." Yet today, there are not multiple civilizations in the world distinguished from one another in any meaningful aspect. In its material dimension, a single civilization shapes the world, and at the root of all conflicts in the world lies nothing other than the insatiable ambitions of this civilization, its narrow-mindedness that refuses to accept the other people of the world as they are, its miserliness, and its arrogance. Even if there is a world associated with Islam today, it is far from being able to shape a civilization through its own unique ways. This world has long been a subaltern world within the dominant civilization.

The hasty timing of Saddam's execution to coincide with Eid al-Adha demonstrated that the coalition forces carried no good intentions whatsoever to get along with the Islamic world. Saddam was not someone who could represent Islam or Muslims in the eyes of any Muslim with even a modest knowledge of Islam. Moreover, he committed all his crimes primarily against Muslims, and therefore, he certainly needed to be tried. However, "representation" is a far more complex process than imagined. In very different contexts, you suddenly find yourself represented by an unexpected object, person, or event. Processes and contexts often spontaneously bestow their own meanings upon objects or persons. In the face of Saddam's execution with such timing and at the end of such a process, no self-aware Muslim, Arab, or Middle Easterner could have remained innocent of humiliation. Even the self-aware Shiites who placed the noose around his neck are not exempt from this humiliation.

If there had been even the slightest good intention on the part of the US regarding a dialogue of civilizations, such a "sacrifice" would not have been thrust like a dagger right into the middle of the holy days of both the Christian world and the Muslim world. The timing of the execution had no rational justification. Nor did it have any aspect that facilitated the visible plans of the coalition forces regarding Iraq. Only its symbolic meaning remains. But this symbolic meaning also harbors a multitude of other games within itself.

There were a series of cases for which Saddam should have been tried, and even if he deserved execution, perhaps the very last issue for which he deserved it was the crimes he committed against the Shiites 25 years ago. Furthermore, he committed the crime subject to the execution during the war with Iran, which was supported at all stages by the US. Executing him from this case while the trial process regarding Saddam's other charges was ongoing was a gesture aimed at absolving the US—which explicitly incited him to the 8-year war—from this crime. This gesture needs to be met by Shiites in general, and Iran in particular, with a counter-check that immediately renders it invalid. Otherwise, no ram will come to discipline the forces determined to routinely take sacrifices from the people of the region.

Let no one feel any consolation today by looking at the fact that the sacrifice was Saddam, the tyrant and despot they raised in their own folds.

Saddam was a special sacrifice presented to the gods of this civilization at a carefully chosen special time and place. Even the location and timing of this sacrifice were prepared through the shedding of the insignificant blood of millions of Ishmaelites.