worldpolitics

This remarkable incident soon became the braking news in every news channels around the world. Even so within an hour or so it was posted on YouTube and several other websites.President Bush said that he wasn’t humiliated by the act of the Iraqi journalist, but it certainly shows the unpopularity of Mr. Bush in the world and in particular in the Middles East. The Iraqi journalist from Al-Baghdadiya Television, Muntadar al-Zaidi throw his one shoe and called Mr. Bush a “dog”.  Mr. Zaidi was among other journalists and reporters who were searched several times before entering the press conference. He was sitting just12 feet away from President Bush. Before throwing his second shoe, he said in Arabic “This is the end.  This is for the widows and orphans and all those killed in Iraq.”

Although Mr. Bush made a joke about it “all I can report is it is a size 10 shoe”, said President Bush.  But the incident wasn’t seen as a joke in many TV channels and websites. This was a remarkable event for a “brave man” who has been called a “hero” in many Middle East newspapers and TV channels. In Iraq itself there were protests for the journalist to be released.

According to Joseph Garrick from the United Kingdom he expressed his views on Aljazeera. “I am furious about the fact that the shoe thrower called Bush a dog. A dog is a noble beast that has served man bravely over a period of thousands of years. To call a lying mass murdering war criminal like Bush a dog is insulting to man’s best friend, the dog. To associate Bush the coward who dodged combat in Vietnam a dog is an insult to dogs”.

According to the Guardian the British newspaper, Mr. Zaidi was beaten so cruelly that he has suffered a broken hand, broken ribs, internal bleeding and an eye injury, his older brother, Dargham, told reporters. “He has since been handed over to the Iraqi judiciary, a step that normally heralds a criminal case.”  The Guardian reported that this kind of offence carries a maximum of two years in jail.

According to Jonathan Steele, a guardian journalist: “Muntadhar al-Zaidi will go down in Arab folklore as the man who dared to throw his shoes  at George Bush”, said,Mr. Steele. He added that Mr. Zaidi “will be a martyr as well as a hero in large sections of the Arab world, where commentators have been vying with superlatives to describe his action.” 

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