Re: The name Saddam

["Yusuf B Gursey" <ybg@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

phoglund@xxxxxx wrote:
> Richard Fangnail wrote:
> > Why did people usually say "Saddam" instead of "Hussein"- was it just
> > so people wouldn't confuse him with King Hussein - and yet it seems
> > funny.
>

if Saddam wanted to be known as Husayn he would have been known so. but
Husayn is a very commmon name among both Shia and Sunni. Sadda:m is
rare and distinctive. his original surname was al-takri:ti: which he
dropped because it was clanish.


> I have heard that it is because the name "Hussein" holds strong
> religious connotations for his victims the Shi'ite Muslims. The
> Shi'ites celebrate the Ashura festival in the remembrance of the death
> of their greatest martyr, Imam Hussein, who was killed in the Battle of
> Karbala and who is a major symbol of the victims of religious
> persecution for the Shi'ites. Saddam was someone who persecuted and
> murdered Shi'ites, and it would have felt blasphemous to honor Saddam
> with the name of Hussein. For them the fact that the
> persecutor-in-chief of their co-religionists would have the same name
> as the very symbol of victimhood and righteous martyrdom probably was
> the ultimate insult.