'Saddam has become a folklore'

Saddam Hussein may have been toppled from power in Iraq, but many Muslims in India still cheer and praise him as a hero for standing up against the "Western infidels".

Saddam Hussein may have been toppled from power in Iraq, but many Muslims in India still cheer and praise him as a hero for standing up against the "Western infidels".

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Sitting at a bookstall in the Muslim-dominated Okhla area of south Delhi, 65-year-old Karamat Ali, told IANS: "Saddam is our hero. He didn't bow to American might. Winning or losing (the war) is not important."

The feeling is almost the same in all Muslim neighbourhoods here. Hussein's posters could be seen everywhere -- in big shops, tea stalls and eateries, outside homes, public places and even electricity and telephone towers.

A group of youngsters gathered at Batla House -- a congested Muslim neighbourhood in south Delhi -- to protest the "US aggression" on Sunday evening. They hanged a 10-foot-tall effigy of US President George W Bush at a street corner and asked people to spit on it. A huge crowd gathered to do so, raising anti-US slogans. Such protests have become a regular feature.

Kashif Haq, a final year engineering student at Jamia Millia Islamia university, says: "I believe democracy should come everywhere. But my sympathy with Saddam Hussein is only because of the way the US is bullying the world. They are the killers of hundreds of thousands of people."

"I wish the Iraqi people continue their struggle and fight against any puppet regime if it is established there by the US in the name of democracy."

Black flags are hanging in front of many shops on the road leading to the historic Jama Masjid mosque in this city's old quarter. The flags symbolise protest against the US-led attack in Iraq.

Ishtiyaq Qureshi, a butcher whose shop is close to the Mughal-built mosque made of red sandstone, says: "Saddam Hussein has done a great job. He fought without any sophisticated arms and technology."

"Saddam has initiated a fight against American domination and this fight will continue at different levels around the world. People are protesting everywhere."

Says historian Rizwan Qaesar: "Saddam Hussein has gone down in the consciousness of Muslims across the world and become a folklore. It is more an anti-American feeling and due to Saddam's defiance of Western hegemony."

Adds New Delhi-based writer Andalib Akhtar: "The US attack on Iraq has been considered an aggression or invasion by the entire world, also by the Muslims."

"But because of a series of onslaughts on the community ever since the September 11 incident, Muslims have become very emotional when it comes to the US attacking a Muslim nation."