symbolic insult

following on from yesterday's blurb on the shoe-throwing incident, here's an article i found...

Bush shoe-ing worst Arab insult

Around the Arab world, if you want to escalate a situation, by saying for example "I'm going to thump you", add the words "with a shoe" and you're adding serious insult to the threat of possible injury.

It's that cultural significance that has added real sting to the assault by an Iraqi journalist against US President George W Bush at a Baghdad news conference. In Arab culture it's considered rude even to display the sole of one's shoe to a fellow human being. Certainly, crossing one's legs ankle-on-knee style should never be done in a public place for fear of offending the person next to you.

The sensitivity is related to the fact shoes are considered ritually unclean in the Muslim faith. In addition to ritual ablutions before prayer, Muslims must take off their shoes to pray, and wearing shoes inside a mosque is forbidden. Shoes should either be left at the door of the mosque, or carried (preferably in the left hand with the soles pressed together).

But beyond the Islamic significance, the dirty and degrading implication of the sole of a shoe crosses all religious boundaries in the Middle East.

There has been plenty of droll reaction in the wake of Sunday's shoe attack to experts who have informed the public that "throwing a shoe at someone's face is considered an insult in Islam". But it is worth mentioning that there is quite a rich history when it comes to shoe-ing incidents involving Iraq and the Bushes.

The first was the floor mosaic at the front door to Baghdad's Rashid Hotel depicting the first President Bush. Its location meant visitors to the hotel - frequented by top Baath regime officials and visiting VIPs - had to step on George Bush Snr's likeness, in revenge for alleged "war crimes" committed during the 1991 liberation of Kuwait. The mosaic was reportedly dug up after the US military took over the hotel, following their overthrow of Saddam Hussein in 2003. In that year the Iraqi shoe was much in evidence during popular protests against the fallen Iraqi ruler, being used to hit the posters and statues dedicated to him around the country.

As anger over Washington's policies in the Middle East has grown in some Arab circles, it has been posters of George W Bush that have received the shoe treatment. His national security advisor and subsequent secretary of state has been given the particularly insulting first name Kundara - meaning shoe - instead of Condoleezza Rice.

Now history will record that Mr Bush's last presidential trip to Iraq, a country his government has left such an indelible mark upon, was greeted with a volley of shoes and cries of "dog" (another extreme insult in Arabic) from Iraqi cameraman Muntadar al-Zaidi.

Fortunately for Mr Bush, who leaves office in just over a month, he was able to duck out of the way of the two shoes Mr Zaidi threw at him - presumably the only weapon the assailant was able to smuggle through the tight security cordon at Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's office.

Many of Mr Bush's supporters will see it as a mean-spirited gesture against a man whose policies liberated the country from a vicious dictator. To illustrate the point, in a previous age, the perpetrator would be facing a summary, and probably agonising, death if he had dared confront Saddam Hussein's regime in such a way. Instead Mr Bush has been praised for his dignified response. But others have hailed Mr Zaidi as a hero, for striking a symbolic blow against someone they hold responsible for devastating wars in the Muslim world that have cost hundreds of thousands of lives.