BAGHDAD — The Iraqi TV reporter who hurled his shoes at President George W. Bush was kidnapped once by militants and, separately, detained briefly by the U.S. military.
Over time, Muntadhar al-Zeidi, a 28-year-old Shiite, came to hate both the U.S. military occupation and Iran’s interference in Iraq, his family said Monday.
Al-Zeidi’s act of defiance Sunday transformed an obscure reporter from a minor TV station into a national hero to many Iraqis fed up with the nearly six-year U.S. presence here, but also fearful that their country will fall under Iran’s influence once the Americans leave.
Al-Zeidi was held Monday in Iraqi custody for investigation and could face charges of insulting a foreign leader and the Iraqi prime minister, who was standing next to Bush. Conviction carries a sentence of up to two years in prison or a small fine, although it’s unlikely he would face the maximum penalty.
Showing the sole of your shoe to someone in the Arab world is a sign of extreme disrespect, and throwing your shoes is even worse.
Bush was not hit or injured in the attack, and Iraqi security guards wrestled al-Zeidi to the ground immediately after he tossed his shoes. White House press secretary Dana Perino suffered an eye injury when she was hit in the face with a microphone during the melee.
Several thousand people in Iraqi cities marched to demand al-Zeidi’s release. The attack was the talk of the town in coffee shops, business offices and even schools.
A geography teacher at a Baghdad elementary school asked her students if they had seen the footage of the shoe-throwing. “All Iraqis should be proud of this Iraqi brave man, Muntadhar. History will remember him forever,” she said.
In Baghdad’s Shiite slum of Sadr City, thousands of supporters of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr burned American flags to protest against Bush and call for the release of al-Zeidi.
In Najaf, a Shiite holy city, some protesters threw their shoes at a passing American patrol. Witnesses said the American troops did not respond and continued on their patrol.
Al-Zeidi, who joined Al-Baghdadia television in September 2005, was seized by gunmen in 2007 while on an assignment in a Sunni district of north Baghdad. He was freed unharmed three days later after Iraqi television stations broadcast appeals for his release, his family said.
In January he was taken again, this time arrested by American soldiers who searched his apartment building, said his brother, Dhirgham. He was released the next day with an apology, the brother said.
“He hates the American physical occupation as much as he hates the Iranian moral occupation,” Dhirgham said, alluding to the influence of pro-Iranian Shiite clerics in political and social life. “As for Iran, he considers the regime to be the other side of the American coin.”
That’s a view widely held among Iraqis — including many Shiites — who believe the Americans and the Iranians have been fighting a proxy war in their country through Tehran’s alleged links to Shiite extremists.
Al-Zeidi may have also been motivated by what a colleague described as a boastful, showoff personality.
“He tried to raise topics to show that nobody is as smart as he is,” said Zanko Ahmed, a Kurdish journalist who attended a journalism training course with al-Zeidi in Lebanon.
“Regrettably, he didn’t learn anything from the course in Lebanon, where we were taught ethics of journalism and how to be detached and neutral,” Ahmed said.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
