Across Mideast, Arabs hail shoe-hurling journalist

[babylonsister]

Across Mideast, Arabs hail shoe-hurling journalist


A shoe is raised during a protest against the US President's visit in the Shiite stronghold of Sadr City in Baghdad, Iraq, Monday. Dec. 15, 2008. Iraqi journalist Muntadar al-Zeidi threw his shoes at President George W. Bush during a press conference in Baghdad on Sunday, while yelling in Arabic.(AP Photo/Karim Kadim)


By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA and OMAR SINAN
The Associated Press
Monday, December 15, 2008; 7:52 AM


BAGHDAD -- Thousands of Iraqis took to the streets Monday to demand the release of a reporter who threw his shoes at President George W. Bush, as Arabs across many parts of the Middle East hailed the journalist as a hero and praised his insult as a proper send-off to the unpopular U.S. president.

The protests came as suicide bombers and gunmen targeted Iraqi police, U.S.-allied Sunni guards and civilians in a series of attacks Monday that killed at least 17 people and wounded more than a dozen others, officials said.

Journalist Muntadhar al-Zeidi, who was kidnapped by militants last year, was being held by Iraqi security Monday and interrogated about whether anybody paid him to throw his shoes at Bush during a press conference the previous day in Baghdad, said an Iraqi official.

He was also being tested for alcohol and drugs, and his shoes were being held as evidence, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.

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.

Newspapers across the Arab world on Monday printed front-page photos of Bush ducking the flying shoes, and satellite TV stations repeatedly aired the incident, which provided fodder for jokes and was hailed by the president's many critics in the region.

more...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/15/AR2008121500161.html?hpid=topnews

[Dennis Donovan]

1. That's shoe business!

...ah, I got nothing.;):hi:

[babylonsister]

2. Hahahaha!

:hi:

Feel the love from the mideast? :eyes:

[bdamomma]

3. as an American I stand with the Arabs on this one

[malaise]

4. Iraqi shoe-throwing reporter becomes the talk of Iraq

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE4BE28Q20081215
<snip>
The Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at U.S. President George W. Bush in a supreme insult has suddenly become the talk of Iraq.

The little known Shi'ite reporter said to have harbored anger against Bush for the thousands of Iraqis who died after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, had previously made headlines only once, when he was briefly kidnapped by unknown gunmen in 2007.

TV reporter Muntazer al-Zaidi remained in detention on Monday, accused by the Iraqi government of a "barbaric act."

His employer, independent al-Baghdadiya television, demanded his release and demonstrators rallied for him in Sadr City in Baghdad, the southern Shi'ite stronghold of Basra and the holy city of Najaf, where some threw shoes at a U.S. convoy.

"Thanks be to God, Muntazer's act fills Iraqi hearts with pride," his brother, Udai al-Zaidi, told Reuters Television, demanding that the Iraqi government free him.
----------------
I'm betting it's the first time Iraqis had a good laugh. We sure did.
http://www.reuters.com/news/pictures/articleslideshow?articleId=USTRE4BE28Q20081215&channelName=newsOne#a=1

'SHOED'!!!

[MiniMe]

5. Shoe Fly Pie

mmmmm, pie

[Lint Head]

6. Looks like Bush is as well like as Saddam.

:dem:


Iraqi children use shoes to hit an effigy of executed dictator
Saddam Hussein in Baghdad January,01,2007.

[IDemo]

7. "his shoes were being held as evidence"

to undergo test-hurling at a police shoe range.

[BrklynLiberal]

8. I hope this saves him from being "vanished".

[Cults4Bush]

9. nm.

.