Exclusive: Iraqi National Security Adviser Mowaffak Al-Rubaie responds to right wing and media misquotes... [VIDEO]

Posted by Evan Derkacz at 7:42 AM on January 10, 2007.

Mowaffak Al Rubaie, Iraq's National Security Adviser, seemed to tell CNN's Anderson Cooper in an interview on 3 January that Iraqis seen dancing around the body of Saddam Hussein were following some sort of tradition:

AL-RUBAIE: To the best of my knowledge and belief, and after I left the scene and came back, I was proud of what had happened, because we played by the book.

When the -- the video was released and -- or leaked -- I saw some untoward and wrongdoings. And this has to be addressed. And we need to do something about it.

COOPER: But you are proud of what you did witness? I mean, you -- I assume you heard the shouting. You heard -- you saw the dancing around his body, because I know you talked about that. Are you proud of that?

AL-RUBAIE: This is -- this a tradition of the Iraqis. When they do something, they -- they dance around the body, and they suppress their feeling.

Anderson, what is wrong with that? If that upset the feeling of some of the Arab nations and Arab rulers, I think that is tough luck to them.

Since then, numerous news outlets have interpreted his words to mean that dancing over a dead body is a custom. In the video above, it's clear that Al-Rubaie, whose native tongue is not English, could have said "body" but meant "thing." As in: They dance around the thing they're happy about.

It would be rather easy to misinterpret his words, but when your misinterpretation has HUGE implications for an entire people, you may want to, as a journalist, I don't know, check with an expert...

Al Rubaie responds...

Recently, an interview I had on CNN has been taken out of context and quoted by multiple other sources, unfortunately damaging the image of Iraqis. I mentioned that some of the Iraqis attending Saddam's execution were happy that Saddam's era had come to an end, and that all Iraqis can now work together in starting a new chapter. Some of them expressed their happiness through a traditional dance usually preformed at celebrations and weddings.

In no way did I mean that dancing around dead bodies is "an Iraqi tradition". In fact, it is neither an Iraqi tradition, nor an Arab or Muslim one. Our religion and traditions ban any gloating over someone's grief, even if we loathed that person and thought he got what he deserved. Our Arabic traditions and Islamic rules pertaining to death prevent cussing, shouting, vengefulness, and wrath towards those about to die; in addition, we are even prohibited from speaking ill of the dead. Our Iraqi traditions in particular are against sectarian or ethnic taunting. All the mistakes that happened during this execution do not reflect our heritage and religion, and they do not reflect our values in building the new Iraq.

We do understand many people's point of view who criticized the execution's timing as well. We did not mean to offend anyone by picking the Holy Muslim days of Eid Al-Adha, and we regret any other offensive technicalities that occurred during the execution, but we urge the international community to remember the bigger picture, and see Saddam's execution as a milestone representing an end of a dark era. We, at the Iraqi government, wanted the trial and execution of Saddam to be a reason for putting Iraqis together and uniting Iraq, but it was used by many political groups inside and outside Iraq as an excuse to divide Iraqis furthermore and to find reasons for increasing the violence.

Unfortunately, it seems that many people around the world were distracted from the real issues, which are Saddam's crimes over the last several decades. Our Prime Minister, Mr. Maliki, went as far as threatening to re-think Iraq's relationships to any countries that mourn Saddam or find excuses to criticize his trial and execution. We want to keep the attention focused on Saddam's victims and their sacrifices, and also on the great possibilities of the post-Saddam Iraq.

We hope that the Western media will not end up playing into the hands of those who wanted to increase the sectarian tension between Iraqis, and we assure everyone that all the mistakes that occurred during Saddam's execution are condemnable, and that our only intention was to follow our traditions in being respectful and professional during the execution. The Iraqi judicial system will prosecute and punish all the people who transgressed the standards of law and decency during Saddam's execution.

I will conclude with a quote from our prayer for the dead, a great example of the tradition of tolerance in Islam: "All Mighty, don't bring about divisions after his death, and forgive us for our sins".

Tagged as: iraq, saddam, islam, tradition

Evan Derkacz is an AlterNet editor. He writes and edits PEEK, the blog of blogs.