Bangkok, Dec 19: Muslims in southern Thailand are naming their new-born babies "Saddam" in protest over the United States' invasion of Iraq and in support of its ousted President, a community leader said today. "We admired Saddam because he was brave enough to fight the world's only superpower and we believe that the war was unjustified," said Rawsedee Lertariyapongkul, chairman of the Muslim Youth Association of Thailand.
Newspaper reports from the Muslim-majority southern provinces bordering Malaysia said many babies were being given the name of the captured former leader, but exact figures were still being prepared.
Rawsedee said he expected many more parents would honour saddam by bestowing his name on their sons, even though they often knew little about his history or even that he had now been captured by US soldiers.
"We don't care about his past. At least in the last decade we have not heard of him doing anything really bad. And all the serious allegations against him only came from the United States side," he said.
A newspaper quoted 36-year-old Navi Tohyor of Narathiwat province as saying that he and his wife had called their baby son Saddam out of admiration for the former Iraq leader. Bureau Report