Iraqi-Americans celebrate execution

DEARBORN, Mich. -- With tears in his eyes and a grin on his face, 13-year-old Ali Al-Najjar watched his father celebrate the death of Saddam Hussein.

"This is the first time I've seen my dad this happy," the Dearborn teen said Friday night as he watched a crowd of about 200 Iraqi-Americans cheer outside a mosque led by his father. Drivers honked horns in jubilation.

"I've been praying for this all my life," Najjar said.

His father, Imam Husham Al-Husainy, the director of the Karbalaa Islamic Educational Center mosque near Detroit, had gathered some of the men earlier in the night, praying for the death of the former Iraqi dictator.

The crowd swelled until the announcement of Hussein's execution rippled throughout the gathering, leading some to dance and sing, and others to fall to their knees and cry. Many draped Iraqi and American flags on their heads, shoulders, and car hoods.

"The gift of our New Year is the murder of Saddam Hussein," Husainy told the crowd. "If you want to share the Iraqi people's happiness for the death of Saddam, raise your voice and your hands."

The crowd responded with resounding cheers.

In several other rallies across the nation yesterday, Americans who are opposed to the death penalty and/or US foreign policy decried Hussein's execution.

A few dozen activists held a protest near a military recruiting station in Manhattan's Times Square. It was organized by the New York-based International Action Center, a group founded by former US attorney general Ramsey Clark, who was one of Hussein's defense lawyers.

The Detroit area contains one of the nation's largest concentrations of people with roots in the Middle East. Many from Iraq had fled during the rule of Hussein.

Dave Alwatan, 32, was among those who gathered at the Karbalaa center Friday. He wore an Iraqi flag around his shoulders and grinned. He flashed a peace sign at everyone he passed. "Peace," he said, smiling and laughing. "Now there will be peace for my family."

Alwatan, an Iraqi-American, said Hussein's forces tortured and killed family members who stayed behind when he left in 1991.

Some Arab-American leaders predicted that Hussein's execution will increase violence overseas and leave the Iraqi people unsettled.

Osama Siblani, publisher of the Arab American News and chairman of several local Arab-American groups, said Hussein's death was one more casualty in a war that has killed thousands, and will not solve the power struggle among Iraqi religious groups.

"The execution might bring some amusement and accomplishment to the Bush administration, but it will not help the Iraqi people," Siblani said.

Edward Odisho, 68, a refugee from Iraq since 1981 who lives in Morton Grove, Ill., said it will take time for Iraqis to recover.

"It will take one to two generations to eradicate the garbage left over from Saddam Hussein and to reestablish a healthy generation," said Odisho, a linguistics professor at Northeastern Illinois University.

At his ranch in Texas, President Bush on Friday called Hussein's execution a milestone on Iraq's road to democracy, but warned it will not halt the bloodshed and discord splitting the country.

Bush also warned of more challenges for American troops.

"Many difficult choices and further sacrifices lie ahead," he said in a statement issued Friday. "Yet the safety and security of the American people require that we not relent in ensuring that Iraq's young democracy continues to progress."

Members of Congress welcomed news of Hussein's death.

"Iraq has closed one of the darkest chapters in its history and rid the world of a tyrant," said Senator Joseph Biden, Democrat of Delaware, incoming Senate Foreign Relations Committee chair.

Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who will be the body's Republican leader, said that Hussein finally had met justice. "The free people of Iraq must now go forward together to build a unified nation, and leave behind sectarian divisions."