On December 14, 2008, Iraqi journalist Muntadhar al-Zaidi threw both of his shoes at United States President George W. Bush during an Iraqi press conference. President Bush ducked twice to avoid being hit by the shoes, and Prime Minister Maliki attempted to catch one of the shoes to protect him. Since then, there have been many other shoeing incidents on an international scale.
About Bush shoeing incident in brief
On December 14, 2008, Iraqi journalist Muntadhar al-Zaidi threw both of his shoes at United States President George W. Bush during an Iraqi press conference. President Bush ducked twice to avoid being hit by the shoes, and Prime Minister Maliki attempted to catch one of the shoes to protect him. Since then, there have been many other shoeing incidents on an international scale. Matthew Cassel of The Electronic Intifada in the context of the incident has expressed the opinion that the Western media overplayed the phenomenon as being an “Arab moment’’. ‘Shoeing’ is considered unclean in the Arab World.’ ‘I didn’t have much time to reflect on anything, I was ducking and dodging,’ President Bush said, later asked about the incident by another reporter, ‘It’s a way for people to draw attention. I didn’t feel the least bit threatened by it.” ‘‘I’m not angry with the system. I believe that a free society is emerging, and aFree society is necessary for our own security and peace’, said President Bush.‘’I don’t think that you can take one guy throwing his shoe as representative of the people of Iraq,’’ said White House Press Secretary Dana Perino. ’‘He did not commit a crime, he only expressed himself to the occupier and he has such a right to freely express himself, according to international law,’ said Iraqi lawyer Khalil al-Duleimi.
‘‘This is for the widows and orphans and all those killed in Iraq,” he shouted as he threw his second shoe. ‘This was a farewell kiss from the Iraqi people, dog’,’ he yelled in Arabic as he throw his first shoe. ‘He was pulled to the floor before being grabbed by Prime minister Maliki’s guards, kicked, and rushed out of the room.‚’ The New York Times reported that Al-zaidi appeared privately before a judge within the Green Zone on December 17, 2008. He declined to be represented by an Iraqi lawyer, and also said that he wanted the case to be closed and Muntuntader be released because he did not committed a crime. On September 15, 2009, after nine months of incarceration, he was released early because he had no prior criminal record. He could have faced charges of insulting a foreign leader and the Iraqi prime minister. A conviction of these charges could have carried a sentence of up to two years in prison or a small fine, although it would have been unlikely to face the maximum penalty given his newfound ‘cult status’ in the Middle East. “I was embraced around the Arab world, including some Iraqi politicians, some Iraqi lawyers, some charity lawyers, and some Iraqi protesters in Syria, including 200 lawyers from a charity charity in Libya, in Libya and a charity in Syria,.” said Al- zaidi.
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This page is based on the article Bush shoeing incident published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 24, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
