Bush Gets Angry Shoe Treatment: FYI, Shoe Throwing is A SERIOUS Insult in the Arab World

December 15, 2008 · Print This Article

Shoe attack against President Bush

In the Arab world, throwing a shoe is no mere sign of disrespect. It’s a deep and symbolic missile meant to degrade the target. It’s that cultural significance that has added real sting to the assault by an Iraqi journalist against US President George W Bush at a Baghdad news conference.

In Arab culture it’s considered rude even to display the sole of one’s shoe to a fellow human being. Certainly, crossing one’s legs ankle-on-knee style should never be done in a public place for fear of offending the person next to you. The sensitivity is related to the fact shoes are considered ritually unclean in the Muslim faith.

His national security advisor and subsequent secretary of state has been given the particularly insulting first name Kundara - meaning shoe - instead of Condoleezza Rice.

Now history will record that Mr Bush’s last presidential trip to Iraq, a country his government has left such an indelible mark upon, was greeted with a volley of shoes and cries of “dog” (another extreme insult in Arabic) from Iraqi cameraman Muntadar al-Zaidi.

Mr Bush, who leaves office in just over a month, was able to duck out of the way of the two shoes Mr Zaidi threw at him - presumably the only weapon the assailant was able to smuggle through the tight security cordon at Prime Minister Nouri Maliki’s office.

Some hail Mr Zaidi as a hero, for striking a symbolic blow against someone they hold responsible for devastating wars in the Muslim world that have cost hundreds of thousands of lives.

Here is the video footage: