Babel (newspaper)

Babel

بابل

Red sharp letters skewed towards left that spells out "Babil" appears as logo of the newspaper[1][2]
TypePolitical newspaper, Propaganda, Opinion
EditorUday Hussein
FoundedDuring the Gulf War in 1991
Political alignmentIraqi Ba'athism
LanguageArabic (regularly)
English (occasionally, under title "Iraq Daily")[2][3]
Ceased publicationNovember 2002 (for certainty in 2003)
Country Ba'athist Iraq

Babel (Arabic: بابل, lit. "Babylon") was an Iraqi newspaper which was published under the direction of Uday Hussein, the son of Saddam Hussein. It was known for carrying Western reports on Iraq's conflict with the United States and was said to be the most influential newspaper in the country and alongside the television channel Youth TV (Al-Shabab), which aired reports by other Arab channels not usually heard on Iraq's state-run media, it was one of two media administered by Uday Hussein independent from Iraqi authorities.[4]

History and profile

Babel was launched during the Gulf War in 1991.[5] It was one of the newspapers owned by Uday Hussein.[6] He was also the founder of the paper which was published both in Arabic and English.[3]

The newspaper later criticized the government on the Faith Campaign program, arguing that the campaign would undermine Iraq's religiously pluralistic society, and encourage sectarian division, thereby undermining Iraq. The paper argued that Saddam's attempt to gain the support of Islamic fundamentalists was ultimately doomed to fail, as such groups would accept nothing less than strict Islamic law. The paper also published letters critical of the government and security services' tolerance for Iraq's growing Salafist movements.[7] At another point, Babil however joined in railing against the Shi'ites, even referring to them as rafidah, a hateful epithet normally used by ultraconservative Salafis only.[8]

In July 2002 the newspaper published an article by "Abu Hatim" (an alias used by Uday) which claimed that the American administration was planning to strike Iraq and exert political control in the Middle East. It stated the plans "will extend to include everything", "starting from making Jordan an alternative homeland for the Palestinians, "dividing Saudi Arabia into at least three parts and obliterating Bahrain's identity by returning it as part of Persia.[9]

The paper was banned by the then-Iraqi government for one month in November 2002 for unexplained causes.[4]

References

  1. ^ "الگاردينيا - مجلة ثقافية عامة - "صدام حسين" يدعو حراسه لوجبة غداء على حسابه وهرب منهم من الباب الخلفي ؟". www.algardenia.com.
  2. ^ a b "توقيف صحيفة بابل عن الصدور لمدة شهر". الجزيرة نت (in Arabic).
  3. ^ a b Ahmed K. Al-Rawi (7 August 2012). Media Practice in Iraq. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 9. ISBN 978-1-137-20660-2.
  4. ^ a b "Saddam pounces on son's newspaper". BBC. 20 November 2002. Retrieved 25 May 2020.
  5. ^ "توقيف صحيفة بابل عن الصدور لمدة شهر". Al Jazeera (in Arabic). 20 November 2002. Retrieved 24 July 2021.
  6. ^ Kelly Whalen. "Uday Saddam Hussein". PBS. Retrieved 13 September 2014.
  7. ^ Baram, Amatzia (October 2011). "From Militant Secularism to Islamism: The Iraqi Ba'th Regime 1968-2003" (PDF). Occasional Papers. Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars: History & Public Policy Program. Archived from the original (PDF) on 22 July 2015. Retrieved 7 April 2015.
  8. ^ Osman, Khalil F. (2015). Sectarianism in Iraq: The Making of State and Nation Since 1920. Routledge Studies in Middle Eastern Democratization and Government. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-138-77946-4.
  9. ^ "عدي صدام حسين يحذر من مخطط أميركي لضرب العراق وتفتيت المنطقة إلى دويلات, أخبــــــار". archive.aawsat.com. Retrieved 5 January 2021.

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