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Following are excerpts from an interview with Muntazer Al-Zaidi, the Iraqi journalist who threw shoe at US President Bush, which aired on Dream 2 TV on June 12, 2010.
Muntazer Al-Zaidi: When I entered the press conference, I knew full well that I would leave as a martyr. I removed my ring, gave it to the photographer, and told him to give it to my brother, Maytham – because I was sure that I was going to be martyred there. I recited the two shahadas: "I bear witness that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is His messenger." All that time, I didn't know what was going to happen – perhaps the worst. I told myself that it was for the sake of Allah, and that it was a sacrifice for all the martyrs – to the dead, the rape victims, and the orphans.
What I was thinking about was how Bush killed the Iraqis. That's when I threw a shoe, and it missed him. I said to him: "This is a farewell kiss from the Iraqis, you dog!" I apologize for uttering this word on TV, in front of your dear viewers.
Interviewer: That was the first shoe?
Muntazer Al-Zaidi: Yes. The first one missed him, and I hurled the second shoe at him. Unfortunately, the second one did not knock him down either, but he did bow before the Arab shoe!
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I am just a simple man – not a hero – as I said when I left the press conference. I am not a leader, a commander, or anything. I am just a simple man, but this thing just came out of me. How many geniuses do we have, how many commanders, and how many heroes? Let's get things off our chests, and throw it at our enemies.
Just imagine, if 20 Arabs, out of 300 million Arabs, were to say: "What can we do in order to restore the honor of the nation?"... Just 20 Arabs out of 300 million... Just imagine what would happen. As I keep saying to people, "I am not a legend, nor a leader. I am an avenging Arab citizen."
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Interviewer: Where did you buy the shoes that you threw at Bush?
Muntazer Al-Zaidi: Don't you know?
Interviewer: No.
Muntazer Al-Zaidi: Is it essential to know?
Interviewer: Nobody knows to this day.
Muntazer Al-Zaidi: I mean, is it essential to know?
Interviewer: It's important.
Muntazer Al-Zaidi: I bought these shoes... I have a photo, but I will keep it for the future. I have a photo of me wearing those shoes, when they were new – only a few days old. In the background was the annual Cairo book fair, February 2008.
Interviewer: Did you buy the shoes in Cairo?
Muntazer Al-Zaidi: In Cairo, in Al-Arish Street.
Interviewer: Al-Haram area?
Muntazer Al-Zaidi: Al-Arish Street, I think. Now I remember.
Interviewer: This is information...
Muntazer Al-Zaidi: Important, of course.
Interviewer: It is the first time we are hearing this. It is important, because we are Egyptian, and we should be proud that those shoes, which you hurled at Bush, were, at the very least, bought in Egypt. This in itself is a source of pride for Egypt.
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Muntazer Al-Zaidi: With regard to Bush's bloodthirsty nature, several foreign journalists asked me, after the earthquake in Haiti, about the fact that Bush had gone there as if he was a "peace activist." I said: Believe me, Bush did not go there for the sake of human rights or for the victims. He went there because he missed the smell of blood, and the stench of destruction that he wreaked on Iraq. So he went there to get a whiff of that smell, because he is a sick man.
Interviewer: In your view, Obama is not very different from Bush, even if he wraps the actions of the US in false humanitarian wrapping.
Muntazer Al-Zaidi: We have a saying in Iraqi Arabic – and I'm sure the Egyptian brothers living in Iraq know it. "Away goes a white dog, and along comes a black dog." They are the same, except for the color. Away goes a white US president, and along comes a black president. They are no different.
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