Chaldean leader: Despite Saddam's oppression, execution was wrong

Published: 2007-01-03

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Despite long-lasting persecution by former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein of his country's Christian population, his execution was wrong, said Joseph Kassab, executive director of the Chaldean Federation of America. "The taking of a life is against our Christian beliefs," Kassab said in a Jan. 3 telephone interview with Catholic News Service from the Detroit suburb of Southfield, Mich., where the federation is based. "His execution is an occasion upon which the world must remember that we can never tolerate another tyrant like him," Kassab added. " We pray for God's mercy upon those who need it the most. Normally, Christians do not rejoice in the killing of others." Saddam, 69, was hung at dawn Dec. 30 in Iraq, five days after appeals were rejected on his October death sentence for crimes against humanity -- in particular for the killings of 148 men and boys in the northern Iraqi town of Dujail in 1982.

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