Masih ingat Muntazar Al Zaidi? Dia adalah wartawan Irak yang melempar sepasang sepatunya kepada Bush dalam kunjungan perpisahan presiden AS itu pada 14 Desember 2008.

Muntadhar al-Zaidi was raised in Sadr City, a suburb of Baghdad, Iraq. Al-Zaidi graduated with a degree in communication from Baghdad University. He began working as a correspondent for Al-Baghdadia TV in 2005. He first became known as a victim of a kidnapping by unknown assailants in November 2007. Al-Zaidi has also been arrested twice by United States armed forces. He lives in a two room apartment within central Baghdad. He is of the Shi’a-Muslim faith, and unmarried.

“One of his best reports was on Zahra, a young Iraqi school girl killed by the occupation forces while en route to school,” said Ahmed Alaa, a close friend and colleague of al-Zaidi at al-Baghdadia television who talked to Islam Online. Alaa said al-Zaidi documented the tragedy in his reportage, complete with interviews with her family, neighbors and friends. “This report earned him the respect of many Iraqis and won him many hearts in Iraq,” he said. Al-Zaidi once also turned down an offer to work for what he termed “a pro-occupation channel”. Friends said al-Zaidi had been “emotionally influenced” by the destruction he’d seen in his coverage of the US bombing of Sadr City.

Muzhir al-Khafaji, al-Zaidi’s boss at the TV station, describes al-Zaidi as a “proud Arab and an open-minded man.” He added, “He has no ties with the former regime. His family was arrested under Saddam’s regime.” On politics, al-Zaidi said “I’m Iraqi and I’m proud of my country.” Friends of al-Zaidi said he utterly rejected the occupation and the civil clashes. They said he believed the U.S.-Iraq Status of Forces Agreement was a “legalization of the occupation.”

Sami Ramadani, a political exile from Saddam’s regime and a senior lecturer at London Metropolitan University, wrote in an op-ed for The Guardian that al-Zaidi “reported for al-Baghdadia on the poor and downtrodden victims of the US war. He was first on the scene in Sadr City and wherever people suffered violence or severe deprivation. He not only followed US Apache helicopters’ trails of death and destruction, but he was also among the first to report every ‘sectarian’ atrocity and the bombing of popular market places. He let the victims talk first”.

Ini cuplikan video insiden pelemparan tersebut:

Nah, baru-baru ini telah dibuatkan sebuah monumen (patung) sepatu raksasa untuk mengenang peristiwa heroik tersebut. Muntazar sendiri dianggap sebagai salah satu pahlawan bagi rakyat Irak karena keberaniannya melempari seorang presiden Amerika Serikat yang dianggap sangat tidak populer di Irak.

Baghdad (ANTARA News) – Sebuah patung sepatu raksasa dari perunggu telah berdiri untuk menghormati wartawan Irak yang dengan seketika merebut perhatian dunia setelah ia melempar sepasang sepatunya pada mantan Presiden AS, George W. Bush pada tahun lalu.

Sepatu tersebut berdiri setinggi tiga meter di atas tumpuan putih di Tikrit, kota asal diktator Irak yang dieksekusi, Saddam Hussein.

Rumpun mawar tumbuh dekat monumen itu yang didirikan di taman yayasan Irak yang menyantuni anak-anak yang orang tuanya tewas dalam aksi kekerasan di Irak, menyusul invasi pimpinan AS pada Maret 2003.

Pada kaki monumen terdapat puisi yang memuji wartawan Irak itu, Muntazer Al-Zaidi.

Patung ini karya seniman Irak, Laith Al-Ameri.

“Patung sepatu ini merupakan hadiah kepada keluarga Muntazer Al-Zaidi, seorang pahlawan, yang berkat aksinya membuat rakyat Irak bangga,” kata seorang pengurus yayasan di depan 400 orang yang hadir dalam peresmian patung, sebagaimana dilaporkan AFP.

Menurut ketua yayasan, Shaha Al-Juburi, pembuatan patung tersebut tidak didukung partai politik atau organisasi apapun.

Al-Zaidi melempar sepasang sepatunya kepada Bush dalam kunjungan perpisahan presiden AS itu pada 14 Desember, dalam aksi yang dipandang sebagai penghinaan berat menurut budaya Arab. Tindakannya dipuji di dunia Arab sebagai hadiah perpisahan yang ideal terhadap seorang presiden yang sangat tidak populer di kawasan itu. Zaidi ditahan setelah tindakannya itu dan dituduh “menyerang seorang kepala negara asing dalam kunjungan kenegaraan.” Ia menghadapi ancaman hukuman 15 tahun penjara jika terbukti bersalah.

Muntazar Al Zaidi bahkan dianggap sebagai Man of The Year versi rakyat Irak.

Man of The Year

Update:

Monumen sepatu raksasa tersebut akhirnya dibongkar atas permintaan pemerintah Bahgdad.

Latest (Friday evening in Iraq): The sculpture has been removed after a request from the central government in Baghdad. Police visited the site to ensure the request was carried out. The provincial deputy governor said, “We will not allow anyone to use the government facilities and buildings for political motives.”

Muntazar al-Zaidi, the journalist who threw his shoes at former President George W. Bush in December, is still languishing in an Iraqi jail, but his act hasn’t been forgotten.

An 11-foot-high sculpture of one of the shoes has been erected at the Tikrit Orphanage. It was made by a local artist, assisted by the orphans. The orphanage director said:

Those orphans who helped the sculptor in building this monument were the victims of Bush’s war….When the next generation sees the shoe monument, they will ask their parents about it. Then their parents will start talking about the hero Muntadhir al-Zaidi, who threw his shoe at George W. Bush during his unannounced farewell visit.