Size 10 1/2

[Roscoe]

What is this shoe fetish with Muslims? I remember when the statue of Saddam was toppled they were beating it with their shoes. What's up wit dat?

Roscoe

[VRM]

Originally Posted by Roscoe

What is this shoe fetish with Muslims? I remember when the statue of Saddam was toppled they were beating it with their shoes. What's up wit dat?

Roscoe

They consider the bottoms of the shoes unclean. It is about the worst insult you can give. And it is an Arab fetish - not just Muslim. The Japanese have a similar one.

[Don]

Source: NYTimes.com 12-15:

" Other Iraqi journalists in the front row apologized to Mr. Bush, who was uninjured and tried to brush off the incident by making a joke. “All I can report is it is a size 10,” he said, continuing to take questions and noting the apologies. He also called the incident a sign of democracy, saying, “That’s what people do in a free society, draw attention to themselves,” as the man’s screaming could be heard outside "

" The shoe-throwing incident in Baghdad punctuated Mr. Bush’s visit here — his fourth — in a deeply symbolic way, reflecting the conflicted views in Iraq of a man who toppled Saddam Hussein, ordered the occupation of the country and brought it freedoms unthinkable under Mr. Hussein’s rule but at enormous costs. "

" Hitting someone with a shoe is considered the supreme insult in Iraq. It means that the target is even lower than the shoe, which is always on the ground and dirty. Crowds hurled their shoes at the giant statue of Mr. Hussein that stood in Baghdad’s Firdos Square before helping American marines pull it down on April 9, 2003, the day the capital fell. More recently in the same square, a far bigger crowd composed of Iraqis who had opposed the security agreement flung their shoes at an effigy of Mr. Bush before burning it."