NELSON ASCHER explains Saddam’s secularism:

Saddam has been sometimes praised, mainly by the Old Europeans, obviously, for one virtue that at first seems to be beyond discussion, namely, his secularism in a region full of religious fanatics.

But I have finally discovered the ROOT CAUSE of Saddam’s secularism. Islam, like Judaism, has a taboo against the depiction of anything, human images included. By now you may be getting my point. How can one reconcile this puritanical taboo with the narcisism of a guy who wanted his own image, in pictures, statues etc., to be constantly shown everywhere in his country? No way.

Thus between pictures of Saddam, statues of Saddam, Saddam and more Saddam everywhere on one side, and Islam on the other, it was Islam that had to go. As simple as that.

Sounds compelling to me.