SADDAM’S MOSQUES: SECURING HIS SPOT IN HEAVEN—GETTING INSIDE THE MIND OF INSANITY—CONTINUED

The first of the two unfinished mosques Saddam was in the process of building was huge. It covered several acres of land. The scale was disproportionately large to the city. When we stopped the car to photograph it, we dubbed it the "Mother of All Mosques" just because its size was so overwhelming.

THE MOTHER OF ALL MOSQUES

But when we headed down a long tree lined boulevard the vicinity of the upper class neighborhood we’d just been through, we came upon a huge construction site on the grounds of the old Sporting Club and horseracing track. There loomed a construction site where an even more mammoth mosque dwarfed even the other mosque. This we named the "Mother of the Mother of All Mosques".

THE MOTHER OF THE MOTHER OF ALL MOSQUES

Dr. Badhri told me that as Saddam grew older—and the rumor was, sicker—he began building these mosques in order to secure his place in heaven. As the saying goes, the highest places in heaven are reserved for those who build a mosque.

And it seems quite obvious where Saddam would chose to sit in heaven.