Assalam aliekum
Honestly, I think this is so appalling and disrespectful. Even my high school Kuwaiti students thought this was a stupid act by this reporter. In their words (15-17 year olds), basically it is just going to make the rest of the world laugh at the Iraqi's and think of them as being so backwards.
I do not promote violence by anyone, and that includes verbal. We Muslims need to stop putting an asterisk by everything that a Muslim does by saying, "yeah but someone else did it first/worse to us" - how about acknowledging that this reporter was disrespectful to the OFFICE of the US President (I don't care what anyone thinks about George Bush)?
And, the funny thing is, since it is a cultural thing to think of shoes as being a disrespectful item to be thrown, most of my friends just think it was completely funny to think of a guy throwing shoes - the guy's act did nothing to raise the awareness of the situation in Iraq to the Americans, it just made him look like a foolish person. And I am sure that all the comedians and talk shows are going to have a hay-day with this video for quite some time.
Personally, I say "SHAME ON YOU" to him, for the negative impact his actions could possibly have on Muslims everywhere.
Lana
**Note: Notice, I am NOT saying I support the war or Bush; that would be irrelevant to my thoughts. This is all I am going to say on this topic on any threads.