«Бабель»: Иракская газета времен Саддама Хусейна

Iraqi newspaper

بابل
Red sharp letters skewed towards left that spells out "Babil" appears as logo of the newspaper
| type = Political newspaper, Propaganda, Opinion
| editor = Uday Hussein
| foundation = During the Gulf War in 1991
| political = Iraqi Ba'athism
| language = Arabic (regularly)
English (occasionally, under title "Iraq Daily")

Babel was launched during the Gulf War in 1991. It was one of the newspapers owned by Uday Hussein. He was also the founder of the paper which was published both in Arabic and English. The newspaper later criticized government on the Faith Campaign program, arguing that the campaign would undermine Iraq's religiously pluralistic society, and encourage sectarian division, thereby undermining Iraq. The paper argued that Saddam's attempt to gain the support of Islamic fundamentalists was ultimately doomed to fail, as such groups would accept nothing less than strict Islamic law. The paper also published letters critical of the government and security services' tolerance for Iraq's growing Salafist movements. At another point, Babil however joined in railing against the Shi'ites, even referring to them as rafidah, a hateful epithet normally used by ultraconservative Salafis only. In July 2002 the newspaper published an article by "Abu Hatim" (an alias used by Uday) which claimed that the American administration was planning to strike Iraq and exert political control in the Middle East. It stated the plans "will extend to include everything", "starting from making Jordan an alternative homeland for the Palestinians, "dividing Saudi Arabia into at least three parts and obliterating Bahrain's identity by returning it as part of Persia. The paper was banned by then Iraqi government for one month in November 2002 for unexplained causes.