Pat Dollard | Young Americans

From AFP:

…But little appears sacred for Iraqis caught up in brutal sectarian violence and harsh living conditions, proof of the maxim that populations in high stress situations or oppressive environments use dark humour to help them survive.

One of the main targets in the highly religious country is Moqtada al-Sadr, the powerful Shiite cleric whose thousands-strong Mahdi Army militia is known to hero-worship him.

One video clip shows a colony of penguins, led by a large male with distinctive orange markings on his neck, swaggering around the ice chanting “Moqtada, Moqtada, Moqtada!”

The 66-second segment, its soundtrack clearly recorded at a Mahdi Army gathering engaged in rowdy praise of the cleric, shows the penguins raising their flippers heavenwards, beaks wide open as they become more and more enthusiastic about Sadr.

The video, clearly doctored electronically, ends with the penguins forming a large heart-shaped gathering around their leader who stands bellowing in the middle.