Quote from I Missed Boat:
Sadaam is a muslum (though he only pretends to be religious, but would you tell millions of others who call themselves muslums but are not especially religious that they are not muslum?). What's more, he has become more loved recently in certain parts of the region (where people are not shiites or kurds, of course) as he has supported extremists and the families of terrorists.
Alright then, Saddam is muslim (muslum? - I have not seen this spelling before but you may be right) only by name and not by practice, which is generally unappreciated in the muslim world. Even more disliked is his secular regime, since the Islamic faith does not, as the Christian faith does, allow for the separation of church and state. He is, these days, gaining greater support because despite his flaws is seen as a lesser evil when compared to US. Actually, this is a matter of public record - check out the Bin Laden video Colin P and crew used to link Saddam and Al Queda.