Prominent Dawa Party leader Hassan Sinead opined that the spread of posters depicting Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in streets, at checkpoints as well as in official and military institutions was “damaging to him [Maliki],” further noting that the culture of plastering photographs was “passe.”

Sinead's statement to the official Iraqi Media Network on Feb. 4 was vague and ambiguous, as it tried to evade identifying the phenomenon by name. By law, it is illegal to affix pictures of the prime minister inside official institutions, and plastering photos of political leaders is a bygone culture with "dictatorial roots" — an allusion that this leader, who possesses both a cultural and literary background, tried to avoid making.

It was fortunate that Sinead also avoided blaming the government for the phenomenon of spreading its leader’s photographs almost everywhere for the past few years. Moreover, he did not blame “fans” and “supporters,” who enjoy spreading large posters of Maliki in squares, government and military offices, checkpoints or even their own bedrooms.

Iraqis remember well that during his reign, former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein — in the rare instances when he talked with the foreign press about the spread of his likeness in pictures and statues — used to say that he was not responsible for them, and that the loving people were responsible for their dissemination.