Types of socialism and encourages the institution of a form of direct democracy based on popular committees. Critics charge that Qaddafi uses these committees as tools of autocratic political repression in practice. Scholars have highlighted the similarities between the Islamic economic system and socialist theory. For example, both are against unearned income. Islam does allow private ownership of natural resources and large industries, which are owned collectively, or at least encouraged to be so. The Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party rules Syria (and ruled Iraq under Saddam Hussein), based on a tradition of secular, non-Marxist socialism. Ba'thist beliefs combine Arab Socialism, nationalism, and Pan-Arabism.
Saddam Hussein Nagar, Sri Lanka Saddam Hussein Nagar, Sri Lanka Saddam Hussein Town () is the name of a village exclusively inhabited by local Muslims in the Batticaloa district of Sri Lanka. It is named after Saddam Hussein, former President of Iraq, who donated all the funds required to build the village and its central Mosque. Saddam Hussein first became involved in the village after floods hit the area in 1978 and local authorities approached the Iraqi embassy for help. The former president was said to have readily obliged and sponsored construction of the entire village with some 100 houses, including a school and a