Iraqi protestors raise their shoes in support of footwear flinger Muntather al-Zaidi, a Baghdad journalist who threw both his shoes at U.S. President George W. Bush on the weekend. (Karim Kadim/Associated Press)

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In this part of the world, to show someone the bottom of your shoe is to display deep disrespect. A shoe thrown is an act of outright contempt.

In this video image, a man throws a shoe at U.S. President George W. Bush during a news conference with Iraq Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on Sunday (Associated Press)

In every day parlance, the humble shoe is the lowest of the low, the butt of jokes and the foundation of many an insult. But after George W. Bush visited Baghdad yesterday, one pair of shoes has risen above their lowly status and been flung into the realm of eternal stardom, at least in the Arab world.

"This wonderful shoe has gone down in history," one commentator wrote on a Jordanian news website. "It's the most important and boldest shoe in the world."

He added: "I wish I were a shoe."

I'm not making this up. Thousands of readers have written in to a variety of Arab news sites today with odes, sometimes tongue in cheek, to the pair of shoes that nearly struck the outgoing president in the head at a press conference.

Some writers expressed mock sympathy for the shoes. Others were serious in suggesting they be immortalized, kept in a museum for all to see. Yet others suggested an auction. One writer said he'd pay $1 million, if he had it.

Operation Restore Honour

Naturally, the owner of the flying footwear has become the subject of adulation. TV reporter Muntather al-Zaidi's shoe-throwing fit will go down in history as the most succinct summation of what many in the Arab world were thinking on the eve of Bush's departure.

Shoe-thrower Muntather al-Zaidi. (Evan Vucci/Associated Press)

"A farewell kiss from Iraqis," as al-Zaidi himself called it.

One commentator dubbed the incident Operation Restore Honour.

"This is the bravest man in the world," one letter writer opined to the Saudi al-Riyadh newspaper.

"Better than a (Barcelona) goal against Real Madrid," wrote another on the site of Syria News. (Soccer analogies were numerous and, given the footwork, probably inevitable.)

For his efforts, the 28-year-old al-Zaidi has become the Middle East's most famous prisoner, its newest cause celebre.

Hundreds of lawyers are jostling to represent him. His fellow journalists are demanding his release. And no thinking Arab newspaper editor failed to prominently display the drama on today's front pages. Someone who signed a comment simply as "Muslim" even said a monument should be erected in his honour.

Tongue in cheek

To his credit, Bush took the bizarre send-off in stride — some here grudgingly admitted his ducking was flawless — and said it was no different than someone flipping him the finger.

But here in the Middle East, it is so much more than that.

Remember what some Iraqis did the instant Saddam Hussein's statue fell in 2003. They beat it with their shoes.

"For a man to be executed a thousand times is better than being insulted with one pair of shoes," wrote someone by the name of Safwan.

Jokingly, someone suggested the shoes were clandestinely smuggled over the border from Syria (often accused of providing passage to anti-American insurgents). Others made allusions to them as weapons of mass destruction.

The Iraqi government, however, was not amused and condemned al-Zaidi's act as "barbaric" and shameless.

At the same time, though, many Iraqis, sympathetic to al-Zaidi's opinion of Americans, protested his imprisonment by taking to the streets and hailing his slight to the man they believe is responsible for all their misfortune. Some even hurled their shoes at a passing American convoy. Al-Zaidi may have started something.

He also appears to have firmly ended any quarrel that Bush is the region's most hated U.S. president, ever.

Not the sole point of view

In case you're wondering, there were comments that denounced the attack and the reaction to it. Some writers said it was pathetic that Arabs had to resort to shoes to express their point of view.

Other critics described al-Zaidi's actions as uncivilized and inappropriate, especially for a journalist. These critics, however, were decidedly in the minority.

In the eyes of the majority who wrote in to websites and the like, al-Zaidi's worst crime was his bad aim.

"Maybe if it had been a boot, it would have been better," one commenter wrote on a Jordanian website. "Better luck next time, God willing?"

"He should have practised!" lamented another.

In the meantime, al-Zaidi is in custody. No one is certain of the charge.

The footwear whereabouts is also unknown at this point.

But one thing is certain. Muntather al-Zaidi is a shoe-in for Arab newsmaker of the year.