CAIRO, EGYPT (DEC. 17) UPI -  Saddam Hussein appears to be losing the battle  
to portray himself as a champion of Islam, despite the recent appointment of a 
Shiite Moslem defense minister.

   After ordering his tanks into Kuwait four months ago, the Iraqi leader made 
an appeal for support on the basis of Islamic values and concern for Islam's 
two most sacred sites, which are situated in Saudi Arabia.

   Reports in some Arab newspapers said the appeal was going so badly, the 
Iraqi leader last week appointed as defense minister Shiite Moslem Gen. Saadi 
Toamma Abbas. This was apparently done to appease the Shiite majority of his 
own country as well as neighboring Shiite theocracy Iran. Iraq is ruled by a 
Sunni Moslem minority.

   Islamic leaders in neighboring Arab countries and the wider Moslem world 
have failed to respond to the Iraqi leader's call for a Jihad, or holy war, 
against the West.

   Even Shiite Moslem fundamentalists in Iran, which from 1980 to 1988 warred 
with Iraq, have shown no inclination to support Saddam's cause on religious 
grounds, though the Iranians have condemned the presence of non-Moslem troops 
in the gulf region.

   "The secular and repressive nature of Saddam's Baathist regime is proof that 
the Iraqi leader is the last person entitled to call for a Jihad," said a 
recent commentary on Cairo Radio.

   Egyptian and other Arab secular intellectuals point out that Islamic 
principles have never determined Saddam's foreign policy in the past. Islamic 
leaders in fact perceive his attempt to use Islam to justify the invasion of 
one Moslem Arab state by another as a flagrant breach of Islamic values.

   In strict Islamic terms, Saddam as a secular leader is not entitled to call 
for a Jihad. Only an Alim or senior Moslem figure has the authority to do so.

   And the founders of the Baath party - which Saddam subscribes to - were a 
Christian, Michel Aflaq, and a secularist, Salah ed Din Bitar.

   That is not to say that Saddam has not tried in the past to exploit Islam 
for his own political ends. During the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war, for instance, 
Saddam defended himself against Iranian accusations of atheism by making 
well-publicized visits to Shiite shrines at Najaf and Kerbala, using more 
Islamic terminology and symbolism in his speeches and building more mosques.

   But Saddam's own lifestyle contrasts sharply with Islamic tenets, according 
to Egyptian newspapers.

   The papers say he drinks, enjoys expensive Western suits and cars, and, 
though married for 30 years, has a long-term relationship with the former wife 
of the chairman of Iraqi Airways.

   In addition, the Baathist regime's lack of legitimacy has pushed Saddam into 
a cult of personality and purges that have also included Moslem clerics. Saddam 
ordered the execution in May 1980 of leading Iraqi Shiite cleric Mohammed Baqir 
Sadr and members of his family for alleged involvement in anti-government 
activity.

   A number of conservative Islamic thinkers have condemned Saddam for filling 
Iraqi mosques with posters and pictures of himself, pointing out that Islam 
forbids images in mosques.

   But perhaps Saddam's most spectacular failure has been his inability to 
convince even his most ardent supporters of his claim to be descended from the 
prophet Mohammad, the founder of Islam.

   "His supporters in Iraq are unlikely to admit it, but Saddam's claim to be a 
lineal descendant of the Prophet and of Ali, the fourth Caliph, and also that 
he is related to the former Hashemite royal family of Iraq, is not taken very 
seriously," said one Cairo-based Iraqi dissident.

   In addition to claiming descent from the prophet Mohammad, Saddam has also 
identified himself with Iraq's pre-Islamic and pagan rulers and is having the 
ruins of Babylon rebuilt at great expense, with every fourth brick inscribed 
with his name.