Saddam Alumni Hoax

Wikipedia user Lqymv has joined the hit list of many a Nottingham student for adding a potentially explosive addition to the list of alumni at the University: Saddam Hussein.

With some of the most successful businessmen, academics, inventors, writers, sportsmen, judges and even spies filling up our list of alumni, scrolling through Wikipedia you may have stumbled on a certain name much to your horror.  

Under the section entitled “International Politics and Royalty” you will find such great figureheads such as the tenth king of Malaysia, His Majesty Sultan Tuanku Ja’afar, the fifth Sultanah of Malaysia, Tuanku Bahiyah, and the first female member of the Council of Representatives in Bahrain, Lateefa Al Gaood.

Yet some hilarious Wikipedia user, under the name of Lqymv, decided it would be really funny to add one of the most evil men of our modern era, Saddam Hussein, to our list of alumni. The user could not even spell the name right, entering instead Saddam Hussien.

Imagine the horror. You’re strolling through Hallward, only to find the moustachioed dictator checking a couple of books out of short loan, or standing in front of you in the lunchtime queue in Boots, meal deal in hand.

We contacted the University who said, “after running a number of checks, we have found that he did not attend the University… The user has also mispelt the name … You can’t believe everything you read on Wikipedia.”

Saddam did in fact receive law degrees from both the University of Cairo and the University of Baghdad. Saddam Hussein was not the only one to be added to the list. This comedian also added Louis Sincere to our archive of alumni, the supposed inventor of the mirror.

Wrong again. The mirror was invented in the first century AD in Libya and are even mentioned by the Roman natural historian Pliny in 77 AD.

The two side splitting contributions, the only ones ever to come from the user, were made on the 7th and 9th December and Lqymv has since deleted their profile on Wikipedia.