It’s already been discussed in our comments areas quite a bit, but I would be remiss if I didn’t have a front page entry for the “Lawrence of Arabia” moment that took place today at the Organization of the Islamic Conference meeting in Qatar: Islamic Summit Has Loud Shouting Match.

After Kuwait’s foreign minister used his speech to the summit to call on Saddam to step down to avert war, Iraq’s Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri described the Kuwaiti minister in his own speech as “swaggering and rude” and accused him of “threatening Iraq’s security at the core” by allowing U.S. troops on Kuwaiti soil.

Sheik Mohammed Sabah Al Salem Al Sabah, another minister in the Kuwaiti delegation, interrupted al-Douri with comments that were inaudible to viewers at home and to reporters watching via closed-circuit. Officials in the summit chamber later said he called the Iraqi’s remarks lies.

Al-Douri responded: “Shut up you monkey. Curse be upon your mustache, you traitor.” “Mustache” is a traditional Arabic term for honor.

These are the leaders of the Islamic world. When they get angry, the worst, nastiest insult that pops out of them is a frickin’ curse upon their opponent’s facial hair.

Clearly, these people are, in the immortal words of Frank Zappa, hung up.

“This is hypocrisy and falsehood,” Sheik Mohammed shot back.

Kuwait’s information minister, Sheik Ahmed Fahd Al-Ahmed, leapt up and waved a small Kuwaiti flag that had been on the desk, trying to get the chairman to give the floor to the Kuwaitis.

But the summit’s host, Qatari Emir Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, said: “We are not here for such exchanges,” and moved on to the next speaker, from Afghanistan.

Mark my words: if the Arabs keep having these “summit meetings,” eventually we’re going to see some princes and ministers carving each other up with ceremonial scimitars, live on satellite TV.