| Submit your comments on this article |
| International |
| Gadhafi's kid signals turn from revolution |
| 2002-06-25 |
| Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, who once supported violent revolutionaries with money and guns, now is positioning himself as a defender of democracy, constitutional rules and federalism to resolve ethnic disputes. His advice to Islamic separatists from the Philippines to Chechnya is to give up the struggle and integrate with their neighbors. This new message of respectability is being carried by his most trusted ambassador, son Saif ul Islam Gadhafi. Gadhafi says Chechens, for instance, would be better off being part of a powerful Russia than forming a separate Caucasian statelet. "We told them, 'We want Muslims to be in the Russian government.'" Gadhafi told a meeting at London's Royal Institute for International Affairs this month that Muslims should learn from Jews. "Jews in America do not ask for a separate state. That's why they are stronger. They have influence in a very influential superpower. The Jewish model in America is a good model for Muslims all over the world." Turning to the crisis between India and Pakistan, Gadhafi said an independent Kashmir was impractical. What was needed was to re-create the old Raj, uniting India, Pakistan and Bangladesh into a superstate, along with Sri Lanka for good measure. "Imagine a country with a [gross domestic product] of $500 billion, a population of 1.3 billion and 140 nuclear warheads," he said. "It could have a Muslim prime minister or president." I shudder to think of Qazi in charge of such a state... |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |