Mygripe LIBYAN leader Muammar Gaddafi has stumbled into controversy during a visit to Italy by saying Europe should convert to islam.
Mr Gaddafi made the comments during a lecture to a group of 500 young women hired and paid by an agency to attend the event in Rome, part of a visit to mark the second anniversary of a friendship treaty with Libya’s former coloniser.
“Islam should become the religion of all of Europe,” one of the women quoted Mr Gaddafi as saying in the Italian press.
The agency paid the women, mainly students who hire themselves out for advertising of publicity events, about $100 to attend and said it would not pay girls who gave their names to the press.
It also told them to dress conservatively for the lectures. About 200 women gathered yesterday at the Libyan cultural centre in Rome to attend a second lecture. One of the women present said that Mr Gaddafi had told the gathering that “women are more respected in Libya than in the West” and offered assistance in finding Libyan husbands.
“Islam is the last religion and if we are to have a single faith then it has to be in Mohammed,” he said, according to the participant. But the lectures were condemned as “a new, humiliating violation of Italian women’s dignity” by opposition lawmaker and former health minister Rosy Bindi.
Mr Gaddafi’s show also caused discomfort within the coalition of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, a close ally of the Libyan leader.
“Gaddafi’s words show his dangerous Islamisation project for Europe,” said European MP Mario Borghezio of the anti-immigrant Northern League, junior partner in the coalition, according to Il Messaggero.
Carlo Giovanardi, a government undersecretary, tried to stem the criticism, saying Mr Gaddafi’s words were simply “a remark made during a private meeting.”
Mr Gaddafi, who came to power after the overthrow of the monarchy 41 years ago, met privately with Mr Berlusconi for 30 minutes yesterday, during which the Libyan leader confirmed the policy of opening his country to Italian investment, a member of Berlusconi’s staff said.
Speaking later alongside Mr Berlusconi, Mr Gaddafi suggested the European Union pay Libya “at least five billion euros a year” to put a halt to illegal migration from its Mediterranean shores. To do so would be in Europe’s interest, he said, if it wants to head off “the advance of millions of migrants” from Africa.
The two countries have reached an agreement that allows the Italian navy to intercept illegal migrants at sea and return them to Libya, triggering sharp criticism from the United Nations’ refugee agency and human rights groups.
Mr Gaddafi travelled, as usual, with a Bedouin tent for his accommodation which was pitched in the gardens of the residence of the Libyan embassy in Rome. Mygripe
How can Gaddafi, who in all seriousness claims himself to be a feminist, offer only to teach his esoteric knowledge to the most attractive women and get away with it? Is this not misogyny writ large (by this rationale, Berlusconi, the infamous womanizer that he is, must also be a devout feminist). Moreover, one one should examine Silvio’s intentions in even offering his youngest and his hottest to Gaddafi to begin with.
http://scallywagandvagabond.com/2010/08/moamar-gaddafi-pays-hot-italian-women-to-convert-to-islam/