- Joined
- Jan 3, 2009
- Messages
- 2,605
- Points
- 0
Europe should convert to Islam: Gaddafi
AGENCIES, Aug 31, 2010, 12.10am
ROME: Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's visit to Rome to mark the second anniversary of a friendship treaty with former coloniser Italy stumbled into controversy on Monday after he said Europe should convert to Islam.
Gaddafi made the comments on Sunday during a lecture to 500 young women hired and paid by an agency to attend his lecture. "Islam should become the religion of all of Europe," one of the women quoted Gaddafi as saying in the Italian press.
The agency paid the women, mainly students who hire themselves out for advertising of publicity events, $100 to attend and said it would not pay girls who gave their names to the press. It also told them to dress conservatively. About 200 women gathered at the Libyan cultural centre in Rome to attend a second lecture.
It was the second time the leader — who travels with female bodyguards and fancies himself a self-styled feminist — had staged such an event for Italian women, recruited by a modeling agency and paid an undisclosed sum to attend.
Michela, who did not disclose her last name, said three participants converted to Islam on the spot. "He gave us a copy of the Quran. Three girls converted themselves to Islam during the ceremony. It was a beautiful event."
Other participants, though, identifying themselves as Roman Catholics in the overwhelmingly Catholic country, said Gaddafi urged others to convert and dismissed Christianity as unimportant.
When Gaddafi was in Italy in November for a UN food summit, he hosted 200 young Italian women who had been recruited and paid $75 by the same modeling agency to attend. Then, too, he gave a lecture on Islam and handed out copies of the Quran.
The lectures are "a new, humiliating violation of Italian women's dignity," opposition lawmaker and ex-health minister Rosy Bindi said. Gaddafi's show also caused discomfort within the coalition of PMSilvio Berlusconi, a close ally of the Libyan leader. "Gaddafi's words show his dangerous Islamisation project for Europe," said European MP Mario Borghezio of Northern League, junior partner in the coalition.
Carlo Giovanardi, a government undersecretary, tried to stem the criticism, saying Gaddafi's words were simply "a remark made during a private meeting."
AGENCIES, Aug 31, 2010, 12.10am
ROME: Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's visit to Rome to mark the second anniversary of a friendship treaty with former coloniser Italy stumbled into controversy on Monday after he said Europe should convert to Islam.
Gaddafi made the comments on Sunday during a lecture to 500 young women hired and paid by an agency to attend his lecture. "Islam should become the religion of all of Europe," one of the women quoted Gaddafi as saying in the Italian press.
The agency paid the women, mainly students who hire themselves out for advertising of publicity events, $100 to attend and said it would not pay girls who gave their names to the press. It also told them to dress conservatively. About 200 women gathered at the Libyan cultural centre in Rome to attend a second lecture.
It was the second time the leader — who travels with female bodyguards and fancies himself a self-styled feminist — had staged such an event for Italian women, recruited by a modeling agency and paid an undisclosed sum to attend.
Michela, who did not disclose her last name, said three participants converted to Islam on the spot. "He gave us a copy of the Quran. Three girls converted themselves to Islam during the ceremony. It was a beautiful event."
Other participants, though, identifying themselves as Roman Catholics in the overwhelmingly Catholic country, said Gaddafi urged others to convert and dismissed Christianity as unimportant.
When Gaddafi was in Italy in November for a UN food summit, he hosted 200 young Italian women who had been recruited and paid $75 by the same modeling agency to attend. Then, too, he gave a lecture on Islam and handed out copies of the Quran.
The lectures are "a new, humiliating violation of Italian women's dignity," opposition lawmaker and ex-health minister Rosy Bindi said. Gaddafi's show also caused discomfort within the coalition of PMSilvio Berlusconi, a close ally of the Libyan leader. "Gaddafi's words show his dangerous Islamisation project for Europe," said European MP Mario Borghezio of Northern League, junior partner in the coalition.
Carlo Giovanardi, a government undersecretary, tried to stem the criticism, saying Gaddafi's words were simply "a remark made during a private meeting."
