11-17-2009, 06:48 PM
Food Summit: Gaddafi asks women to convert to Islam
Rome, 16 Nov. (AKI) - Libya's controversial leader Muammar Gaddafi has created headlines in Italy after inviting 200 women to a party and inviting them to convert to Islam. Gaddafi who is in Rome for the United Nations-sponsored global food summit, held the party at the house of the Libyan ambassador, Hafed Gaddur, on Sunday.
"Convert to Islam. Jesus was sent to the Jews, not for you. Mohammed, on the other hand, was sent for all human beings," he reportedly said.
"Whoever goes in a different direction than Mohammed is wrong. God's religion is Islam and whomever follows a different one, in the end, will lose," said Gaddafi quoted by Italian daily La Stampa.
After arriving an hour late, Gaddafi began distributing gifts to the women, who were reportedly all Italian.
They were also each given a copy of the Islamic holy book the Koran as well as the Libyan leader's Green Book, which outlines the Libyan leader's view on political philosophy and democracy.
He then sat next to Libya's ambassador to Italy Hafed Gaddur and an interpreter with two of his renowned female guards, known as 'Amazon Guards'.
Gaddafi then began a speech in which he invited the women to convert to Islam, emphasising his support for equal rights but not equal duties.
According to the Libyan leader, women must do only "what their physical condition allows them" and spoke about the role that women played during World War II.
Gaddafi criticised the West, saying that women there "have often been used as pieces of furniture, changed whenever it pleases men. And this is an injustice."
Gaddafi also invited the women attending the party to travel to the Islamic holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia.
The Italian media said that the women came from an agency that provides "hostesses from good families" between the age of 18 to 35. They were reportedly paid 50 euros.
Reports said the women were not given anything to eat or drink before, during or after Gaddafi's speech.
The women - who were very well dressed were told that short skirts and cleavage were forbidden - met at a hotel in the centre of Rome and were then escorted to the Libyan ambassador's home.
Gaddafi is in Rome for the world food summit organised by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization that opened on Monday.
Rome, 16 Nov. (AKI) - Libya's controversial leader Muammar Gaddafi has created headlines in Italy after inviting 200 women to a party and inviting them to convert to Islam. Gaddafi who is in Rome for the United Nations-sponsored global food summit, held the party at the house of the Libyan ambassador, Hafed Gaddur, on Sunday.
"Convert to Islam. Jesus was sent to the Jews, not for you. Mohammed, on the other hand, was sent for all human beings," he reportedly said.
"Whoever goes in a different direction than Mohammed is wrong. God's religion is Islam and whomever follows a different one, in the end, will lose," said Gaddafi quoted by Italian daily La Stampa.
After arriving an hour late, Gaddafi began distributing gifts to the women, who were reportedly all Italian.
They were also each given a copy of the Islamic holy book the Koran as well as the Libyan leader's Green Book, which outlines the Libyan leader's view on political philosophy and democracy.
He then sat next to Libya's ambassador to Italy Hafed Gaddur and an interpreter with two of his renowned female guards, known as 'Amazon Guards'.
Gaddafi then began a speech in which he invited the women to convert to Islam, emphasising his support for equal rights but not equal duties.
According to the Libyan leader, women must do only "what their physical condition allows them" and spoke about the role that women played during World War II.
Gaddafi criticised the West, saying that women there "have often been used as pieces of furniture, changed whenever it pleases men. And this is an injustice."
Gaddafi also invited the women attending the party to travel to the Islamic holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia.
The Italian media said that the women came from an agency that provides "hostesses from good families" between the age of 18 to 35. They were reportedly paid 50 euros.
Reports said the women were not given anything to eat or drink before, during or after Gaddafi's speech.
The women - who were very well dressed were told that short skirts and cleavage were forbidden - met at a hotel in the centre of Rome and were then escorted to the Libyan ambassador's home.
Gaddafi is in Rome for the world food summit organised by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization that opened on Monday.