Qadhafi Declares Shi’a Empire, Demotes Saudi King, Draws Fire

Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Qadhafi (Gaddafi) has done it again. He gave his usual rambling long speech at a North African/Saharan meeting last week. He presented certain ideas and made proposals that were sure to rile up the Arab establishment, especially its new leadership, the Saudis. And they did:

He called for the establishment of a Second Fatimid Empire. The Fatimids were the Shi’a dynasty that ruled from Cairo and controlled much of North Africa and the Eastern Mediterranean for over 200 years. They also established the city of Cairo.

He reminded everyone that the Al-Azhar Mosque and its University, now a center of Sunni theology, were established under the Fatimid Shi’as in the 10th century.

He criticized those who have done their best to raze the tombs of the Prophet Mohammed and his Sahaba early followers (in Madina, Saudi Arabia). He also referred to the efforts to obliterate historic Islamic sites in Arabia, a favorite pastime of Wahhabi extremists who consider all such monuments as heretical relics.

He said that the Two Holy Shrines are not all in Saudi Arabia: one of them is in Mecca, but the other is in Jerusalem. (In this case, someone’s title will have to be changed to "Custodian of the Single Shrine", with a demoted job description.......guess whose?).

His Proposals go against the sectarian campaign being waged in some Arab states to emphasize differences between Shi’as (Shiites) and Sunnis, and to paint the former as a suspect source of subversion and danger.

The reaction has been swift. The awesome Saudi media conglomerates, with their network of television stations and newspapers across the Arab World and in Europe (Alhayat, Asharq Alawsat, etc) have been on the offensive ever since. As have some of their allies in the Gulf states. The Colonel is daily demonized (for the wrong reason), and some religios shaikhs have been recruited to issue opinions calling his ideas ‘heretical’. Professors and academicians have also been recruited to expound on the Colonel's doubtful sanity- one academician/journalist asserted he was suffering from Schizophrenia...and he even managed to spell it right.

One thing is certain about Qadhafi: whatever you think of his often unorthodox ideas, his weird brand of dictatorship, and his deadly past, he is never boring. He would have livened up the last Arab summit in Riyadh, and made it more interesting than what it was: a meeting of mostly nondescript despots.
Cheers
Mohammed