(New York Times) Emad Mekay - Libya's embattled leader, Col. Muammar Gaddafi, who crushed his country's Islamic movement during his 41-year rule, turned in the past week to Saudi Islamic scholars in a bid for religious backing. Sheik Ayed al-Qarni, a prominent Saudi cleric, told Al Arabiya on Sunday that he had refused an appeal in a phone call from Gaddafi's son Saadi to issue a fatwa, or religious edict, banning demonstrations against his father's rule. Instead, the cleric issued a fatwa against Gaddafi. Mainstream Islamic Web sites mocked the attempts by Gaddafi's sons to drum up religious support. At one point he sought to market his Green Book, in which he spells out his philosophy, as an alternative to the Koran.
2011-03-04 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive