{"id":6450,"date":"2011-08-25T06:56:30","date_gmt":"2011-08-25T10:56:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/news\/?p=6450"},"modified":"2011-08-25T06:58:39","modified_gmt":"2011-08-25T10:58:39","slug":"canadas-national-post-gaddafis-eccentric-philosophies-even-pushed-islam-aside","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/08\/canadas-national-post-gaddafis-eccentric-philosophies-even-pushed-islam-aside","title":{"rendered":"Canada’s National Post: Gaddafi’s eccentric philosophies even pushed Islam aside"},"content":{"rendered":"

Muammar Gaddafi was never your average dictator. Fueled by Libya’s oil billions, he “morphed into something more closely resembling a cult leader and quasi-mystic than a conventional Arab autocrat,” writes\u00a0\u00a0Jonathan Kay in Canada’s\u00a0National Post<\/em> newspaper.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Gaddafi in the 1980s<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“Dictatorships come in different flavors,” writes Kay, “Communist, fascist, Islamist. Gaddafi’s dying regime doesn’t fit any of these boxes. What we’re witnessing in Tripoli is the extinction of a one-of-a-kind creature.”<\/p>\n

Gaddafi took power in 1969 the old-fashioned Third World way, through a military coup, deposing Libya’s corrupt King Idris.\u00a0But once in control,\u00a0Gaddafi kept his title as colonel, never promoting himself to\u00a0“general.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

Even in the early years,\u00a0he would disappear for months of self-imposed “contemplative exile,” during which time he would receive apocalyptic visions of global confrontation. Western journalists who visited him came away describing a tent-dwelling dreamer who imagined himself a pan-African king, writes Kay.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“He made clumsy passes at female reporters, and published an eccentric, all-knowing guide to life and politics – the Green Book. <\/em><\/p>\n

“Gaddafi banned kindergartens, wrestling and many forms of professional athletics, on the theory that ‘mass sport is a social need of human beings, so it is unacceptable from either a sporting or a democratic point of view to “subcontract” to others,'” writes Kay:<\/p>\n

Middle Eastern leaders ban all sorts of things in the name of Islam.<\/p>\n

But Gaddafi made it plain that his philosophy of life, “Third International Theory,” superseded Islam whenever his whim dictated.<\/p>\n

He wanted to run his nation the way Woody Allen ruled the fictional island of “San Marcos” in Bananas. <\/em>In that movie, Allen’s character declared: “From this day on, the official language of San Marcos will be Swedish. In addition to that, all citizens will be required to change their underwear every half-hour. Underwear will be worn on the outside so we can check.”<\/p>\n

Yet that is scarcely more ridiculous than Gaddafi’s 1998 edict that “I would like Libya to become a black country. Hence, I recommend to Libyan men to marry only black women, and to Libyan women to marry black men.”<\/p>\n

Unlike Gaddafi, most “normal” Arab dictators do not aspire to become philosopher kings.<\/p>\n

Certainly, Saddam Hussein and Syria’s Assad clan never bothered writing their own high-flown tracts: They slaughtered people to make their point.<\/p>\n

CLICK HERE to read more<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Muammar Gaddafi was never your average dictator. Fueled by Libya’s oil billions, he “morphed into something more closely resembling a cult leader and quasi-mystic than a conventional Arab autocrat,” writes\u00a0\u00a0Jonathan Kay in Canada’s\u00a0National Post newspaper. “Dictatorships come in different flavors,” writes Kay, “Communist, fascist, Islamist. Gaddafi’s dying regime doesn’t fit any of these boxes. What…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":270,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[1474,2208,13],"class_list":["post-6450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-islam","tag-gaddafi","tag-islam","tag-libya"],"yoast_head":"\nCanada's National Post: Gaddafi's eccentric philosophies even pushed Islam aside<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/08\/canadas-national-post-gaddafis-eccentric-philosophies-even-pushed-islam-aside\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Canada's National Post: Gaddafi's eccentric philosophies even pushed Islam aside\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Muammar Gaddafi was never your average dictator. Fueled by Libya’s oil billions, he “morphed into something more closely resembling a cult leader and quasi-mystic than a conventional Arab autocrat,” writes\u00a0\u00a0Jonathan Kay in Canada’s\u00a0National Post newspaper. “Dictatorships come in different flavors,” writes Kay, “Communist, fascist, Islamist. Gaddafi’s dying regime doesn’t fit any of these boxes. 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Fueled by Libya’s oil billions, he “morphed into something more closely resembling a cult leader and quasi-mystic than a conventional Arab autocrat,” writes\u00a0\u00a0Jonathan Kay in Canada’s\u00a0National Post newspaper. “Dictatorships come in different flavors,” writes Kay, “Communist, fascist, Islamist. Gaddafi’s dying regime doesn’t fit any of these boxes. 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