Gaddafi, The Great Jokester (and Joke)

By Semperpapa

Robert Spencer at jihadwatch.com reports that Moamar Gaddafi, strongman of Libya, was visiting Rome on the second anniversary of the signing of a friendship document between the Italian government and the North African country.
While in Rome, Gaddafi made the public statement that Europe should accept Islam. Refusing to do so would mean that the European Union would have to pay Libya 4 billion Euros each year.
Gaddafi has also warned that if Europe should also refuse to pay the Jizya to Tripoli, than Europe would turn black due to the unleashing of black illegal immigrants from Africa.

The Italian authorities, naturally, told Gaddafi to basically kiss off on the idea of accepting Islam and I doubt very much that the Italian government would even consider paying the ransom that the Libyan dictator is demanding, so only time will tell if the threats made will be acted upon.

The animosity between the North African country and Italy go back 80 years, when the Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini got up one morning and decided that he was going to build a new Roman Empire, starting in Eritrea and then going into Libya.

With the end of the Fascist era and the defeat of the Axis forces in WWII, Italy lost the control of Libya and every other part of the “empire” and the animosity of the Libyan people against Italy has been there, veiled and in the open.

For years, there have been many cases of Sicilian fishing vessels being abducted and taken “prisoner” by Libyan naval forces while fishing in the Sicilian Channel that separates the southern Italian island and Libya. And for years the Italian government simply paid the ransom and eventually the fishermen would be allowed to return home.
Of course the incidents were so low on the priority list of the Italian government and Media, after all who really cares for some Sicilian fishermen, that very little publicity was given to the incidents.

Gaddafi had been claiming for years his right to snatch any vessel and attack any aircraft that would violate the Gulf of Sydra, an portion of the Mediterranean Sea well beyond the internationally agreed 12 miles from coastline.
When Libyan fighter jets tried to enforce that false claim against the U.S. Navy 5th fleet in the 1980s, they quickly realized that maybe they had made a mistake.

Only time will tell the repercussion, if any, that Gaddafi will be able to master against the Italian government. And that will probably, and hopefully, set the tone for the rest of Europe to tell Gaddafi and the rest of Islam to go pound sand, no punt intended.

Just my thoughts!