If you’re African and prefer to seize power by force because no-one in their right minds would ever vote for you, where do you go for support? The answer is, you will always find a warm welcome in Muammar Gaddafi’s Libyan terrorist training camps. Gaddafi has now been the sponsor of a considerable proportion of insurrection, destabilisation and indiscriminate violence across Africa for more than 30 years. If there is any single person who can claim credit for widespread African poverty and corruption, Gaddafi is your man.
Gaddafi visited Uganda last week, and let fly with several of his well-considered pieces of political philosophy. He urged heads of African governments to abandon constitutionalism so as to extend their terms of rule. He singled out Zimbabwe’s president Robert Mugabe and Uganda’s president Yoweri Museveni as the most “visionary” leaders on the continent today. Mugabe, of course, holds the world record for creating the fastest economic decline of any country and the highest inflation rate.
For good measure, and just in time for Easter, Gaddafi proclaimed that the Bible is a forgery: “The Bible we have now is not the one that was revealed to Issa [Jesus] and the Old Testament is not the one that was revealed to Musa [Moses]. Muhammad is mentioned in both (original versions), but the Tora and Bible we have now, there is no mention of him.” I’m sure we’re all looking forward to the day when archaeologists dig up an “original” version of the Bible which does mention Muhammad.