Gaddafi causes stir with women in Rome
Libyan leader keeps raising eyebrows with second Koran 'lecture'
30 August, 17:12
(ANSA) - Rome, August 30 - Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi
continued to cause a stir during a Rome visit Monday by wheeling
out another four busloads of young women to receive another
lecture on the Koran.Islam is "the last religion and if you want to believe in a single faith then it must be that of Mohammed," the colonel reportedly told 200 women hired by a Rome hostess agency, some of them wearing headscarves and one sporting a picture of Gaddafi around her neck.
"He didn't try to convert us," said Elena Racoviciano, 21, from Naples, after emerging from a photography exhibit at the new Libyan Cultural Institute.
Gaddafi held a similar meeting with 500 women provided by the same agency on Sunday, three of whom reportedly converted to Islam.
"Women are more respected in Libya than in the West and the United States," was another of Gaddafi's remarks conveyed by Racoviciano.
In his first encounter with the hostesses, after an impromptu stroll around central Rome, the dictator urged them to marry Libyan men.
Gaddafi's lectures to the women and his statement that Islam should be "Europe's religion" have sparked opposition from Catholic and feminist groups as well as prompting accusations that Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi is pandering to him.
The Italian opposition has also protested that the women involved in the event have been "humiliated" while a member of Berlusconi's People of Freedom party, Potito Salatto, said "I'd like to see the reception Berlusconi got if he tried to sell Bibles in Tripoli".
A political foundation close to House Speaker Gianfranco Fini, Farefuturo, said "Italy is becoming Gaddafi's Disneyland".
The Italian branch of Amnesty International called on Berlusconi to ask Gaddafi, at a formal dinner Monday night, about the state of human rights in his country. Under the 2008 Friendship Treaty, Italy agreed to pay $5 billion reparations over 20 years, much of it creating work for Italian firms, for its 1911-1943 occupation of the north African country.
During his trip, Gaddafi is staying in his trademark Bedouin tent, planted in the grounds of the Libyan ambassador's residence.
The major topics of the visit, such as immigration, new gas accords, and the Libyan coastal highway Italian firms are building as part of 2008 deal, will be covered at a Monday night dinner. The dinner, at which Berlusconi will provide Gaddafi with a fast-breaking 'Iftar' meal during Ramadan, will have some 800 guests including the entire Italian government.
There will also be representatives of Italian companies like energy giant Eni, construction group Impregilo, hi-tech industrial group Finmeccanica and Italy's biggest bank, Unicredit, with which Libya has major business interests.
Entertainment will include a folklore show featuring Arab and Carabinieri horsemen.
The Libyan leader has brought 30 Berber horses to Rome for the occasion. Gaddafi is scheduled to leave Italy on Tuesday.
