Feb. 27, 2010
 
COMMENTARY: Weak Protests from the UN and EU as Gadaffi Calls for Jihad Against Switzerland: Why Is That?
 
By Joseph J. Honick
 
It was only about a year and a half ago that Messrs George W Bush and Tony Blair warmly and physically hugged Libyan Dictator Muamar Gadaffi and helped the United Nations just as glowingly welcome him back to the “family of nations.”
 
Yet today, the same Gadaffi who admitted involvement in the Lockerbie disaster that killed nearly 300 innocent airline passengers, the same guy who offered and then reneged on payments to the victims’ families and then received the warm welcome of the outfit allegedly committed to peace, the UN…well this fellow now calls for bloody response instead of diplomacy against a traditionally neutral nation because it froze further construction of minarets.
 
In the words of Dictator Gadaffi: “Any Muslim in any part of the world who works with Switzerland is an apostate, is against Mohammed, God and the Koran….”The masses of Muslims must go to all airports in the Islamic world and prevent any Swiss plane landing, to all harbors and prevent any Swiss ships docking, inspect all shops and markets to stop any Swiss goods being sold.” He concluded with the inflammatory “Jihad against Switzerland, against Zionism, against foreign aggression is not terrorism.”
 
All that an EU spokesperson could seem to muster was:
 
“If these reports are correct, they come at a most unfortunate moment.” From the UN’s Sergei Ordzhonikidze: “I believe such declarations on the part of the head of state are inadmissible.”
 
These are hardly the kinds of reactions that seem to have come more swiftly and angrily for virtually anything the State of Israel might say or do, according to others who read and heard Gadaffi’s outburst.
 
Those who review the inconsistencies of the UN wonder if that body will now review its own glowing welcome of the same dictator who not only admitted culpability in a major airline crime but helped with the release of the one person convicted of active participation in the Lockerbie disaster. Most doubt much of anything will be done except to wring diplomatic hands and try to quiet the situation.
 
Some wonder openly if this kid glove treatment that is more “Oh, Dear” than anything else has much to do with the subject of Arab oil.
 
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Honick is an international consultant to business and government and writes for many publications, including www.huntingtonnews.net. Honick can be reached at jhonick@gmail.com