We Are The Champions ....

I am cravenly snatching this from Myrtus' blog but I'm doing so not from any admission of writer's block but to make this piece as risible visible as possible. I confess that I began questioning Gaddafi (not seen left)'s sanity when my application for a visitor's visa to Libya was denied back in '92, and my concerns were further strengthened when I heard that Lionel Richie is still a popular performer in Tripoli ("rocks Libya" to be precise), but now this?

Gaddafi Says Only Islam is a Universal Religion

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi said on Friday that it was a mistake to believe that Christianity was a universal faith alongside Islam.

"There are serious mistakes -- among them the one saying that Jesus came as a messenger for other people other than the sons of Israel," he told a mass prayer meeting in Niger.

"Christianity is not a faith for people in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas. Other people who are not sons of Israel have nothing to do with that religion," he said at the prayer meeting, held to mark the birth of the prophet Mohammed.

Gaddafi, who is seeking to expand his influence in Africa, said his arguments came from the Koran. He led similar prayers last year in Mali.

"It is a mistake that another religion exists alongside Islam. There is only one religion which is Islam after Mohammed," he said in the sermon, which was broadcast live on Libyan state television.

"All those believers who do not follow Islam are losers (CinR's italics)," he added. "We are here to correct the mistakes in the light of the teachings of the Koran."

Gaddafi also said it was a mistake to believe that Jesus had been crucified and killed. "It is not correct to say that. Another man resembling Jesus was crucified in his place."

Wow. What can I say? If he's basing these erudite insights on information found in the Q'uran, then he must be right. I hope he can dig up something in the Qu'ran on Jainism and Manichaeism too. Oh, and maybe how the Blue Jays are going to do this season. The Qu'ran is chock full of surprises. I had a student tell me once that the Qu'ran affirmed Morocco's right to have nuclear energy, so who knows?