{"id":5145,"date":"2009-11-25T00:00:38","date_gmt":"2009-11-25T08:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/muslimahmediawatch.org\/?p=5145"},"modified":"2009-11-25T00:00:38","modified_gmt":"2009-11-25T08:00:38","slug":"conversion-perversion-gaddafis-attempt-at-dawah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mmw\/2009\/11\/conversion-perversion-gaddafis-attempt-at-dawah\/","title":{"rendered":"Conversion Perversion: Gaddafi’s Attempt at Dawah"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

While in Rome for the U.N. World Food Summit last week, Libyan leader Muammar al Gaddafi engaged in an unusual form of dawah: \u00a0inviting 500 Italian escorts to convert to Islam.<\/p>\n

The women, employed by Hostessweb agency, were under the impression they were attending a party. The agency advertised<\/a> for \u201c\u2026500 attractive girls between 18 and 35 years old, at least 1.70 meters (5 foot, 7 inches) tall, well-dressed but not in mini-skirts or low cut dresses.\u201d Those who replied were offered \u20ac60 euros ($90) to attend an evening at the Libyan ambassador\u2019s villa for an \u201cexchange of opinions\u201d and to \u201creceive a Libyan gift\u201d, which turned out to be a copy of the Qur\u2019an, Gaddafi\u2019s own Green Book <\/em>on the Libyan revolution, and a pamphlet entitled How to be a Muslim<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"The
The escorts were given copies of the Qur'an. Image via Massimo Percossi\/EPA.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The women were lectured<\/a> for about two hours on varying Islamic topics, including the role of women in Islam, sexism in the west, and Islam\u2019s belief about Jesus\u2019 crucifixion. The second meeting<\/a> was less formal, and the new batch of women were allowed to ask him questions.<\/p>\n

Gaddafi has held similar lectures before<\/a> and sees himself as a self-proclaimed savior of European women. Whatever his intentions, it is important to note that his recent effort was a result of individual inclination, not supported by The Arab League or any sort of Muslim council.<\/p>\n

So aside form being a typically wacky Gaddafi publicity stunt, was there any benefit in the meetings? What did Gaddafi say? And what did he wear<\/em>?<\/p>\n

Well, according to this Times Online <\/em>article<\/a> (which runs a photo of him clad in a sleek beret, female bodyguards in the shadows), his message was coherent and consistent with the teachings of Islam, if not a little uplifting.<\/p>\n

After claiming he was \u201cfor and alongside women,\u201d Gaddafi said it was untrue that Islam is against women and then criticized the way they were treated in eastern countries, likening them to pieces of furniture:<\/p>\n

\u201cWomen have often been used as pieces of furniture, changed whenever it pleases men. And this is an injustice.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

He pointed out that whereas there were four different Gospels, there was only one Quran. And since this is Gaddafi, he wasn\u2019t shy about bluntly stating his objective:<\/p>\n

\u201cConvert to Islam. \u2026 Whoever goes in a different direction than Mohammed is wrong. God\u2019s religion is Islam, and whoever follows a different one, in the end, will lose.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Why an Arab leader feels the need to\u00a0 preach about Islam is bizarre in itself. But consider his audience: for a report of what happened next we have to thank an ingenious Paola Lo Mele, a reporter from the Ansa news agency\u00a0 who snuck into the Sunday event by posing as a hostess. She said<\/a> the women, \u201cexpecting a party with gala dinner,\u201d gathered at a hotel in Rome, where those \u201cinappropriately attired or not tall enough were weeded out.\u201d<\/p>\n

If one\u2019s intention is to convert women to religion, which in essence focuses on modesty and not outward appearance, why does it matter what they look like? Or more specifically, since inappropriately attired probably means too much skin (in this context), why care about the height?<\/p>\n

That Gaddafi invited these women, specifically chosen for their youth and beauty, speaks volumes about his impressions of Western women. Why not preach to housewives, mid-age professionals, or men? <\/em> He specifically chose beautiful young women, whose job it is to mingle and provide hospitality at social events, to make a statement. A rather disheartening one at that, because it implies Islam is mostly against women who dress up, but is only for women whose outward appearance fits within societal beauty norms. It once again puts the problem <\/em>on women by focusing on the way they look.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While in Rome for the U.N. World Food Summit last week, Libyan leader Muammar al Gaddafi engaged in an unusual form of dawah: \u00a0inviting 500 Italian escorts to convert to Islam. The women, employed by Hostessweb agency, were under the impression they were attending a party. The agency advertised for \u201c\u2026500 attractive girls between 18 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":167,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[310,332,894,1215],"class_list":["post-5145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-events","tag-conversion","tag-dawah","tag-muammar-al-gaddafi","tag-sexism"],"yoast_head":"\nConversion Perversion: Gaddafi's Attempt at Dawah<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"While in Rome for the U.N. World Food Summit last week, Libyan leader Muammar al Gaddafi engaged in an unusual form of dawah: \u00a0inviting 500 Italian\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mmw\/2009\/11\/conversion-perversion-gaddafis-attempt-at-dawah\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Conversion Perversion: Gaddafi's Attempt at Dawah\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"While in Rome for the U.N. World Food Summit last week, Libyan leader Muammar al Gaddafi engaged in an unusual form of dawah: \u00a0inviting 500 Italian\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mmw\/2009\/11\/conversion-perversion-gaddafis-attempt-at-dawah\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Muslimah Media Watch\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-11-25T08:00:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com\/blogs\/mmw\/files\/2009\/11\/Gaddafi_2__646176a.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"yusra\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"yusra\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mmw\/2009\/11\/conversion-perversion-gaddafis-attempt-at-dawah\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mmw\/2009\/11\/conversion-perversion-gaddafis-attempt-at-dawah\/\",\"name\":\"Conversion Perversion: Gaddafi's Attempt at Dawah\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mmw\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2009-11-25T08:00:38+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2009-11-25T08:00:38+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mmw\/#\/schema\/person\/445c25c58d35a63e38ae6cf52aef4a11\"},\"description\":\"While in Rome for the U.N. World Food Summit last week, Libyan leader Muammar al Gaddafi engaged in an unusual form of dawah: \u00a0inviting 500 Italian\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mmw\/2009\/11\/conversion-perversion-gaddafis-attempt-at-dawah\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mmw\/2009\/11\/conversion-perversion-gaddafis-attempt-at-dawah\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mmw\/2009\/11\/conversion-perversion-gaddafis-attempt-at-dawah\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mmw\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Conversion Perversion: Gaddafi’s Attempt at Dawah\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mmw\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mmw\/\",\"name\":\"Muslimah Media Watch\",\"description\":\"Looking at Muslim women in the media and pop culture\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mmw\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mmw\/#\/schema\/person\/445c25c58d35a63e38ae6cf52aef4a11\",\"name\":\"yusra\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mmw\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f59bf3c2f86c71dfc4cfa1478abfa82a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f59bf3c2f86c71dfc4cfa1478abfa82a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"yusra\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mmw\/author\/yusra\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Conversion Perversion: Gaddafi's Attempt at Dawah","description":"While in Rome for the U.N. World Food Summit last week, Libyan leader Muammar al Gaddafi engaged in an unusual form of dawah: \u00a0inviting 500 Italian","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mmw\/2009\/11\/conversion-perversion-gaddafis-attempt-at-dawah\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Conversion Perversion: Gaddafi's Attempt at Dawah","og_description":"While in Rome for the U.N. World Food Summit last week, Libyan leader Muammar al Gaddafi engaged in an unusual form of dawah: \u00a0inviting 500 Italian","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mmw\/2009\/11\/conversion-perversion-gaddafis-attempt-at-dawah\/","og_site_name":"Muslimah Media Watch","article_published_time":"2009-11-25T08:00:38+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com\/blogs\/mmw\/files\/2009\/11\/Gaddafi_2__646176a.jpg"}],"author":"yusra","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"yusra","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mmw\/2009\/11\/conversion-perversion-gaddafis-attempt-at-dawah\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mmw\/2009\/11\/conversion-perversion-gaddafis-attempt-at-dawah\/","name":"Conversion Perversion: Gaddafi's Attempt at Dawah","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mmw\/#website"},"datePublished":"2009-11-25T08:00:38+00:00","dateModified":"2009-11-25T08:00:38+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mmw\/#\/schema\/person\/445c25c58d35a63e38ae6cf52aef4a11"},"description":"While in Rome for the U.N. World Food Summit last week, Libyan leader Muammar al Gaddafi engaged in an unusual form of dawah: \u00a0inviting 500 Italian","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mmw\/2009\/11\/conversion-perversion-gaddafis-attempt-at-dawah\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mmw\/2009\/11\/conversion-perversion-gaddafis-attempt-at-dawah\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mmw\/2009\/11\/conversion-perversion-gaddafis-attempt-at-dawah\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mmw\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Conversion Perversion: Gaddafi’s Attempt at Dawah"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mmw\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mmw\/","name":"Muslimah Media Watch","description":"Looking at Muslim women in the media and pop culture","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mmw\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mmw\/#\/schema\/person\/445c25c58d35a63e38ae6cf52aef4a11","name":"yusra","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mmw\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f59bf3c2f86c71dfc4cfa1478abfa82a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f59bf3c2f86c71dfc4cfa1478abfa82a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"yusra"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mmw\/author\/yusra\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mmw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mmw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mmw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mmw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/167"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mmw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5145"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mmw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5145\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mmw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mmw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mmw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}