Asians who are not involved in the hostilities in North Africa- in Libya but are so familiar with how the conflict started and why the so insignificant and triffling incident of self emulation by a street vendor in Tunisia who burnt himself in the street in protest against his government for his own poverty. To most of us in Asia particularly in the Philippines the incident could be treated a non-brain issue. But voila!! the effect to the Tunisian people, when they saw the man burning himself in the street because of poverty spread like wildfire that engulfed the country and brought about massive public demonstrations and peaceful rallies in the streets and in major public places in Tunisia,which eventually led to the ousting of their president,Ben Bali. The conflagration did not stop there or just refused to stop. In Egypt the next-door neighbor of Tunisia the burning continued. More massive street demonstrations and rallies were staged in Cairo, the capital of Egypt, the center of government and trade for weeks that shook and intimidated government powers not seen in recent history. And as the event went on and seemingly become out of control when thousands of Egyptian citizens died because of the crisis, President Hosni Mubarak decided to come down, out of his office not for fear of his life but to stop more bloodshed and avoid a more devastating civil war that could bring the country down and impoverish more the Egyptian people.
Though life in Tunisia and Egypt has not significantlty changed for the better, their leaders are continously instituting reforms in government and striving hard to initiate changes that would hopefully reshape their economy and society. Yet the best thing that happened to these two countries is, they stopped killing one another. The peace may be temporary but their leaders with assistance from the international community are struggling hard to make peace sustainable.
Going back to the seemingly never-ending conflagration, to the next border neighbor, Libya. Libya is still burning now with the smoke of modern warfare still fuming up not unlike the smoke of the Mt Pinatubo volcanoe erruptions way back the 1990s. The Libyan leader Moamar Gaddafi, who is branded by almost all international media as the Megalomaniac tyrant has choosen to put blood into his own hands by killing his own people who protested against his 42-year rule as dictator. Gaddafi is like the opposite of his two counterparts in Tunisia and Egypt. He chose to disgrace himself, his family and children which to many of us Asians we hold dear.
My search and research in the web about Moammar's childhood, early life, his rise to power, including his Green book revealed not a piece of evidence about his good morals and right conduct. Simply said I could not find good about the man who is the son of a Bedouin farmer and born in a tent in the desert near the the town of Sirte in Southern Libya in 1942 - (a baby boomer?) senior citizen nearing his departure area. Moammar Gaddafi is a devout muslim. The entire muslim community has no qualms about his faith and devotion to Islam. No wonder he persuaded all his followers to accept his kind of leadership for more than four decades, another proof of the old saying,' most people prefer a strong leader no matter in what direction. For Asians like me who live in the Philippines, opening my computer daily and visit Libya's latest news, watch the videos and read the events blow by blow like the NATO bombing raids and Gaddafi's forces trying hard to survive, wow! its like watching Oscar de la Joya struggling it out with Manny Pacquiao in the Las Vegas Boxing arena. But now let me go back to the buning issue that is the war now going on in Libya that has involved the most powerfull nations in the world. No it is not a world war yet. But at this point in time to most people including myself it is very hard to ignore or pretend not to know the religious dimentions of the events in Libya. The issue of religion is very sesitive that no one would like to talk about But let me tell you a cousin of mine a muslim nurse from Zamboagga city who was preparing her papers to leave and work in Saudi Arabia, asked mewhen she visited me in the house, " Uncle what is the best gift I can give you before I leave?" she asked seemingly serious looking at my condition as a senior citizen and a stroke victim. Give me a quran book, was my answer. "Of all things you are not a muslim." was her surprising reply. Yes but reading the quran will not deminish my own faith nor make me a muslim was my answer. After a week she came back with the book. She explained to me the book is very sacred to them that she has to illustrate how the book should be handled and how to read it. Today Merci is working in a Saudi hospital. After reading the book for quite some time, I noted some chapters and verses that I found relevant to the events in Libya. To this may I request you to get the book and read it with open mind the following chapters and verses 2:190-193
2:216
3:157-158
3:169
After reading the above listI justified all these by the fact that there are many Islam schools and many of them have different interpretation of the quran. That I personally believed that devout muslim need not become violent to be worthy of the faith#Mel later I'll talk to lolo Ampong bye
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