| Muʿammar al-Qaḏḏāfī (Arabic معمر القذافي [muʕam ː ar alqaðða ː fi ː], Libyan Arabic. معمر القذافي [muʕæm ː ɑr ˤ əlɡæddæ ː fi]; born June 7, 1942) - Libya's state and military figure, revolution leader and head of the (de facto) Libya (since 1969), Chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council of Libya (1969 - 1977), Prime Minister and Defence Minister of Libya (1970 - 1972), Secretary General of the General People's Congress of Libya (1977 - 1979) and a Colonel.
After overthrowing the monarchy, he later formulated the "Third International Theory" (Jamahiriya), as outlined in his three-volume work "The Green Book". During his reign, Libya has repeatedly been accused of interfering in the affairs of foreign countries. In 1977, the border war took place with Egypt and in the 1980s, the country was embroiled in an armed conflict in Chad. Being a strong supporter of pan-Arabism, Gaddafi took measures to unify Libya with a number of countries, which ended unsuccessfully. He supported numerous national liberations and revolutionary and terrorist organizations around the world. Major terrorist attacks, which had a Libyan trail, were the cause for bombing the country in 1986 and the imposition of sanctions in 1990.
Biography:
Early years:
Muammar Gaddafi was born in 1942 in a Bedouin tent, around 30km south of Sirt city, in a Bedouin family, which belonged to the al-Gaddafi tribe. His grandfather was killed in 1911 by an Italian colonist.
Head of State:
On January 16, 1970, Muammar Gaddafi became Prime Minister, Defence minister and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. One of the first measures taken by the new leadership under Gaddafi was the evacuation of foreign military bases from Libyan territory. During 1969-1971, all the foreign banks and land property, belonging to Italians, were nationalized. The State has also nationalized the property of foreign oil companies and other oil companies were nationalized with a 51% stake.
After coming to power, one of the first steps of Gaddafi was to reform the calendar: the months were renamed and the chronology has been followed from the year of the death of the Prophet Muhammad.
Family:
On December 25, 1969, Muammar Gaddafi married Fatiha Nuri Khaled, former school teacher and daughter of a Libyan officer. From this marriage, which ended in divorce, they have a son Muhammad. Gaddafi married Safiya Farkash, his second marriage on July 1970. Safiya Farkash was a nurse and the couple has six sons and one daughter.
Daughter Ayesha was part of the defense team of ousted Iraqi president Saddam Hussein.
Interesting facts:
Gaddafi stated that English playwright William Shakespeare was an Arab immigrant, and according to him, Shakespeare was called "Sheik Zubair" in his native place, from where he went to England.
In the 1980's, the image of Gaddafi was used in the popular American music video by the "Bangles -" Walk like an Egyptian".
During the August coup in Moscow, Muammar al-Gaddafi supported the State Committee of the State of Emergency.
In April 2001, the Libyan leader urged the people of Africa to drive away the whites from the Black continent and demand compensation from them for the "colonization and genocide on African soil".
In 2002, a book of short stories and essays by Gaddafi with the name "Fury ants and thoughts of Muammar Gaddafi Dictator about himself" was published in the USA.
In 2006, Muammar Gaddafi declared that Coca-Cola originated in Libya and demanded royalties from the company "Coca-Cola".
In October 2009, Muammar Gaddafi appealed to members of the government and delegates of the People's Congress (parliament) of the country with a request to find the right socially-significant work for his son Saif al-Arab. The members of government and delegates of the People's Congress promptly responded by nominating Saif al-Arab as head of the government and security forces of Libya. The next convention of the People's Congress should finally approve the decision, as a result of which Saif will become the second person in Libya's political hierarchy.
During his visit to the Apennines in November 2009, Muammar Gaddafi convened several hundreds of Italians in his residence in Rome and tried to convince them to convert to Islam and one of the reasons for this, was his assertion that Christianity is based on fraud.
In 2010, Gaddafi urged for a jihad against Switzerland because of introducing a ban on the construction of minarets in the country in 2009 by calling Switzerland "an infidel, an obscene state, which is destroying mosques".
The leader of the Revolution proposed to divide Nigeria into two states - Christian and Islamic, to prevent bloodshed between the two communities of the country and also praised the partition of India in 1947.
In 2003, Muammar Gaddafi, according to American magazine "Parade", was ranked 8th in the top ten worst dictators of our time.
Remembrance:
The image of Muammar Gaddafi is seen on Libya's banknote of highest denomination, the 50 Dinars.
In 1988, the Al-Gaddafi International Prize for Human Rights was instituted.
The cricket stadium in Lahore (Pakistan) and a mosque in Kampala (Uganda) were named in the honor of Gaddafi.
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