CrossFireArabia
By Raouf Qubaisi
I was deeply saddened by the death of Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, who was assassinated by ruthless and heartless individuals recently. I knew Saif al-Islam from many gatherings in London with friends, including his advisor and relative, Dr. Abdullah Othman, and the Libyan intellectual, Dr. Abdul-Muttalib al-Houni, whom I called at his residence in Rome to offer my condolences on Saif’s death.
Saif al-Islam was humble, friendly, and an astute opponent of his father’s policies. I was the one who arranged an interview for him with the Sunday Times, conducted by the esteemed Lebanese journalist and friend, Hala Jaber, which the prestigious British newspaper published on its front page.
In that interview, Saif said that “Libya needs a new administration.” This statement, as I recall, was the title of the interview, and it provoked the ire of his father, the Colonel, and the anger of his brothers and the elders of his tribe, many of whom were sycophants concerned only with their personal interests at the expense of their country. This was the state of Libya and its inevitable fate.
In the late 1990s, Saif al-Islam invited me to visit Libya. While at his home in Tripoli, I didn’t hesitate to ask him about the disappeared Imam Musa al-Sadr, and whether he was still in Libya, or had left for Italy as the Libyan government claimed. He refused to answer me, saying: “Let’s leave this subject, Raouf!” It would have been easy for him to say that Imam al-Sadr had left for Italy, and it wouldn’t have mattered to him, being the son of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, his own flesh and blood.
But he prioritized reason over instinct, personal interest, and tribal loyalty, placing the interests of his country first. He was known for his derision of tribes and their interference in politics. I mentioned this information and my meeting with him in an article I published in the Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar in 2015, titled: (Gaddafi, the “Moderate,” Stands Against the “Revolution”: How He Missed His Last Chance and Became a Prisoner). This article is still available on the newspaper’s website for those who wish to read it.
Saif al-Islam Gaddafi was secular in his inclinations, thought, and approach. He was untouched by corruption, and unlike his brothers, he hated nothing as much as he hated power and wealth. This was a moral principle for him. I say this with conviction, and this is why Libyans loved him, even as much as they resented his father, the Colonel’s, policies.
Had he been given the chance to rule Libya, he would have transformed it. From a Third World country to a Second World country—if we can even resort to this hierarchy in judging nations and peoples, speaking of a First World, a Second World, and a Third World, after concepts and terminology have changed, and after the United States, the “mother of the free world,” has revealed a new face under a new, arrogant, and self-absorbed president who exercised his veto power and did not object to the ethnic cleansing perpetrated by Israel in Gaza. He made a statement that would shame even a woman who has lost her modesty, declaring with complete conviction that he wants Gaza to be his “Riviera” on the Mediterranean, so he can enjoy its climate and lie with his bloated belly on its sand stained with the blood of Gaza’s children, women, and elderly.
Yesterday, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi was assassinated… and what’s so surprising about that?
Aren’t we living in a new world ruled by scoundrels, criminals, fools, and bandits?!
Raouf Qubaisi is a Lebanese writer and this article originally appeared in the Arabic Al Rai Al Youm website.
