Thaindian News

Benghazi (Libya), Feb 26 (IANS/AKI) Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has declared a jihad against Switzerland in a worsening diplomatic row between the two countries.
Gaddafi criticised a recent Swiss vote against the building of minarets and called for Muslims to boycott the country.

“If Switzerland was our neighbour we would declare war,” Gaddafi said late Thursday in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi at an event to mark the birth anniversary of Prophet Mohammed.

“Muslims need to mobilise in all the Islamic countries of the world and refuse to allow Swiss planes to land, their ships to dock or allow Swiss products enter their countries.”

Libya’s relations with Switzerland soured when Gaddafi’s son Hannibal was detained in a Swiss jail after he and his wife were accused of beating their servants in Geneva in July 2008.

The north African country has withdrawn billions of dollars from Swiss banks and last week began turning Europeans away from the country, after Bern issued a blacklist banning 180 Libyans, including Gaddafi, from entering the country.

“Let us wage jihad against Switzerland, Zionism and foreign aggression,” he said.

“Any Muslim in any part of the world who works with Switzerland is an apostate, is against Mohammed, God and the Koran.”

Swiss nationals voted 57.5 percent in favour of a minaret ban in a referendum backed by the right-wing Swiss People’s Party in November.

The government has urged voters to reject it, warning it would contravene religious freedom.

The Swiss foreign ministry said it had no comment on Gaddafi’s remarks.

–IANS/AKI

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