Thaindian News

Tripoli, Apr 2 (ANI): Amid the political unrest in Libya, the stir about rumours whether Colonel Muammar Gaddafi is Jewish, has heated up.

Conflicting reports surrounding Gadhafi’s birth have circulated since about 1970, two years after he was made the leader of Libya.

The conflict focussed the world’s attention yet again two weeks back when one of the American journalists reported that one in five rebels was fighting Gadhafi because he believes the leader is Jewish.

There are rumours that Gadhafi was born out of wedlock to a Jewish woman and an Italian soldier in a village east of Tripoli, but because of the shame surrounding his birth, the baby was given to a Catholic cardinal who in turn gave the child to the sheepherder and his wife.

Seventy-one-year-old Mohamed Yusuf al Magariaf, a prominent Libyan dissident who is now based in the U.S., had investigated Gadhafi’s past for several of his books and believes much of what the dictator has told people about his origins is a lie, AOL news reports.

During research for one of his books, Magariaf happened to find a letter that he said was written by the cardinal who had apparently handed over Gaddafi to his Bedouin parents. The dictator’s mother, Aisha, reportedly died in 1978, and his father, Abu Meniar, in 1985.

Magariaf is among the many in Libya who believe that Gadhafi has Jewish roots, but did not elaborate on the issue in his books.

However, on being asked about the mystery surrounding Gadhafi’s childhood, the author said: “No one knows exactly which year he was born or exactly where he was born. Nobody knows which day or month. There are so many question marks about it. Everything the average person knows — and there isn’t much — was a story he invented.” (ANI)