Henry Mukasa
19 March 2008
Kampala — Non-Muslims who believe in God can make a pilgrimage to Islamic holy sites in Mecca, according to Libyan leader Col. Muammar Gadaffi.
The American president, he added, can visit Mecca as long as he is not an atheist, whom he said, Islam forbids to enter such sites as mosques.
Addressing thousands of Muslims at Nakivubo Stadium in Kampala yesterday, Gadaffi asked: "Who says non-Muslims cannot go to the Kabbah?"
Quoting the Koran, Gadaffi added that the Kabbah was the house of God for all people. "How come Muslims monopolise the Kabbah? It's the right of everybody to go round the Kabbah. It's non-believers who are disgraced."
He added that Mohammed, the founder of Islam, was the "only messenger of God to mankind and the seal of all prophets".
Jesus, he said, was born without a father, in a miracle of God, and was able to bring the Bible to life. But after him, he argued, "the heavens have been silent without any new revelations until doomsday".
Mohammed, he noted, did not perform miracles although he acknowledged that Jesus did.
Gadaffi then blasted Muslim preachers who say Mohammed performed miracles just because Jesus did.
"Mohammed told us that Jesus can bring back the dead and healed the sick," Gadaffi explained. "We believe in the Mohammed who did not perform miracles," he asserted. He described as "weak in faith" preachers who purport to perform miracles because "the Koran is enough without miracles".
Spurred by chanting Muslims who filled the stadium, Gadaffi, in a 90-minute speech, said the Koran was the only holy Book sent by God, but Muslims equally believe in the Bible.
But, according to Gadaffi, the current Bible was not the one revealed to Jesus and the current Old Testament is not the one Allah gave to Moses.
Reference to Prophet Mohammed in the Bible, Gadaffi argued, could have been deleted and called for the the search for "the original Bible".
Moses, the said, predicted the coming of Mohammed and that Jesus, too, talked of a prophet that would come after him.
Jesus is mentioned in the Koran 25 times, Moses, 138 and Mary, 38 times, Gadaffi said. "Any book that doesn't mention Mohammed isn't true and is forged." He said the Koran held Jesus and Moses in high esteem.
"We cannot be Muslims unless we believe in Jesus and Moses. The Koran is right. It's the only book from which nothing has been deleted."
He contested the use of the birth and death of Jesus to count the world calendar. "The world is fanatical and sectarian." He blasted the countries which published a cartoon depicting Mohammed as a war-monger. Such people, he said, were "ignorant, sick and against humankind, Allah and Jesus who believes in Mohammed".
Speaking after Gadaffi, Museveni congratulated Muslims upon the birth of Mohammed. He said he was amused by Gadaffi's assertion that anybody who believes in one God is a Muslim. "It means that I can also be a Muslim."
However, Museveni said he would consult the Catholic and Protestant leaders to explain why Mohammed was not mentioned in the Bible. He said Uganda has religious tolerance.
Present at the prayers were presidents Pierre Nkurunziza (Burundi), Sem Ismail Omar Guelleh (Djibouti), Amani Abeid Karume (Zanzibar), Amadou Toumani Toure (Mali), Abdullahi Yusuf (Somalia) and Prime Minister of Guinea Conakry, Lansana Kouyate.
Earlier, the Presidential Guard Brigade clashed with Gadaffi's security at the VIP section. The PGB had attempted to keep tens of Gadaffi's guards at bay.
The PGB also made a security ring around men dressed like sheikhs who appeared as Gadaffi spoke and wanted to enter the VIP pavilion.
Gadaffi, wearing a snow white Africa wear, arrived in Nakivubo at 1:20pm to chants of "Allah Akbar (God is Great).
He walked down the stage, removed his shoes and glasses and stood behind a microphone under the sweltering sun.
The other presidents stood a short distance behind him as he recited prayers in Arabic in a deep voice that reverberated across the stadium.
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