Libya summons U.S. diplomat over spokesman remarks on Jihad appeal

Libyan Foreign Ministry summoned U.S. charge d’affaires in Tripoli on Wednesday March the 3rd to protest remarks by a spokesman for U.S. State Department on Libyan leader’s call to declare Jihad against Switzerland amid a diplomatic row between the two sides.
“The secretary of European Affairs at the General People’s Committee of Foreign Liaison and International Cooperation submitted a protest to the U.S. charge d’affaires over remarks by the official spokesman for the U.S. State Department on comments by the Libyan leader Muammar Ghaddafi in the fifth rally of the Islamic challenge that took place in Benghazi last Thursday,” said a statement by the ministry, carried by the official JANA news agency.
During the event, Ghaddafi called for Jihad, or holy war, against Switzerland over the latter’s decision to ban mosque minarets in the country.

“Any Muslim around the world who deals with Switzerland is an infidel, and is against Islam, against Mohammed, against Allah, and against the Koran,” Ghaddafi told the rally, urging Muslims to boycott Swiss goods, airliners, ships, and embassies.
A day later, U.S. State Department spokesman Phillip Crowley said the Libyan leader’s words brought him back to “the day of September, one of the more memorable sessions of the UN General Assembly that I can recall.”
“Lots of words and lots of papers flying all over the place and not necessarily a lot of sense,” he added.
Crowley’s comments, according the Foreign Ministry’s statement, showed “his lack of knowledge as well as ignorance of what was the context of Ghaddafi’s speech.”
The Libyan ministry also demanded “an apology and a clarification” over Crowley’s words, warning of “negative impacts on economic and economic relations” if no measures were taken.
The statement also said that U.S. President Barrack Obama was mentioned with “appreciation and respect” during Ghaddafi’s interviews with local and international media outlets.
Tension has been mounting between Libya and Switzerland as Libya suspended issuing entry visas to citizens from the Schengen area of 25 European countries, including Switzerland.
The move came in response to Switzerland’s visa blacklist that included 188 Libyan figures amid diplomatic row between the two countries.

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