Word: switzerland
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...tempting to dismiss Libyan leader Col. Muammar Gaddafi's call this week for a jihad against Switzerland as just another round in the feud between the two countries. But it would be a mistake to treat Gaddafi's rhetoric as mere theater. Saif Al-Islam Gaddafi, the Libyan leader's second-eldest son, who many suspect is Gaddafi's likely successor, tells TIME that Libya's row with Switzerland is evidence of a far more serious and urgent issue within Libya, which is grappling with how democratic and Westernized the country should become after decades of isolation...
...That's an understatement. The senior Gaddafi's call on Friday for holy war against Switzerland has injected a new, more menacing tone into a dispute that has dragged on for the past 18 months. Gaddafi told an audience of diplomats and officials in the city of Benghazi that Muslims should bar Swiss planes and ships from their countries, and embargo Swiss goods. "Let us wage jihad against Switzerland, Zionism and foreign aggression," he told the crowd. "Any Muslim in any part of the world who works with Switzerland is an apostate, is against Muhammad, God and the Koran...
...Libya has not been the only one stoking the feud. On Feb. 14, Switzerland banned 188 Libyans including Col. Gaddafi himself, from entering its country. Libya immediately retaliated, freezing all visas of citizens belonging to the 25 European countries (including Switzerland) that belong to the continent's shared visa system, called Schengen. The dispute rose above personal issues into an affront against Islam in early February, when Swiss citizens voted in a national referendum to halt the construction of minarets...
...Libyan officials say the visa ban could last some time, in part because many applaud Gaddafi for his stand against Switzerland. "How could the Swiss put 188 names on this list [of Libyans banned from the country] including the Leader of the Revolution?" asks Abdul Majeed el-Dursi, director of the government's press office for foreign journalists. "This is something which is done to criminals. I think it will continue until they [Switzerland] comes to their senses...
Passing the buck is one of the oldest and most often used traditions of democracy. At the annual World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland last January, admonishment for bankers on one hand and praise for President Obama on the other were abundant. European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet applauded the Obama administration’s intervention in the U.S. banking system and blamed bankers for “generating the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression...