A Christian reponse to Gaddafi's death

When I saw former President Muammar Gaddafi being pulled from a drainage pipe, covered with blood, disoriented and still thinking he was in charge, my heart was grieved as I watched how the people were beating him and ended up shooting him.

Let me explain. My heart was grieved as a Christian.

We all know what President Gaddafi came to be during those 40-plus years of power. He started out as an exciting young man, following the footsteps of President Abdel-Nasser of Egypt, wanting to bring democracy and freedom to his people after years under the monarchy.

The whole world knew how Gaddafi then became a harsh dictator, lavishly using the resources of the country for his own good and that of his family, while leaving Libyans in economic, ideological and spiritual poverty.

The country was banned and blacklisted on the world scene. He used wealth to promote his own self-glory, calling himself the "King of kings". Gaddafi thought that his arrogance even against God would not bring him into judgement. We heard him call his own people "rats", and he treated them with harsh cruelty. How can I feel sorry for such a man when he dies?

A major difference between Christianity and Islam is found in their view of the value of mankind. As Christians, we believe that man is made in God's image. All people have value, because they reflect the essence of the Creator. We see this clearly in our "western" (US) court of law, when even the worst criminal ever is brought into the court room. He will be dressed nicely, respected, and treated as an innocent person until the verdict is passed that he is guilty.

In the Islamic religion, it is quite different. A person is seen as guilty until he is proven that he is not. While it is agreed by Muslims that God made man, man is just a slave of Allah; he is not in God's image. This explains the cruelty of people towards each other.

When I saw on the TV screen how Gaddafi could be treated so cruelly, my heart hurt -- not only for Gaddafi, but for an entire nation led by such a person and by such a religion and driven so far away from the mercy and love of God.

We can see how Gaddafi reaped what he sowed -- he called his people "rats", and yet he spent his last moments in a drainage pipe. After his death, his people wrote in Arabic on the walls of the tunnel: "Gaddafi the rat". What a tragic ending to a tragic history.

Now we need to pray that this "liberation movement" will be long enough for Libyans to have true freedom to respond to the truth of the Gospel and not to follow the pattern of fundamentalist Islam as in Egypt.


Dr Raouf Ghattas and his wife, Carol, have been church planters and evangelists with International Mission Board since 1991. He served for four years as strategy leader for IMB's work in Libya.