Moses and Pharoah:The Imam and the megalomaniac

In the aftermath of Libya's settling the Pan Am claims with the families of the victims of the terrorist bombing, Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri asked Libya’s Ghaddafi to account for the disappearance of the Imam and offered a willingness to forgive without getting the billions Libya’s former regime spent to rehabilitate its image in the West. Still the now demised regime refused and only with its demise it is becoming clear that the Imam was killed.

 For many years there was hope, against the odds, that the fate of the Lebanese Shia Imam Sadr would be determined- that he was held captive with the possibility of release and return. After all, on the invitation of Ghaddafi himself, Imam Sadr visited Libya and met with Ghaddafi. Ghaddafi claimed that the Imam and his two companions left Libya for Italy. Lebanese and Italians investigations revealed that the Imam and his companions met Ghaddafi and never left Libya.

Some reports indicate that the Imam and his companions were killed right after meeting with Ghaddafi. There are other reports that he was imprisoned and died in prison. Both reports indicate that the vanished Imam is dead.  The imprisonment and killing of the Imam is added to the long list of atrocities and criminalities committed by the demised regime and its megalomaniac dictator.

Ghaddafi was known for thinking of himself as a great thinker as to religion and politics. He thought of his Green Book as more important than the Koran itself and himself as more important than the Prophet of Islam Mohammed himself Ghaddafi made truly bizarre and delusional statements and made a fool of himself. Ghaddafi with one of his antics was able to wipe out all the goodwill that Arab and Muslim Americans were striving to create. What enabled this megalomania to continue unabated was those who listened to Ghaddafi speak and did not call him out. Those who needed his money fed his delusions by agreeing to his statements. In doing so they immorally took the Libyan people's money and fed the ego of a very sick man.

Reports indicate that Ghaddafi made the mistake of airing his delusions in the meeting with the Imam expecting the Imam to go along. The Imam apparently challenged Ghaddafi's delusions. He refused to pacify him or humor him in matters of religion to get his money. As a result Ghaddafi killed the Imam. If this is what happened then the Imam is a martyr not only for his partisans and supporters in Lebanon but to all proponents of decency, courage in the face of evil and of human rights.