New Delhi, Dec. 3 :
New Delhi, Dec. 3:
Libya may face global sanctions and economic hardship but none of this has deterred the Gaddafi clan from being generous.
Gaddafi Junior, Saif-ul-Islam Muammar Gaddafi, arrived in the capital today and lived up to his family's reputation. He signed a cheque for $ 8,00,000 - which translates into a whopping Rs 3 crore and 76 lakh - for the Indian Islamic Centre.
Saif-ul-Islam, an engineer by training, heads the Gaddafi Charities. Not surprisingly, he chose the holy month of Ramazan for charitable acts. Charity is one of the five basic tenets of Islam and one of the reasons for observing Ramazan is to allow the rich to share their wealth with the poor.
Gaddafi Junior will not confine himself to Delhi. He plans to visit Moradabad, Deoband, Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh and then go to Jaipur.
The community leaders are keenly awaiting his next burst of munificence.
Old-timers recalled how Colonel Muammar Gaddafi doled out $ 2 million in 1974 as a 'tip' to the host at the inaugural session of the Conference of Islamic Countries in Lahore. The Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto regime built the Gaddafi mosque and the Gaddafi stadium with the money.
Gaddafi Junior visited the Islamic centre during iftar and broke bread with about 2,000 rozedars, including Shahi
Imam of Delhi Syed Ahmad Bukhari, Islamic centre chairman Moosa Raza and chairman of the Delhi Haj Committee, Anis Durrani.
He then offered Magrib prayers along with others. Community leaders painted him as a devout Muslim, pointing at the 25-year old's shaven head. 'He is coming from Mecca and Madina after undergoing umrah (mini Haj),' said a local leader with an air of authority.
The Islamic centre's office-bearers could hardly believe the figure on the cheque. 'It is going to solve all our financial problems,' a beaming Moosa Raza said.
Indira Gandhi had sanctioned land for the Islamic centre for cultural and religious activities in the eighties in the plush Lodhi Road area.
But for the past 17 years, Muslim scholars, intellectuals, businessmen and community leaders could not raise funds for construction.
Gaddafi Junior will be calling on Congress president Sonia Gandhi tomorrow. He plans
to extend an invitation to Sonia to visit Tripoli. Libyan embassy officials said he could call
on foreign minister Jaswant Singh and other government functionaries. 'India and Libya have good relations and Saif-ul-Islam would cement our ties,' said an official of the Libyan
embassy.





