Mick Hartley

Libyans may not find him so funny, but for the rest of us he's a goldmine:

Muammar Gaddafi has appealed for jihad against Switzerland, long regarded as one of the most peaceful nations in the world.

The Libyan leader’s call for a holy war was, he said, a response to a Swiss referendum in November to ban the construction of minarets on mosques.

It is the low point in a relationship that has been deteriorating since 2008 when Colonel Gaddafi’s son Hannibal was briefly detained in Geneva after allegedly beating his servants.

“Any Muslim in any part of the world who works with Switzerland is an apostate, is against (the Prophet) Muhammad, God and the Koran,” Colonel Gaddafi said at a rally broadcast on television.

He made the speech to mark the Prophet’s birthday, ensuring that many Arabs would take the call seriously.

It was not clear how he wanted Muslims to target Switzerland. “The masses of Muslims must go to all airports in the Islamic world and prevent any Swiss plane landing, to all harbours and prevent any Swiss ships docking,” he said, apparently unaware that Switzerland does not have a merchant navy, or coast.

It's not his first anti-Swiss tirade. From last year:

Relations between Libya and Switzerland soured in July 2008, when Gaddafi's son Hannibal and his wife were arrested by police in Geneva for allegedly beating their two servants at a local hotel. Gaddafi was so enraged by his son's two-day detention that he immediately retaliated by shutting down local subsidiaries of Swiss companies Nestlé and ABB in Libya, arresting two Swiss businessmen for supposed visa irregularities, canceling most commercial flights between the two countries and withdrawing about $5 billion from his Swiss bank accounts.

Then came Gaddafi's suggestion that Switzerland be carved up like a wheel of Swiss cheese. During the G-8 summit in Italy in July, Gaddafi said Switzerland "is a world mafia and not a state," adding that the Italian-speaking part of the country should be returned to Italy, the German-speaking part to Germany and the French-speaking part to France.

It's certainly no joke for Swiss businessman Max Goeld, arrested earlier this week:

Switzerland backed down today in its standoff with Libya when a businessman taking refuge in the country's embassy in Tripoli surrendered to police who had surrounded the building.

The move averted a confrontation over a long row that began when a son of the Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi, was arrested in Geneva and charged with assaulting his servants.

Libya had set a deadline of today for the surrender of Max Goeldi, who had been convicted for immigration charges, in a case that was seen as retaliation for the 2008 arrest of Hannibal Gaddafi – an accusation Libya has always denied.

Speaking in Brussels, the Austrian foreign minister, Michael Spindelegger, said police officers threatened to storm the embassy if the ultimatum to hand over Goeldi and another man were not heeded.

Goeldi emerged alone from the embassy and was met by a police general and senior justice ministry official before being taken away in handcuffs to start a four-month prison sentence.

Another Swiss businessman, Rachid Hamdani, who had also been sheltering in the embassy, emerged earlier. He had been acquitted of similar charges, and was driven to Tunisia after being given clearance to leave. Both men had been previously been forbidden to leave Libya.

The surrender of the pair was announced by Khaled Kouayeb, a Libyan justice ministry official, outside the embassy.

"The first Swiss, Hamdani, is innocent, and he was allowed to leave the country and go home, and the second Swiss is going to prison to carry out his four-month jail term," Kouayeb told reporters, according to Reuters.

The affair has caused outrage in Switzerland and was thought by some to have influenced the Swiss referendum last year in which the building of new minarets was banned.