Libya Not Amused by British Ridicule Over Bard

ROME — The official Libyan news agency criticized the British media Sunday for ridiculing Col. Moammar Kadafi’s contention that William Shakespeare was of Arab origin.

The agency Jana, monitored in Rome, also said that any Arab ties to Shakespeare would not increase Arab prestige but would be instead “an honor to the British and Shakespeare himself and his family.”

“The smell of chauvinism seems to have overwhelmed the atmosphere of the talk broadcast by the British radio on the historical view regarding the attribution of the name of Shakespeare to Arab origins, as put forward by brother Moammar Kadafi,” Jana said in a dispatch titled “Shakespeare: Is He Arab?”

The agency said the British media should have used “scientific analysis” in discussing Shakespeare’s origins, rather than “throwing insults and defamation. . . .”

The dispatch attributed the reports in the British media to “a very strong pressure of Zionist egoism which does not recognize the right of others to freedom of expression.”

Three British newspapers ridiculed Kadafi for the assertion. A fourth, the Daily Telegraph, described it as a joke that Kadafi originally told members of the Tunisian Parliament in December.