Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi insulted then British prime minister Tony Blair by pointing the sole of a shoe towards him when the two met in a Bedouin tent outside Tripoli in March 2004. Close watchers of the talks noticed Gaddafi's foot pointing towards Blair, thus offering the worst of all insults. In the Arab world, shoes are considered unclean, signifying the lowliest and dirtiest part of the body. Abdel Bari Atwan, editor of the London-based Al-Quds newspaper, said: "The only thing worse would be a physical attack." Ibrahim Nawar, head of Arab Press Freedom Watch, said: "It was a deliberate act. He wanted to make Tony Blair look very, very small. You never show your shoe to anyone you remotely respect. Blair must know enough about Arab culture to realise he was being humiliated."
http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=32707
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