Who would have thought that the illustrious militant leader of a recluse police state could charm the leaders of the most powerful nations in the world? Libyan strongman Muammar Qadhafi has done just that.

For most people, changing character and personality is a lifelong struggle. Not, apparently, for Muammar Qadhafi. Prior to winter 2003, he was a widely abhorred belligerent with a nasty penchant for terrorism. Today he’s a widely adored Don Juan of global politics. He should write a self-help book.

But Libya’s conversion is even more impressive in light of its location and political situation. Qadhafi has not only successfully serenaded the West, he’s done it without compromising Libya’s integrity as an Islamic state, or even ostracizing Tripoli from the Muslim world.

Your perception of Libya’s transformation will vary depending on your world view. Optimists and idealists will take Libya’s stunning transformation in stride, never questioning Qadhafi’s motives, never wondering how such a significant conversion can take place in such a short period. Realists, on the other hand—those with a tendency to not take events at face value—will approach Libya’s apparent transformation with caution.

Evidence suggests the governments of America, Britain and European states fall into the first category. These nations have been courting Libya since late 2003, when Qadhafi renounced terrorism and promised to dismantle Libya’s nuclear program.

The policy change toward Libya after Qadhafi’s announcement was almost instant. Economic sanctions—imposed after Libyan terrorists blew up Pan Am Flight 103 over Scotland in 1988—were lifted, laying the groundwork for an influx of Western investment into the energy-rich state. Popularity can be infectious, and soon Qadhafi and Libyan officials became political rock stars of sorts, traversing the globe and striking agreements with Western democracies thrilled at the conversion of a former state sponsor of terrorism into a peace-loving ally.

In May 2006, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice excitedly announced that the United States was removing Libya from its list of terrorist states and restoring full diplomatic relations. Other nations followed suit. Libya was touted globally as a sterling example of repentance. A month later, Britain released a letter promising to come to Tripoli’s aid by petitioning the UN Security Council if Libya was ever attacked by nuclear, biological or chemical weapons.

Then, less than four years after Libya’s renouncing of terrorism, the international community handed Tripoli the ultimate trophy, electing the nation by an overwhelming majority (178 out of 192) to a two-year term as a member of the prestigious UN Security Council. Libya just finished its first month-long stint as the Council’s president.

That’s a stunning turnaround by the West. Four years ago, Libya was suffering under UN-imposed economic sanctions. Today it’s in the United Nations Security Council.

The gifts have never stopped flowing. Last December, the French put on a grand parade for Qadhafi and his entourage when they visited Paris. The two countries concluded a number of agreements including a $450 million weapons deal, plans to conduct joint military exercises, and the sale of a nuclear power reactor.

Last month, the Libyan government ratified a $900 million natural gas agreement with global energy giant bp, a deal that marks the first significant Western project in Libya since 2003, and legitimizes this former terrorist state’s efforts to transform itself as a friend of the West.

The point is, Western states, mesmerized by Qadhafi’s transformation, have been so eager to embrace Libya, they have ignored Libya’s gestures toward its Islamic friends and allies.

On January 23, a bomb ripped through the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, killing at least 38 people and wounding another 225. Three days later, Associated Press, citing a local Sunni security chief, reported that “a son of Libyan leader Muammar Qadhafi [was] behind [the] group of foreign and Iraqi fighters responsible” for the brutal attack. According to a former al Qaeda cohort who is now a police official in the Anbar province, the attacks were carried out by the Seifaddin Regiment, a group of terrorists supported by Seif al-Islam Qadhafi, the eldest son and likely heir of Muammar.

It’s not surprising to see the younger Qadhafi’s name appear in relation to a terrorist attack in Iraq. Last year, in remarks that in the very least condone, if not promote, terrorist attacks as a political weapon, he warned Europe that the “only solution to contain radicalism is a rapid departure of Western troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, and a solution to the Palestinian question.”

That’s not half the story of Libya’s connection to terrorism in Iraq. Last December, the U.S. Military Academy at West Point released a report summarizing a series of al Qaeda documents discovered during a September raid. “What stood out most in the report,” wrote Stratfor, “was the growing Libyan component of al Qaeda in Iraq” (Dec. 21, 2007). The findings showed that Libya contributed far more terrorists per capita than any other nation, including Saudi Arabia.

If Qadhafi hates terrorism, why isn’t he doing more to curb the flow of Libyan terrorists into Iraq? Why hasn’t his son been locked up for sponsoring Iraqi terrorists?

Libya is ramping up relations with Iran, too. In December last year, Iranian Vice President Parvis Davoudi visited Libya in what was the first high-level visit from an Iranian official in 25 years. During the trip, Davoudi met Qadhafi and other senior officials and signed 10 agreements of mutual cooperation in fields ranging from investment and finance to culture and higher education.

According to a Libyan newspaper:

Qadhafi highlighted during the meeting the importance of the existence of good relations between the two countries as well as Iran’s role in the region and the world. Qadhafi said Libya welcomed Iranian businessmen and traders to work in Libya and take part in the huge infrastructural projects that are taking place.The two sides’ cooperation could be extended to other regions … such as African countries as well as countries in Latin America, he said. Expansion of relations between Iran and Libya would open new horizons for both countries, he said.

Perhaps the most interesting comment came from Libyan Prime Minister El-Mahmoudi. At a press conference after his meeting with Iran’s vice president, he said: “We discussed the issues related to Iraq, Palestine and other issues, and our views are identical on all those issues.” Iran is bent on wiping Israel off the map. Does this mean Libya shares the same view?

In January, American officials gave Libya’s Foreign Minister Abdel-Rahman Shalqam and his wife the red-carpet treatment when they visited Washington. After the visit, Shalqam commented on the importance Libya places on having good relations with America. “We want a new friendship,” he said, before assuring America that Libya had no interest in backing militant Islam. “Our interpretation of Islamic heritage is completely different from the others who don’t accept the philosophy of coexistence,” he said.

Sounds good—but it appears that either Shalqam and his boss have diametrically opposite perceptions of Islamic ambition, or such statements are made simply for the benefit of the gullible West. It was Qadhafi who declared in April 2006 that “Mohammed’s faith will conquer all other religions whether they like that or not.” Muslims have America and Europe trapped, he said. They must accept the fact that they will be Muslim in due course because “Islam is the fate of mankind and the faith of humanity.”

Such duplicity would be laughable if it weren’t so dangerous.

Later in the speech, Qadhafi confirmed Libya’s solidarity with its Islamic brothers: “From the Fertile Crescent to the River of Senegal, the tribes of the desert will not engage in a fratricidal war. We shall not carry arms against one another. We live as one family. We protect the desert.”

There’s no doubt that Libya in recent years has been singing an enticing tune to the West. It has abandoned its nuclear program; Qadhafi is more circumspect in his approach to supporting Islamic terrorism; it has opened its energy fields to Western industry; it is making a seemingly concerted effort to develop relations with America and European states.

Problem is, concurrent with these actions, Qadhafi’s Libya has been developing closer relations with Islamic states across North Africa and the Middle East, even to the point of apparently supporting Iraqi terrorists, and seeking a closer relationship with Iran, arguably the Western world’s greatest enemy.

Western democracies, particularly the U.S., embrace Libya because they see it as a bad nation turned good. If Libya, a former state sponsor of terrorism, can shun evil and embrace Western-style goodness, they believe, then there’s hope for our efforts in other states. The ardency of their desire to believe in Libya’s conversion is distorting their vision of Tripoli’s true intentions.

Pessimistic though it may sound, Libya as a Western-aligned, peace-loving, nonconfrontational state is merely an enticing mirage shimmering on the North African desert.

In May 2006, Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry forecast a split in the seemingly radiant relationship between Libya and the West. “Look for Libya to become more aligned with Iran in the near future,” he warned. “It gave up its weapons of mass destruction, as it leaned toward the West. But that foreign policy is going to change. Perhaps it has already begun.”

That forecast was based on a prophecy in Daniel 11 (which you can read about in The King of the South). But it is supported by religious and geographic realities as well as historic principles. As Samuel Huntington wrote in his defining book, The Clash of Civilizations: “In coping with identity crisis, what counts for people are blood and belief, faith and family. People [nations] rally to those with similar ancestry, religion, language, values and institutions and distance themselves from those with different ones.”

Libya’s duplicitous foreign policy of simultaneously courting Islamic states and the West will soon be exposed for what it is as Libya cements its relationship with Iran.