Omar Mukhtar

Omar Ben Mokhtar bin Omar (20 August 1858 – 16 September 1931), called The Lion of the Desert, known among the colonial Italians as Matari of the Mnifa, was the leader of native resistance in Cyrenaica (currently Eastern Libya) under the Senussids, against the Italian colonization of Libya. A teacher-turned-general, Omar was also a prominent figure of the Senussi movement, and he is considered the national hero of Libya and a symbol of resistance in the Arab and Islamic worlds. Beginning in 1911

8 quotes found

"I will not leave this place until I achieve one of the two highest levels; martyrhood or victory."

"We do not surrender — we win or die. You've to fight the next generation and the next... and I'll live more than my hanger."

"I never submitted to the Italian government: I only had conversations with it."

"I took part in all battles. If sometimes I was not there, the operation was likewise carried out under my orders."

"It is useless for you to ask me single facts. Whatever has been committed against Italy and the Italians for the past ten years was willed and permitted by me, whenever I did not personally take part in the acts themselves. … The raids, too, were ordered by me and some of them carried out by me."

"War is war."

"I am not sorry for what I did because it was God's will."

"From God we have come and to God we must return."