Libyan Love: Muslim Dating Site Hid Democracy Messages

The Match.com of the Middle East has been used by pro-democracy protesters in Libya to pass messages to one another about their quest for liberty, not love.

In Libya, where government snoops monitor sites like Facebook and Twitter, revolutionaries have used coded language posted on dating profiles to help organize comrades supporting the overthrow of Col. Moammar Gadhafi. For example, when one user wrote, "I LLLLLove you," the five Ls in the posting meant he had five people with him, ready to join the protests.

www.mawada.net

A screen shot shows the Muslim dating site www.mawada.net, which has been used by Libyan protesters to pass secret messages.

A Libyan businessman turned opposition leader told ABC News he used the Muslim dating website Mawada.net to pass secret messages to other revolutionaries. Omar Shibliy Mahmoudi, the leader of Libya's opposition Ekhtalef Movement, which means "difference" in Arabic, said he created a profile supposedly looking for a wife and then received messages from other men posing as female respondents.

It was "for the freedom, not for the marriage," Mahmoudi said. He said that whenever the conspirators used the word "love," they really meant "liberty."

Mahmoudi said he first posted a profile titled "Where is Miriam?," in which he said he was looking for a wife. Responses followed in poetic secret code, with one saying, "May your day be full of Jasmine" -- a reference to Tunisia's so-called Jasmine Revolution.

Read more at ABC News.