Libyan Leader Mu'ammar Qadhafi on Western Democracy vis-a-vis Libyan "Republic of the Masses"

The following are excerpts from an address by Libyan leader Mu'ammar Qadhafi. Libyan TV aired this speech on March 2, 2005:

Mu'ammar Al-Qadhafi: They ask us why we don't use ballots. Did these ballots solve the problems of the world? Have we not heard that elections are forged throughout the world? From the largest country to the smallest – ultimately, there are allegations that the elections were forged. These elections are conducted with ballots. Therefore, ballots have not solved the problem of election forgeries. On the contrary, perhaps the easiest way to forge an election is through ballots. The world laughs and makes jokes about ballots, voting, elections, and their forgery. In the elections you are silent. You throw a piece of paper into the ballot box, just like in a trash can. You are only allowed a "yes" or "no." You don't even say it with your mouth - you use a piece of paper. Is this democracy?!

If they want democracy in any country, they should learn from Libya.

Hitler had a parliament, Mussolini had a Parliament, Stalin had a parliament, Franco had a parliament, Ceausescu had a parliament… All these tyrants established dictatorships through parliaments. Therefore parliaments… Elections and parliaments have not solved the problem of dictatorships - otherwise they would have to admit that Hitler was democratic, Mussolini was democratic, Stalin was democratic, Franco was democratic, and Ceausescu was democratic. How can they historically condemn Hitler, Mussolini, Franco, Ceausescu, etc. and claim they were dictators, while saying democracy means the existence of parliaments?! These people had parliaments. They must either admit the parliamentary system is a failure and does not achieve democracy, or else admit that Hitler was democratic.

The first civil society to be fully established is the Republic of the masses in Libya. A civil society. Some may say (cynically), "This Qadhafi, who has a country of five million backward Bedouin - let's listen to him and he will teach us." No, no. We tell them that Jesus, in whose religion they now believe, came from the East and was barefoot. He wore tattered clothes and they mocked him and wanted to kill him and, according to their belief, they crucified him – (According to Islam) they didn't crucify him. They didn't kill of crucify him, but according to their belief they killed the Messiah. Why did they kill the Messiah? They asked, "Who is this Messiah to be saying such things to us? We are the Roman Empire, we are the sons of Israel. This son of Miriam comes to us and wants to teach us about Allah and His religion!" So why do you believe in his religion now? How come there are churches and bells ring everywhere for Jesus?

Muhammad, in whose religion a quarter of humanity believe, had no intercontinental missiles or nuclear bombs. He came from a backward Bedouin society - a poor and miserable society. So how come a quarter of humanity now believe in Muhammad's religion? Show me any imperialistic religion that people believe in. There are none. Show me an emperor who changed the world or brought any belief. He may have changed the world with his army for a while, but did any of them bring us a religion or ideology that the world believes in?

We ask: "With what country does Libya have problems?" With none. Some may say "the Israelis." Ah, the Israelis – that is not a Libyan problem. It is an Arab problem. If you define yourself as Arab, you may say the Arabs have a problem with the Israelis. You may say, "I have a problem with the US." What problem with the US? There are no problems between Libya and the US. They may say, "The US is occupying Iraq." In this case you are speaking as and Arab.