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Following are excerpts from an interview with Libyan leader Mu'ammar Al-Qadhafi, which aired on Al-Jazeera TV on November 29, 2010:
Mu'ammar Al-Qadhafi: We, the poor countries of the Third World – and especially Africa – did not benefit from the establishment of the World Trade Organization. In fact, we consider it to be on of the tools of Neocolonialism. We call for the abolishment of the World Trade Organization, because it is of no benefit to us, and all it cares about is that we open our borders to products of the industrialized countries, in order to eliminate all local industries. The principle underlying the World Trade Organization is to kill the national industry of all the Third World countries, and to open the gates wide for the entry of pointless products, of no use to us.
Therefore, we demand that the World Trade Organization be abolished, that no countries join it, and that the countries that are already members withdraw from it. This organization must die, because it is a nightmare which is killing our national industry.
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We all denounce terrorism and must unite against it, but we must first define what terrorism is. Nuclear bombs constitute terrorism. Intercontinental missiles constitute terrorism. Aircraft carriers constitute terrorism. The IMF constitutes terrorism. The policy of the World Bank constitutes terrorism. The principles of the World Trade Organization constitute terrorism. Al-Qaeda constitutes terrorism. Islamic extremism constitutes terrorism. Bin Laden constitutes terrorism. All these constitute terrorism. But a nuclear bomb and a hand grenade are the same thing. How come somebody with a hand grenade is considered a terrorist, while somebody with a nuclear bomb is not? These criteria are illogical.
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Africa wants to move in the direction of economic development. As we have seen, our friend Europe wants political [reform]. We do not eat politics, dress in politics, or ride politics. We are in need of an economy – housing, food, vehicles, and medicine. What type of regime we have, whether it is good or not, whether we have elections, pluralism, human rights... What are human rights, anyway? There is no consensus on this.
According to The Green Book, which outlines the Third Universal Theory, human rights include man's right to work, his right for self-determination, his right to uphold his own culture, his own religion, and his uniqueness. They do not include the right to shout, to demonstrate, or to write in newspapers. If you tie somebody to a tree and flog him with a whip until he starts screaming, and then you say: "You have the freedom of expression"... His human rights require that you do not beat him in the first place.
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People steal money, flee to Europe, and say: "We are refugees," and they grant them political asylum. Political asylum?! They are thieves, not political refugees. Whoever commits a crime flees to Europe, and says: "Europe, protect me, I am being persecuted" – and they accept him. The thief goes to Europe, the murderer goes to Europe, and the terrorist goes to Europe. They say that they belong to persecuted minorities, and so on. Go to Europe! Europe is full of millions of these people.
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