“You are African... You are part of this continent. If Africa is not your land, go back to the Arabian Peninsula. If only all the Arabs, from Mauritania to Egypt, would return to the Arabian peninsula....” Thus spoke Libyan ruler Muammar Qaddafi at an October 4 gathering of women in the town of Sabha, as reported by the Libyan newspaper al-Shams earlier this month. In the speech, translated and distributed by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), Qaddafi attacks the Arab states and peoples, calls for Libyan withdrawal from involvement with the Arabs and for a return to his country’s African roots. In a feminist twist, he also called for greater female training in fashioning car bombs, and in carrying out suicide bombings and shootings. It was Qaddafi at his most colorful.



Qaddafi’s analysis of the Arab world began with a nostalgic look at the 1948 war of Israeli independence - “the only time that all the Arabs fought as one people and as one nation.” The Arab leaders of the day, Qaddafi explained, are today seen as “reactionaries”, but “they were 1,000 times better than the Arabs of today, who have no courage, honor, blood, or pride.” Today, however, the Libyan dictator declared, “you cannot speak of Arab unity and pan-Arab nationalism.”



In contrast to the other modern Middle Eastern leaders, Qaddafi said, “I came [to the Arabs] and I told them: Brothers, since our revolution we stand for Arab unity. We have done thus and so for the sake of Arab unity. The U.S. has become Libya's Enemy No. 1 due to Arab and pan-Arab unity and the Palestinian cause. Libya became the enemy of the Jews and the entire West for the Arabs, and without this there would have been no problems between Libya and the U.S. and even between it and the Jews, or between Libya and Europe. If we had not gotten ourselves in trouble in battles because of pan-Arabism and Arab unity, we would have been spared all the tragedies caused us.”



Qaddafi told his audience that Libya contributed funds and weapons for the Arab cause against Israel and the US, while “ultimately you [Arabs] all became friends with the US, and you recognize Israel. Only Libya has not recognized Israel, and of course will never recognize it until the Day of Judgment. We were exhausted for your sake, and ultimately you cursed us.”



Bitterly, the Libyan leader declared, “If we were not an Arab country, [the Arabs] would not be cursing us.... Leave us alone! Are you attacking us because we are Arabs? We're fed up. We are Africans. Treat us like Africans; treat us like black Negroes; we'll stay away from you, and you'll stay away from us. Don't talk to us and we won't talk to you. What is the connection between Libya and Kuwait? One country is situated in Africa and the other in Asia. We will not meet again until Judgment Day, and then one of us will go to Paradise and the other will go to Hell....”



After sarcastically calling for all Arabs to leave Africa and return to Arabia, “at least to receive their quota of oil,” Qaddafi continued: “The Arabs have become the joke of the world because they do not think of their future...”



“The Arabs are completely useless....” Qaddafi declared, “We will not be finished together with them. We will be, ultimately, in our African nation and on the African continent... by means of which we will become stronger, like the American continent and the European continent. The Arabs have written a mark of disgrace in history that they will never be able to eradicate. They watch what is happening in Iraq and in Palestine from the sidelines. They are finished. They have no honor and they have no blood. There is no longer any Arab blood or pan-Arab blood, Arab unity, Arab manliness, Arab femininity. There is nothing. The situation has gotten so bad that the women are the ones who take the initiative. Today was the most dangerous fedaii [terror] operation in so-called Israel - and it was carried out by a young Palestinian woman, not by a man.” The Libyan leader repeated, “The Arabs are completely useless. We must not waste time. The Arabs are through. Tomorrow, Asia will establish great unions and Africa is already united - and where are you, Arab?”



As for Africa, Qaddafi apologized for having “brought Mauritania, Djibouti, Somalia, and the Comoro Islands into the Arab League.... Look what an injustice I did them. I brought them into a failed nation, a failed regime, and failed people....” And of the Libyan people he asked that they “agree to quit the Arab League, without wasting time. These people [the Arabs] are useless. Their situation is terrible. We must be rid of them, of their curses and of their problems.”



Addressing his female audience, Qaddafi turned to the changes in today’s battlefield, and called on women to be trained for war and terrorism. Qaddafi’s personal security detail is made up of women, it should be noted.



“The woman must be trained how to fight within the home, how to put together an explosive belt and blow herself up together with the enemy soldiers. Anyone who has a car must make preparations and know how to booby trap it and turn it into a car bomb.... We must train the women how to booby-trap the car and blow it up among the enemy, how to blow up the house so it falls on the enemy soldiers. Traps must be prepared. You have seen how [the enemy] check[s] luggage. These suitcases should be rigged so that when they open them they blow up. The women must be taught how to booby-trap their clothes closets, booby-trap their purses, booby-trap their shoes, booby-trap the children's toys, so they blow up on the enemy soldiers.”