Editing Muammar Gaddafi (section)

==Political ideology==
{{main|Third International Theory}}
{{Quote box|width=25em|align=right|quote=We call it the Third [International] Theory to indicate that there is a new path for all those who reject both materialist capitalism and atheist communism. The path is for all the people of the world who abhor the dangerous confrontation between the Warsaw and North Atlantic military alliances. It is for all those who believe that all nations of the world are brothers under the aegis of the rule of God.|salign = right |source=—Muammar Gaddafi{{sfn|Blundy|Lycett|1987|p=87}}}}

Gaddafi's ideological worldview was molded by his environment, namely his Islamic faith, his Bedouin upbringing, and his disgust at the actions of Italian colonialists in Libya.{{sfn|Harris|1986|p=43}} As a schoolboy, Gaddafi adopted the ideologies of [[Arab nationalism]] and [[Arab socialism]], influenced in particular by [[Nasserism]], the thought of the Egyptian President Nasser, whom Gaddafi regarded as his hero;{{sfnm|1a1=Harris|1y=1986|1p=43|2a1=Blundy|2a2=Lycett|2y=1987|2p=18}} Nasser privately described Gaddafi as "a nice boy, but terribly naïve".{{sfn|Blundy|Lycett|1987|p=18}} During the early 1970s, Gaddafi formulated his own particular approach to Arab nationalism and socialism, known as [[Third International Theory]], which ''[[The New York Times]]'' described as a combination of "[[utopian socialism]], Arab nationalism, and the Third World revolutionary theory that was in vogue at the time".<ref name="nytimes_green">{{cite news|last=Bazzi|first=Mohamad|title=What Did Qaddafi's Green Book Really Say?|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/books/review/what-did-qaddafis-green-book-really-say.html|access-date=28 October 2011|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date=27 May 2011|archive-date=29 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200829013607/https://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/books/review/what-did-qaddafis-green-book-really-say.html|url-status=live}}</ref> In addition to Nasser, Gaddafi also cited [[Charles de Gaulle]], [[Sun Yat-sen]], [[Abraham Lincoln]] and [[Josip Broz Tito]] as political inspirations.<ref>Qaddafi, M., Jouve, E., & Parfitt, A. (2005). My Vision. John Blake.</ref> He regarded this system as a practical alternative to the then-dominant international models of Western capitalism and [[Marxism–Leninism]].{{sfn|St. John|1987|p=28}} He laid out the principles of this Theory in the three volumes of ''The Green Book'', in which he sought to "explain the structure of the ideal society".{{sfn|Harris|1986|p=57}} 

The Libyan studies specialist Ronald Bruce St. John regarded Arab nationalism as Gaddafi's "primordial value",{{sfnm|1a1=St. John|1y=1983|1p=473|2a1=St. John|2y=1987|2p=21|3a1=St. John|3y=2008|3p=92}} stating that during the early years of his government, Gaddafi was "the Arab nationalist par excellence".{{sfn|St. John|1987|p=26}} Gaddafi called for the Arab world to regain its dignity and assert a major place on the world stage, blaming Arab backwardness on stagnation resulting from [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman]] rule, European colonialism and imperialism, and corrupt and repressive monarchies.{{sfnm|1a1=St. John|1y=1983|1p=474|2a1=St. John|2y=1987|2pp=26–27}} Gaddafi's Arab nationalist views led him to the [[pan-Arabist]] belief in the need for unity across the Arab world, combining the Arab nation under a single nation-state.{{sfnm|1a1=Harris|1y=1986|1p=59|2a1=St. John|2y=1987|2pp=19, 49}} To this end, he had proposed a political union with five neighbouring Arab states by 1974, although without success.{{sfn|St. John|1987|p=58}} In keeping with his views regarding Arabs, his political stance was described as [[nativism (politics)|nativist]].{{sfn|Hinnebusch|1984|p=63}} Gaddafi also had international ambitions, wanting to export his revolutionary ideas throughout the world.{{sfnm|1a1=Haynes|1y=1990|1p=59|2a1=Pargeter|2y=2012|2p=3}} Gaddafi saw his socialist ''Jamahiriyah'' as a model for the Arab, Islamic, and non-aligned worlds to follow,{{sfn|Harris|1986|p=54}} and in his speeches declared that his Third International Theory would eventually guide the entire planet.{{sfn|St. John|1987|p=34}} He nevertheless had minimal success in exporting the ideology outside of Libya.{{sfn|St. John|1987|p=29}}

Along with Arab nationalism, anti-imperialism was also a defining feature of Gaddafi's regime during its early years. He believed in opposing Western imperialism and colonialism in the Arab world, including any Western expansionism through the form of Israel.{{sfn|Zoubir|2009|p=402}} He offered support to a broad range of political groups abroad that called themselves "anti-imperialist", especially those that set themselves in opposition to the United States.{{sfn|Haynes|1990|p=60}} For many years, [[anti-Zionism]] was a fundamental component of Gaddafi's ideology. He believed that the state of Israel should not exist and that any Arab compromise with the Israeli government was a betrayal of the Arab people.{{sfnm|1a1=Harris|1y=1986|1p=54|2a1=Blundy|2a2=Lycett|2y=1987|2p=18}} In large part due to their support of Israel, Gaddafi despised the United States, considering the country to be [[Imperialism|imperialist]] and lambasting it as "the embodiment of evil".{{sfn|Blundy|Lycett|1987|pp=19, 197}} He sought to distinguish "oriental" Jews who had lived in the Middle East for generations from the European Jews who had migrated to Palestine during the 20th century, calling the latter "vagabonds" and "mercenaries" who should return to Europe.{{sfn|St. John|1983|p=478}} He rallied against Jews in many of his speeches, with Blundy and Lycett claiming that his [[antisemitism]] was "almost [[Adolf Hitler|Hitlerian]]".{{sfn|Blundy|Lycett|1987|p=25}} As Pan-Africanism increasingly became his focus in the early 21st century, Gaddafi became less interested in the Israel-Palestine issue, calling for the two communities to form a new [[One-state solution|single-state]] that he termed "[[Isratin]]".{{sfn|St. John|2008|p=100}}<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/22/opinion/22qaddafi.html |title=The One-State Solution |author=Gaddafi, Muammar |work=The New York Times |date=22 January 2009 |access-date=28 April 2017 |archive-date=1 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220801113301/https://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/22/opinion/22qaddafi.html |url-status=live }}.</ref> This would have led the Jewish population to become a minority within the new state.{{sfn|Karniel|Lavie-Dinur|Azran|2015|p=177}}

===Islamic modernism and Islamic socialism===

Gaddafi rejected the [[secularism|secularist]] approach to Arab nationalism that had been pervasive in Syria,{{sfn|St. John|1987|p=30}} with his revolutionary movement placing a far stronger emphasis on Islam than previous Arab nationalist movements had done.{{sfn|St. John|1983|p=473}} He deemed Arabism and Islam to be inseparable, referring to them as "one and indivisible",{{sfn|Bearman|1986|p=161}} and called on the Arab world's Christian minority to convert to Islam.{{sfnm|1a1=St. John|1y=1983|1p=476|2a1=Bearman|2y=1986|2p=161|3a1=St. John|3y=1987|3p=30}} He insisted that Islamic law should be the basis for the law of the state, blurring any distinction between the religious and secular realms.{{sfn|First|1974|p=25}} He desired unity across the Islamic world,{{sfn|Blundy|Lycett|1987|p=19}} and encouraged the propagation of the faith elsewhere; on a 2010 visit to Italy, he paid a modelling agency to find 200 young Italian women for a lecture he gave urging them to convert.<ref>{{Cite news|title=Europe Should Convert to Islam: Gaddafi|url= http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/europe/Europe-should-convert-to-Islam-Gaddafi/articleshow/6464781.cms |website=The Times of India |url-status=live |date=31 August 2010 |access-date=30 August 2010 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110109180255/http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/europe/Europe-should-convert-to-Islam-Gaddafi/articleshow/6464781.cms |archive-date=9 January 2011}}</ref> According to the Gaddafi biographer Jonathan Bearman, in Islamic terms Gaddafi was a [[Islamic Modernism|modernist]] rather than a [[Islamic fundamentalism|fundamentalist]], for he subordinated religion to the political system rather than seeking to Islamicise the state as Islamists sought to do.{{sfn|Bearman|1986|p=164}} He was driven by a sense of "divine mission", believing himself a conduit of God's will, and thought that he must achieve his goals "no matter what the cost".{{sfn|Harris|1986|pp=45, 50}} His interpretation of Islam was nevertheless idiosyncratic,{{sfn|Bearman|1986|p=164}} and he clashed with conservative Libyan clerics. Many criticized his attempts to encourage women to enter traditionally male-only sectors of society, such as the armed forces. Gaddafi was keen to improve women's status, although saw the sexes as "separate but equal" and therefore felt women should usually remain in traditional roles.{{sfn|Harris|1986|pp=33, 53}}

{{Quote box|width=25em|align=left|quote=The purpose of the socialist society is the happiness of man, which can only be realized through material and spiritual freedom. Attainment of such freedom depends on the extent of man's ownership of his needs; ownership that is personal and sacredly guaranteed, i.e. your needs must neither be owned by somebody else, nor subject to plunder by any part of society.|salign = right |source=—Muammar Gaddafi{{sfn|Bearman|1986|p=157}}}}

Gaddafi described his approach to economics as "Islamic socialism".{{sfnm|1a1=First|1y=1974|1p=255|2a1=St. John|2y=1983|2p=482|3a1=Harris|3y=1986|3p=48}} For him, a socialist society could be defined as one in which men controlled their own needs, either through personal ownership or through a collective.{{sfn|Bearman|1986|p=157}} Although the early policies pursued by his government were state capitalist in orientation, by 1978 he believed that private ownership of the means of production was exploitative and thus he sought to move Libya away from capitalism and towards socialism.{{sfn|Hinnebusch|1984|p=69}} Private enterprise was largely eliminated in favour of a centrally controlled economy.{{sfn|St. John|1983|p=484}} The extent to which Libya became socialist under Gaddafi is disputed. Bearman suggested that while Libya did undergo "a profound social revolution", he did not think that "a socialist society" was established in Libya.{{sfn|Bearman|1986|p=xvii}} Conversely, St. John expressed the view that "if socialism is defined as a redistribution of wealth and resources, a socialist revolution clearly occurred in Libya" under Gaddafi's regime.{{sfn|St. John|2012|p=173}}

Gaddafi was staunchly [[Anti-Marxism|anti-Marxist]],{{sfn|Bearman|1986|p=104}} and in 1973 declared that "it is the duty of every Muslim to combat" Marxism because it promotes atheism.{{sfn|Bearman|1986|p=105}} In his view, ideologies like Marxism and Zionism were alien to the Islamic world and were a threat to the [[ummah]], or global Islamic community.{{sfn|Bearman|1986|pp=104–105}} Nevertheless, Blundy and Lycett noted that Gaddafi's socialism had a "curiously Marxist undertone",{{sfn|Blundy|Lycett|1987|p=98}} with political scientist Sami Hajjar arguing that Gaddafi's model of socialism offered a simplification of [[Karl Marx]] and [[Friedrich Engels]]'s theories.{{sfn|Hajjar|1982}} While acknowledging the Marxist influence on Gaddafi's thought, Bearman stated that the Libyan leader rejected Marxism's core tenet, that of [[class struggle]] as the main engine of social development.{{sfn|Bearman|1986|p=158}} Instead of embracing the Marxist idea that a socialist society emerged from class struggle between the [[proletariat]] and [[bourgeoisie]], Gaddafi believed that socialism would be achieved through overturning "unnatural" capitalism and returning society to its "natural equilibrium".{{sfn|Bearman|1986|p=158}} In this, he sought to replace a capitalist economy with one based on his own romanticized ideas of a traditional, pre-capitalist past.{{sfn|Bearman|1986|p=159}} This owed much to the Islamic belief in [[God in Islam|God]]'s natural law providing order to the universe.{{sfn|Bearman|1986|p=160}}