Editing Muammar Gaddafi (section)

===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}}