Sen. Joseph Biden told Libyan parliamentarians during a visit to the North African nation that the Arab world should reject authoritarian rule and instead adopt democracy. He called on Arab countries to take on the "incredibly difficult challenge" of "empowering women, spreading knowledge and expanding freedom."
"Mahmoud, what'd he say?"
"Dunno, Abdul, he's speaking in tongues."
"What langauge is that?"
"Common sense. No one I know here speaks that!" |
Biden, a Delaware Democrat who is the ranking minority member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, delivered the speech Wednesday to the Libyan National Congress. A transcript of the speech was made available Friday by his Washington office. He spoke to the Congress about what he saw as the need to prevent "the concentration of power into the hands of the few ... or the one."
"Nothing about democracy is incompatible with Islam," Biden said, noting that decisions based on community discussions was a Muslim concept centuries ago. "Please do not kill me misunderstand me. I mean no disrespect. But the nations of the Arab world could be doing so much more to harness the enormous potential of their people," he said. Arab countries should consider the example Spain, Biden said, pointing out that the country was part of a great Arab empire a thousand years ago. "Why did you thrive then?" he asked. "It was not your armies alone. It was your ideas, your civilization, your culture, your openness. Why has this one small territory - then called Al Andalus, now called Spain - outpaced the rest of the Arab world combined today?"
| Because sensible people are in charge? |
"Don't take the answer from me," Biden said, citing a United Nations report on Arab human development, which recommended the granting of women's rights and an expansion of knowledge sharing and freedom as keys to a more prosperous future. "By accepting responsibility for the past ... agreeing to abandon its weapons of mass destruction program ... and joining the war on terrorism ... your government is beginning to end Libya's political and economic isolation," he said.
| Biden can be a real jerk sometimes but this was pretty good. |
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