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maltatoday, SUNDAY, 27 JULY 2014 13 Algeria in 1998, and with the elec- tion of Hamas in Gaza in 2004). How much does this consideration weigh in the present conflict? And seeing that military involvement or logistical support proved so disas- trous in Libya in 2011… what other options are left to the international community to try and stabilise the region? "If you look at that segment [of the CNN interview] again, you will note how Gaddafi had constantly warned the West 'you have to be careful of Al Qaeda'. That was an excuse Gaddafi liked to use: there can be no doubt that he used Al Qaeda as a name to prop up his own regime. But at the same time it was not just an excuse. It was also a reality…" Cassar argues that the internation- al community must find a way, how- ever difficult, to engage with radical Islam... proposing interfaith dialogue of the kind recommended by past and present Catholic Popes as a pos- sible model. "How do you combat the radicali- sation of religious feeling, based on denial of any form of dialogue? This is not only a problem in Libya, and not only in the Islamic world. The truth is that the influence and pen- etration of Western liberalism has encountered a wall of resistance. You cannot compare societies in all ways. Wherever you have strong religious institutions which feel threatened by outside entities, you will get radicali- sation to resist the pressure..." As for the portrayal of the conflict as being of a secular versus funda- mentalist nature, Cassar expresses his doubts. "I really don't believe that in Libya today, except perhaps for a few hundreds of families, there is anyone who feels 'secular' in the sense we understand it. There are various shades of Islam. Libya has traditionally not been extremist on religious issues. Libya was one of the few Arab countries where Christian churches would exercise religious freedom without interference. They were not encouraged, but they were tolerated." As for any possible roadmap for a future peace, Joseph Cassar reminds me of President Dwight Eisenhower's farewell address: which had famous- ly warned of the dangers of allowing the 'industrial military complex' too much political influence. "To find solutions in Libya you have to build on what there is in Libya. I think that in any situation of conflict... even, on a vastly differ- ent scale, if you look at the different times of political crises we have had even in Malta – nothing in compari- son with Libya, but there were times of tension, of extreme tension… so- lutions can only be found if you try to build bridges between the parties. If you tend to blow up bridges, you are going to have a perpetual problem. But building bridges is not always popular…" The day before we met, Cassar had attended a commemoration of Prof. Guido de Marco, the former Presi- dent who (back in the 1980s) had negotiated an agreement to amend the Constitution with former Pirme Minister Dom Mintoff. "I remember even within the [Na- tionalist] Party that there was criti- cism… are you dealing with them, are you not dealing with them?… but the reality is, no less than in the Christian world, you either take the brave steps [of ecumenical rapprochement] tak- en by Pope John XXIII, Pope Paul VI and subsequent popes… I remember the meeting between Pope Paul and the head of the Orthodox church… or else you retain a situation where you don't speak to each other, don't discuss with each other, and you have a situation which will last 100 years." However one approaches the issue, Cassar reasons that any country's in- ternal problems cannot be solved by other countries only looking at their own interests. "You cannot find so- lutions by merely saying 'let's elimi- nate the extremists'. Time and again experience has shown that for every person you eliminate another 10 will take his place…" Interview Instability and violence are to be expected after the collapse of any regime, but former Ambassador to Libya Joseph Cassar argues that the situation in Libya is more complex than most Libya PHOTOGRAPHY BY RAY ATTARD

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