From the Monsters in the Closet Department, via MEMRI, with thanks to Romy:
The April 1, 2005 issue of the online Saudi royal family weekly magazine Ain Al-Yaqeen included the transcript of a talk given by Arab League Ambassador Ali Muhsen Hamid to Britain before the Conservative Foreign and Commonwealth Council at the Houses of Parliament. In his talk, titled “Arabs and the West: Indispensable Relation,” Hamid emphasized the cultural affinities between the Arab world and the West, and portrayed Israel as the major factor standing between them….
“When Israel states that Arabs are terrorists the west quickly follows suit. When Israel says that democracy should be imposed on Arabs by force, echoes of this view begin to manifest [themselves] in some western media outlets and western think tanks. When Israel begins to demonize Iraq and Iran the west goes to war against the former and begins to issue threatening admonishments to the latter…
“What makes matters worse is that some people in the west see that the issues of democracy, good governance and the rule of law are inapplicable in the Arab world, because the absence of the foundations necessary for their implementation is an inherent part of the eastern psyche, and that ‘eastern despotism’ is the norm in the Arab political system…
“It is true that we do not yet have a Westminster style democracy, but we nevertheless have systems of government that are gradually opening out which do not close the doors to renewal and reinvigoration. It could have been the old Orientalist terminology which led the U.S. to adopt the initiative of ‘democratizing’ the Middle East from the outside, and to unofficially view Islam as an enemy of democracy.
“But Washington entered actively into the fray after the terrorist events perpetrated on its own soil in 9/11/01. This was not a good justification for its enmity towards Arabs and Muslims. Israel’s hand in the matter is clear.”…
“It is not my intention to intimidate anyone here, but I do not intend, either, to paint an imaginary rosy picture of Arab-western relations or fantasize about how wonderful these relations could soon be… Our pain and suffering is limitless. Now you, after having made Arabs and Islam your victims, are transferring your battle front to the Arab Muslim community [in the West].”
Read it all, if you have the stomach. Amazing that British MPs could have sat through this load of hogwash — like good dhimmis, I suppose.