1.The Green Book is Muammar Qaddafi's outline for the social and economic revolution of the Libyan Jamahiriyat (state of the masses). The book has three parts: part one is entitled 'The Solution of the Problem of Democracy `The Authority of the People'"; part two is "The Solution of the Economic Problem `Socialism'"; and part three is "The Social Basis of the Third Universal Theory". In its own words, the "Green Book presents the final solution to the problem of the instrument of governing". [ Muammar Al Qathafi, The Green Book, Ottawa: Jerusalem International Publishing House Inc., p. 5.] The essence of the Green Book is perhaps, Mr. Qaddafi's vision of democratic government by the people without the barrier of political structures and politicians. An analogy to the Green Book, is Mao's Red Book, or, in the words of The Middle East magazine, "the bible of the revolution". [ "Gaddafi Stays the Course", The Middle East, March 1989, p. 6.] The Green Book is available in most libraries, and there should be a location in Montreal.

The Libyan General People's Congress (GPC) adopted the "Great Green Document on Human Rights in the Era of the Masses" on 12 June 1988, signalling an improvement in human rights conditions in Libya. [ Amnesty International, Amnesty International Welcomes Latest Moves to Improve Human Rights in Libya, 20 June 1988.] On 10 March 1988, the General People's Congress of Libya announced a number of reforms, including: allowing Libyans the freedom to travel and live abroad, the release of political prisoners, the abolition of the Revolutionary Courts, and a guarantee for human rights. ["Gaddafi Stays the Course," The Middle East, No. 173, March 1989, p.6.] In September 1988, Qaddafi condemned the Revolutionary Courts for the "imprisonment, torture, and murder of innocent people". [ Ibid., p.7.] Libyan exiles from abroad have been encouraged to return home, though political opponents were being executed as late as February 1988. [ US Department of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1988, (Washington: US Government Printing Office, 1989), p.1419.] Political opponents of Qaddafi are "theoretically" protected when they return to Libya, "so long as they are prepared to repent," but this policy is viewed by some critics of the Qaddafi regime as an obligation or threat, not a right. [ U.S. Department of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1988, p. 1423.] Although some sources maintain that there are no particular sanctions against returnees, [ External Affairs, 12 March 1989.] there is evidence that students who returned to Libya as late as 1987 were subjected to interrogation by the authorities. [ Amnesty International, "Libya: Summary of Amnesty International's Prisoner Concerns", Amnesty International, MDE 19/05/87, 26 October 1987.]

2.Qaddafi's version of Islam is not strictly according to more fundamentalist interpretations of the Koran. [ John Davis, Libyan Politics: Tribe and Revolution, (London: I.B. Tauris & co. Ltd., 1987), p. 44.] For example, although Islamic legislature has been enacted, it is not interpreted as strictly as in some other Islamic societies (e.g. Iran). The Libyan version of Koranic family law provides greater rights and protection to women, and a woman's testimony in a court of law is equal to that of a man's [ Davis, p. 45.] (unlike other Islamic nations such as Pakistan, which follow Islamic rules which suggest that the testimony of two women equals that of one man). Qaddafi's application of Islam to political and social life in Libya is not in accordance with more fundamentalist interpretations of the Koran, and he is, therefore, "at loggerheads with other fundamentalists" by "abandoning the accumulated body of established interpretation". [ Davis, p.255.]

The Sanusiyya (Islamic) sponsored Islamic University was merged with the University of Libya when the regime banned the Sanusiyya religious following, and in 1986, all Koranic schools were closed -- allegedly to reduce the influence of the mosques and to integrate all children into the public system. [U.S. Department of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1987, p. 1235.]

Information regarding the penalties or restrictions someone teaching the Koran would face is not currently available to the IRBDC.

For a discussion of the linkage of Islam to Qaddafi's revolution in Libya, please refer to the attached pages from John Davis, Libyan Politics: Tribe and Revolution, London: I.B. Tauris & co. Ltd., 1987.