ROME, Pope Francis believes that it is dangerous and imprudent to import models of democracy into certain countries, because this leads to anarchy and wars. In a book-interview entitled “You are not alone. Challenges, responses, hopes”, the sovereign pontiff describes these attempts as “failures of the West” which led to the emergence of the terrorist organization Islamic State.

Asked about the responsibility of Western countries in the chaos reigning in the states from which the refugees come, Pope Francis spoke of the consequences of colonization and the “appropriation of natural resources”.

“The failure of the West also lies in trying to impose its own model of democracy on certain countries whose culture is more of a tribal type. Let's take the example of Libya, which seems to be able to be led by a single man, and a strong man at that, like [former leader Muammar] Gaddafi.

A Libyan told me that in the past there was only Gaddafi, but today there are 53 such leaders,” the newspaper La Stampa said, quoting excerpts from the book.

Pope Francis also recalled the Gulf War. “Saddam Hussein was certainly not an angel, quite the contrary, but Iraq under his leadership was a stable country,” noted the sovereign pontiff.

He immediately made it clear that he was not seeking to defend Gaddafi or Hussein. “But what did the war lead to? “, he continued. “To an anarchy and a new war. So I think that we should not export our democracy to other countries, but help the process of democratic maturation of a society according to its characteristics. »

He considers it useless to impose democracy on people who are “not able to accept it”. “There are countries with monarchical systems that may never accept democracy,” Pope Francis said.

“I don't understand anything about international politics, but I think that the emergence of the Islamic State was caused, among other things, by unfortunate Western decisions,” the pope concluded, noting that Islam is by nature a “peaceful religion”.

Source: Burkina Information Agency