His Highness Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani Emir of the State of Qatar, and his wife Her Highness Sheikha Mozah Bint Nasser Al Missned, together with Dr. and Mrs. Ray Irani, Chairman of the Board, Occidental Petroleum, Los Angeles.

Emir of the State of Qatar Speaks at
The Los Angeles Town Hall

His Highness Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani Emir of the State of Qatar, and his wife Her Highness Sheikha Mozah Bint Nasser Al Missned recently toured the United States including Los Angeles, where the Emir was the guest speaker at the Los Angeles Town Hall.
The Emir and his wife met with many members of the Arab-American community, introduced by Adrienne Medawar, president of Los Angeles Town Hall.
His Highness Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani, a committed advocate of development and a moderate foreign policy, has ruled the State of Qatar since 1995. Qatar is a close ally of the United States, allowing Central Command to base its regional headquarters near Doha. The Emir has supported Her Highness Sheikha Mozah Bint Nasser Al Missned in her work with the Qatar Foundation to promote modern education including the establishment of several American universities. 
As part of Qatar’s Education City the following officially opened in 2003: Carnegie Mellon University, Texas A&M University, Virginia Commonwealth University, Weill Cornell Medical College and the RAND Policy Institute with talks pending for the possible inclusion of other universities, including USC. 
The Following is part of the speech of the Emir of the State His Highness Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani to Los Angeles Town Hall on September 23, 2004. The moderator was Judith Kipper, Director of the Middle East Forum Council on Foreign Relations, who said:
"I am delighted to be with you here in this Town Hall in the City of Los Angeles which represents, along with its counterparts in many other American cities, a distinctive model that preserves to the citizen in these advanced times the space that he or she needs to practice direct democracy - that, in addition to all the other rights of expression that he or she enjoys through modern institutions that have come about as a result of representative democracy. I do suppose that George Washington was right when he said that when freedom plants its seeds, freedom will grow at a very fast pace.
"This is the experiment of the American town hall, reinforcing its rules since its inception more than two centuries ago, growing to become a leading American experiment. 
"Qatar is a Gulf Arab state, and it belongs to the group of emerging democracies which will hold a conference two years from now in our capital city Doha. It is an emirate with a small population base, however, it possesses huge economic resources in addition to its unique strategic location. And the difference between the population base and the economic base - as a result of that, we have adopted a methodology to work focusing on the future, in which all of our efforts focus always on improvement so that the state has consecrated all of its resources to distinctly prepare its citizens at the educational, health and cultural levels. This would not be complete without weaving the threads of freedom in the national fabric of our country because a free citizen is by nature responsible and instinctively eager to defend the gains of his nation because he or she feels a partner in making them 
"We believe with all conviction that a qualified citizen is able to deal with the issues of the day and participate in the affairs of his people. Even if the population is limited, it is better than having the situation of other nations with huge populations, but with thousands of unqualified people and thousands who are deprived of their right of participation. 
"Esteemed friends, due to our interest in focusing on building a comprehensive human being, the large segment of Qatar citizens of both genders, have become highly qualified to participate in leading a modern economy, which is growing at record averages. Our gross domestic product has grown in the past five years at a rate of 12 percent annually and the per capita average has also grown by 7 percent annually. Qatar was able to double the volume of its investment when it signed, in the year 2003, a number of agreements in principle with foreign companies to establish giant projects at a volume of investment reaching more than $40 billion. It is important to note that American companies such as Exxon/Mobil, ConocoPhillips and Chevron have received the greater piece of the contribution by foreign companies. These investments include future projects to provide the American market with approximately 23 million tons of liquid gas. This quantity represents an important percentage of the needs of this market in gas in the coming few years - a point that reinforces the position of Qatar as a strategic ally to the United States of America that contributes to meeting the latter's growing energy needs in the future. 
"Let me begin by asking you about the reform process in Qatar. You've taken some extraordinary steps. Qatar is a small country with big ideas. Why is the rest of the Arab world so far behind and why are you so far ahead? What gave you the vision to create Al-Jazeera, which changed politics in the region, reform your education and to work with the United States to allow a base, to have dialogue with all countries including Iran and Israel? This is such a remarkable story and we'd like to hear how you did it.
"First of all, I would like to clarify the United States of America supports democracies in the Middle East. Of course, we are among those countries that have encouraged this. However, our experiment came before the latest proposal by the United States. Our experiment was started approximately in 1995, and our intent was to focus on the human being. Of course, if we are to focus on the human being, we have to give the human being the freedom of expression. The freedom of expression has caused us many problems but we are still ongoing with that. So we, in 1997, with the Council on Foreign Relations, talked to them and informed them that we are on the beginning of a road to having municipality elections, elections for the chamber of commerce. 
"I had noticed that some were basically whispering among themselves, ‘Oh, this guy is coming from the Middle East and he's talking about municipality elections, elections for a Chamber of Commerce.’ But when we take a look at what we have done from 1995 to now, we find that we have reached a phase in which our people have given consent to a constitution and, God willing, next year we will witness the first parliamentary elections in Qatar. 
"I’d like also to insist to you that before the discovery of oil in our region, tribes, Qatari families had a council through which they could consult one another and the decisions of that council would be enforced with the presence of the head of the state at the time. However, after the discovery of oil, oil companies started supporting certain families in order to guarantee the flow of oil. Our region went through a dangerous period. Our Islamic religion pushes us to have consultation and to apply what the majority wants.”