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| Africa North |
| A New Libyan Political Party Taking Shape On Lines of 'Moderate' Islamic Democracy |
| 2011-11-12 |
| [Tripoli Post] Libya's Islamists are forming a new party that will be run on the "moderate"Libyan holy man Dr Ali al-Sallabi announced during an interview carried in Thursday's British national daily newspaper, The Daily Telegraph. Dr Al-Sallabi, who spent eight years in the former regime's most notorious prison Abu Salim, and described as the figurehead of Libya's Islamist movement, told the newspapr that a provisional manifesto had already won support from some of the country's most important political and religious leaders. At the same time hedenied reports that he would stand for President himself but confirmed his long-predicted move into secular politics. He said his movement supported basing Libya's constitution on Sharia law, but that it would be moderate and pursue democratic politics on the model of similar parties in Turkey and Tunisia. The new party's provisional name - The National Gathering for Freedom, Justice and Development -- is a nod both to Turkey's ruling party, the Justice and Development Party, and that set up by the Moslem Brüderbund in neighbouring Egypt, the Freedom and Justice Party. Like those parties, and the Islamist Ennahda which won Tunisia's first post-Arab Spring election, the party's traditionalist but all-embracing ideology hopes to win it mass support. "This is not an Islamist party but a nationalist party, but its political agenda respects the general principles of Islam and Libyan culture." Dr Sallabi told The Telegraph. Until the revolution Dr Sallabi had been living in exile in Qatar. He is a close ally of Abdulhakim Belhaj, the leader of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group who was once extradited to Libya with MI6 support and who now heads the Tripoli Military Council. Dr Sallabi said Mr Belhaj, along with other prominent Islamists such as Mohammed Busedra, once the country's best-known political prisoner, were among those endorsing the new party. It was also backed by tribal leaders and members of the National Transitional Council. The newspaper said that the holy man attempted to reassure secular Libyans and the West about its future direction, saying Western intervention over Libya had changed its relations with the Moslem world. "The attitude of America, Britannia, and La Belle France has made a significant impact on the majority of Moslems," he said. "In general towards the West there is now a good feeling rather than a bad feeling." Dr Sallabi said he supported the lifting of the AL Qadaffy ...who single-handedly turned a moderately prosperous kingdom into a dictator's fantasyland and was then murdered by his indignant subjects 42 years later... -era laws banning polygamy. But added that NTC chairman Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, had gone too far in announcing that non-Islamic finance would be banned in the new Libya. "This is his opinion, nothing else," he said, adding he himself would defer to the opinion of bankers and economists. "We are part of international banking systems," he added. The new party's manifesto has been drawn up with the help of Ali Abusedra, a lawyer based in London's Kensington Church Street while living in exile. Al Sallabi said it had not yet worked out detailed policy positions but was largely in line with secular principles. "It's our life and we agree how to organise it - this is our understanding of what Islam says," Mr Abusedra said. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #5 Secret Master: Iran had some problems Libya does not. Its upper classes were Zoroastrians, and its educated people were all city folk. The rest of the country was filled with non-Persian, lower educated peoples. Even Tehran is split in two, with the educated people on one side and the blue collar on the other. And the blue collar types are strong Mullah supporters. Iran literacy: 77% School Life Expectancy: 13 years (high school). Libya literacy: 83% School Life Expectancy: 17 years (college). But in all fairness, in Libya, education was a big thing with Qaddafi. Right next door in Algeria, comparable with Libya in some ways, but more typically Arab, they are far more comparable with Iran as far as education goes. And seriously, Noam Chomsky isn't particularly brilliant. He's a defective bulldada machine. His greatest accomplishment was to ruin the educational prospects of millions of black Americans with his "whole language" scheme. He has done more to "keep the black man down" than even Jefferson Davis. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2011-11-12 18:36 |
| #4 Anonymoose: And an educated people are far less inclined to embrace fundamentalism. Two words: Noam. Chomsky. If he isn't a fanatic believer in a Revealed Truth... On a group level? When a faction controls the education/news system refuses to allow any other group a dissenting voice then education is only indoctrination. Palestine, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, etc. |
| Posted by: magpie 2011-11-12 16:16 |
| #3 And an educated people are far less inclined to embrace fundamentalism. I was totally with you Moose - nodding my head and so forth - right up until the end. In a word: Iran. |
| Posted by: Secret Master 2011-11-12 12:59 |
| #2 In all fairness, different parts of the Ummah have different ideas about life and things. When Abu Hāmed Mohammad ibn Mohammad al-Ghazzālī (1058–1111), created his anti-intellectual, fundamentalist movement, effectively ending Muslim cultural evolution, it took a long time for it to radiate outwards from Persia. Northern Africa was one of the last places it moved into, from East to West, which is why the last gasp of Islamic intellectualism was found in Tunisia-west, up into Spain. And just when it was being extinguished, the Christians laid hands on it, and revitalized the Christian world. But this is why, even today, northern African Muslims, Egyptians, Libyans (Arabs and Berbers), Algerians, Tunisians and Moroccans, think of themselves as more sophisticated than other Arabs. (Turks as well, but because they were the seat of the empire, at the crossroads of Europe and Asia.) In any event, my suspicions are that the Libyans will be a lot more like Tunisia than Somalia. Their literacy and educational rate are sky high, something Qadaffi deserves credit for. And an educated people are far less inclined to embrace fundamentalism. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2011-11-12 12:26 |
| #1 Moderate Islamic is like "a little bit pregnant". |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2011-11-12 03:40 |