Moderate Muslims Chasing Militia Groups Out By Force! Let's give them a big rave and a round of applause!
Foxhound BN0
2012/09/22 11:14:53
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BENGHAZI, Libya — Thousands of Libyans marched through Benghazi on Friday to demand the dismantlement of the hundreds of armed militias that have ruled the country’s streets since a revolution ended the 42-year rule of Moammar Khadafy. By late Friday, the protesters had overrun at least three militia bases, forcing fighters to flee with their guns.
An attack on the US Consulate last week that left four Americans dead has prompted anger and soul-searching among many of Benghazi’s residents, who believe that religious extremists operating in an atmosphere of weak central governance were behind the attack.
But the government in Tripoli has struggled to deal with the militias, which are composed largely of the young men who fought in last year’s revolution. The government’s efforts to bring some of the militias under a more unified national force have failed to deliver state-run security to Libya’s streets.
As protesters draped in the red, black, and green of the Libyan flag carried signs reading ‘‘Benghazi deserves better’’ and ‘‘No legitimacy, except to the police or the army,’’ the Islamist extremist group that many here have accused of being behind the attack held its own protest in nearby Al-Kish Square. Ansar al-Sharia gathered to call for the implementation of Islamic law in a demonstration that the antimilitia crowd said marked a provocation.
The dueling protests underscored a broader struggle underway in Libya, nearly a year after Libyans from across the political spectrum joined hands in an eight-month war to oust Khadafy. It is a battle to define a new Libya — to answer the crucial question of what the Libyan people, government and culture look like when the shackles of dictatorship are thrown off.
‘‘I think the struggle that’s eating people up right now is the struggle for an identity,’’ said Alya Barghathy, an English professor at Benghazi University, who joined the antimilitia protest Friday. ‘‘After all these years of being neglected and living in darkness, they don’t know who they are.’’
The collapse of Khadafy’s regime left a system in a shambles. After decades of repression, the country has lurched forward in recent months to form political parties and elect a General National Congress. The next task will be the drafting of a new constitution.
Opposition to the militias has been building since shortly after Khadafy’s fall. Late last year, non-Tripoli-based militias were asked by the transitional government to withdraw from the streets of the capital after residents complained their neighborhoods had been overrun by young men with guns. A Gallup poll released this month showed that 95 percent of Libyans want to see the militias dissolved. But Friday’s protest was the biggest public showing of antimilitia sentiment to date.
Not all of the militias are rooted in Islamic extremism. But groups like Ansar al-Sharia have proved a volatile addition to an already contentious debate over the proper role of religion in the new Libya.
Many Libyans, ranging from the liberal elites who now dominate the congress to members of the more conservative Muslim Brotherhood, describe their Islam as a moderate and tolerant one. Few — not even Western-educated secularists — say they want a constitution that doesn’t draw from Islamic law.
But the assault on the US consulate here last week, which left the US ambassador dead and which American officials now describe as a terrorist attack, has thrown that characterization into sudden and stark relief: Not everyone agrees on what Islamic law — or a state guided by it — actually means.
‘‘There is no doubt that in our societies, we have liberal Muslims who say ‘I’m a Muslim and I believe Islam belongs only in the mosque,’ ’’ said Ramadan Eldarsi, a high-ranking official of the Muslim Brotherhood. ‘‘But we think that Islam is a broader way to organize people’s lives, not just what they do within a mosque.’’
Eldarsi said the Brotherhood differentiates itself from groups like Ansar al-Sharia in that it advocates peace and tolerance, and believes in the democratic process.
Extremists such as the members of Ansar al-Sharia say they are also ready for a fight for the kind of state they want to see. But it’s the tools of that struggle that the moderates say they’re worried about.
Ansar al-Sharia, which established itself with a parade in Benghazi in June, opposes Libya’s transition to democracy, saying the system of elected leadership runs counter to Islamic principles. It acknowledged its members’ involvement in the protest outside the consulate, but has denied responsibility for the attack.
See full story here: http://bostonglobe.com/news/world/2012/09/21/libyans-hold-gia...
See full story here: http://bostonglobe.com/news/world/2012/09/21/libyans-hold-gia...
Top Opinion
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Philo-Publius 2012/09/22 13:00:42
Chris Stevens' death was a loss to America and Libya. As Chris Stevens served the people of Libya and America in life, so he also serves them in death. There is only one God and that God worshiped by Christians and Muslims alike does not permit those who serve his people to die in vain. Unlike the foolish suicide bombers who kill others along with themselves, those who die in God's service, as Ambassador Stevens did, do not die in vain instead as martyrs they change the world. It looks like the death of Chris Stevens will change Libya. And change in Libya may change the Arab world, just as a young man burning himself on the streets of Tripoli initiated a revolt in Libya to initiate the Arab Spring.
In death, Chris Stevens continued in the footsteps of American martyrs which proceeded...martyrs inspired by the "Battle Hymn of the Republic"....and its words "In the beauty of the lilies, Christ was born across the sea ... as He died to make men holy let us die to make men free." Rest in peace Ambassador Stevens.
Hey....you could almost say the same for the U.S. these days!
There are moderate Muslims that are doing this but once the radical militant Muslims begin killing their children and family members for doing this it will all revert back.
I'm happy to see it.
But it will fly about one inch with those who are treating muslims as the new "red scare". Such people NEED a "them" to be against. It's how they define themselves as an "us".
Some folks.....would rather have an enemy, so this will go unacknowleged.
The only turd here, is the one between your ears.
Might I suggest that it is your and others' painting them all with a broad, denigrating brush that is fostering so much of the ongoing anger, and causing many of them who might otherwise become liberal and more cosmopolitan to simply give up on Westerners, and retreat into fundamentalism?
In other words, you may yourself be placing the very stone in their hand whose throwing you condemn.