By Abigail Hauslohner in Tripoli
Former rebel fighters pray at a checkpoint near Bani-Walid, Libya, September 12, 2011
Alexandre Meneghini / AP
The
Libyan rebels chuckle when they find a child-sized T-shirt featuring a cartoon
of Osama bin Laden amid the surveillance files, tapes and photos in one of the
buildings abandoned by Col. Muammar Gaddafi's internal security forces.
Sporting thick, bushy beards in a fresh show of religiosity they say never
would have been tolerated under the old regime, they have mixed feelings about
the man on the T-shirt. "Fighting in the name of Islam is something that
all Muslims respect," says Mukhtar Enhaysi, carefully. "But when [Bin
Laden] makes explosions and commits acts of terrorism against civilians who
have nothing to do with that, no one agrees with that."
Enhaysi's
nuanced view is commonplace in a country whose citizens are suddenly free to
express themselves, although the subtle Islamist current in the rebellion has worried
some of its Western backers. Rebel forces in Tripoli are commanded by a former
associate of Bin Laden, who the CIA had sent to Libya for questioning and
torture by Gaddafi's regime. And the leader of the rebel Transitional National
Council has called for a constitution guided by Islamic values, reflecting
popular sentiment in a country whose people describe themselves as
conservative, and who have endured 42 years of enforced — albeit, many say,
superficial — secularism under Gaddafi, even as he tried to style himself as
the nemesis of the West.
Interim
leader Mustafa Abdel Jalil told a cheering crowd in Tripoli's Martyr's Square
this week that, "We seek a state of law, prosperity and one where Sharia
[Islamic law] is the main source for legislation, and this requires many things
and conditions," adding that "extremist ideology" would not be
tolerated.
Indeed,
for a citizenry that views itself as inherently more conservative than its
Egyptian and Tunisian neighbors, it shouldn't be surprising that Libya's
interim leaders are already emphasizing the Islamic character of their future
government. But many say that Gaddafi's legacy — and NATO's recent intervention
— has also paved the way for a different kind of Islamist than the type that
Washington has long feared. "The fact that Gaddafi used [the West] as a
common enemy, well, the saying 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend' holds very
true here," says one official in the National Transitional Council (NTC),
speaking on condition of anonymity. "If you compound that with the fact
that the Westerners were instrumental in their support [of the rebels] and in
the demise of Gaddafi, you see that people are really quite friendly."
On
Thursday, Britain's David Cameron and French President Nicolas Sarkozy became
the first Western Heads of State to visit liberated Tripoli, where they were
given a warm welcome by Libya's Transitional Authorities. "The Libyans
will not forget the 19th of March, when the international community acted to
protect Libya and pass a no-fly zone," Jalil said at a joint press
conference. He promised a close friendship going forward. And it's kind of
paradox that has become increasingly evident on Libya's streets in recent
weeks. Across rebel-controlled territory, Libyans are becoming more
expressively religious; holding Islamist group meetings and discussions on the
management of mosque funding even as they verbalize an enthusiasm for NATO rare
in the Arab world. To that end, Abdel Hakim Belhaj, the former jihadist rebel
commander in Tripoli, has disavowed extremism and pledged tolerance toward
other religions, despite recently discovered Libyan government documents that
corroborate his story of rendition by the CIA. "I'm not motivated by
revenge against those who did that," he told TIME. "We are very close
to our European neighbors, and we want good relations with those countries,
both economically and even in security." The idea of an Islamist-led
democracy may jar with post-9/11 thinking in the West, but not necessarily in
the Muslim world. "It's not something we're inventing," says the NTC
official, citing Turkey and Qatar — although the latter, despite its support
for the rebellion, can't exactly be called a democracy.
See
photos of life in Benghazi during wartime.
"Generally,
in the West, they confuse Islamist with Bin Laden," says Saleh Ibrahim, a
Libyan journalist, exiting one of Tripoli's largest mosques following the
Friday noon prayer. "I think a moderate government will be put in place
that will reflect Islamic values, but it won't be extremist."
Most
Libyans are Sunni Muslim, meaning there's little risk of sectarian conflict —
although tribal and regional schisms have been visible even within the
rebellion. And there have been signs of a rift between "Islamists"
and "secularists" in the NTC. The so-called secularists dominate its
executive committee, and include the U.S.-educated acting Prime Minister
Mahmoud Jibril and Ali Tarhouni, the finance and oil minister who left his job
as an economics professor in the U.S. to join the rebellion.
Read:
"With Gaddafi Gone, Assessing the Winners and Losers from Libya's
War."
Jibril
has been harshly criticized by some rebels, including Tripoli commander Belhaj,
for excluding Islamist voices from the NTC leadership even as he tries to bring
rebel fighters under stricter central control. But Jibril sees competing groups
playing "the political game" and staking their own claims for power.
The prime minister's critics say the real line of conflict is between remnants
of the old regime — whom they say remain close to Jibril — against and the
revolution's fighters. "I'm not an Islamist, but I feel like I have more
in common with the Islamists than I do with the secularists who are in the
picture right now," says the NTC official. "Why? Because I think the
Islamists have no connection with the old regime. They're more nationalist. And
they have no frozen assets, that's for sure."
Some
see tensions mounting, with Abdel Jalil being the key to holding the rebel
coalition together. Rebel fighters chafed at the NTC leadership's orders to
delay the assault on remaining Gaddafi strongholds such as Sirte and Bani
Walid, to allow loyalist forces more time to surrender. NTC officials say the
purpose was to demonstrate their commitment to reconciliation. But Jibril's
opponents brand it a move to delay the formation of a government, while
staffing interim ministries with his cronies and political allies. "At the
end of the day, he [Jibril] might drive the Islamists to do things that will
probably label them as extremists — like taking revenge and liquidating those
who they consider obstacles," says the NTC official. "And then you've
left behind the democratic option and you've taken the option borne of
frustration, because they're not involved in the decision making process."
Some
Western analysts fear that Belhadj and other Islamists could suddenly become
more extreme amid frustration over the executive committee's attempts to rein
in Libya's roving militias and a climate of rising piety, "He never
allowed us to dress like this before," says Fatima Muftah, a 47-year-old,
whose face and body is now entirely concealed by a black veil and gloves.
"I'm a computer programmer, but I could never wear this to work." For
the sake of TIME's short-sleeved correspondent, she adds, "I have no
problem with what you're wearing. Women should be free to wear what they want."
The
NTC official is sanguine. "Whatever is going to happen here is going to be
unique to Libya," he says, sitting in a Tripoli hotel lobby on a busy
weekday afternoon. "It's not going to be an Egyptian model or an Iranian
model, or a Sudanese model. It's going to be closer to Turkey, but without the
alcohol, without the discotheques." The lobby around him is buzzing with
the chatter of Libyan youth in hipster plaid; bearded rebels cradling
Kalashnikovs; members of Abdel Jalil's entourage; and a group of women seeking
to form a women's rights group. "This is the only Arab country that has
100% of the same faith," he adds. "The division that people are
trying to project —it doesn't exist."
This article was published in Time Magazine on 16/09/2011
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