Brotherhood Maneuvers for a Lead Role in Libya
JERUSALEM—This weekend Libya held its first elections in over 40 years since deposing former dictator Muammar Qadhafi. The vote will elect a 200-member congress to rule the country for the next 18 months. The congress is also tasked with appointing a new prime minister, and was originally intended to draft a new constitution. But, in a move eerily similar to Egypt’s recent election debacle, Libya’s interim ruling body decreed two days before the election that the congress would not have the authority to compose a new constitution, but that it would be left to a smaller panel at a later time.
Despite these uncertainties, triumphant Libyans voted across the country on Saturday in a nation still rife with political unrest, chaos and violence. In some cases, voters braved bullets to reach the voting booths.
Meanwhile, as the nation decides on its new congress, the Muslim Brotherhood has been quietly making deals behind the scenes, as we’ve come to expect.
“Negotiations between the Muslim Brotherhood and a secular-based political movement led by former interim Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril have focused on forming a post-election government as soon as the result [of the election] is known,” the Daily Telegraphreported last week out of London.
“An adviser to Mr. Jibril said the former prime minister was likely to take the post of figurehead president with Mustafa Abu Shagour, currently interim deputy prime minister of the Muslim Brotherhood, taking the prime minister’s slot as head of government. The Muslim Brotherhood would dominate the ministries.”
Just like in Egypt, we are seeing the Muslim Brotherhood capitalize on the chaotic political arena, this time in the nation of Libya.
“I’d be surprised if Islamists, from the Brotherhood and other parties, don’t secure most of the seats and a great chunk of the vote,” a Dartmouth University professor was quoted as saying (ibid.).
The irony here is that, once again, it’s the West and nato that’s helping to get rid of the dictator, only to clear away space for the Islamists to come in and fill the vacuum.
Since the nato-led uprising in Libya succeeded in toppling former dictator Qadhafi, subsequent reports have surfaced illustrating the true catalyst behind the movement. It wasn’t a democratic uprising, as we’ve been covering here.
In an article titled, “The Islamist Plot: The Untold Story of the Libyan Rebellion,” John Rosenthal references eyewitness accounts and court evidence that show the rebellion was neither unplanned nor unorganized (February 17). At least three militants who played leading roles in the uprising were linked to al Qaeda and the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, Rosenthal says.
Rosenthal wrote, “Whatever may have transpired in the rest of the Arab world, the uprising in Libya was the realization not of democratic aspirations, but of the longstanding ambitions of Islamic extremists. It was an ‘Islamist Spring’ that paved the way for today’s ‘Islamist Winter.’”
Days before revolution erupted in February 2011, you might remember that our editor-in-chief Gerald Flurry predicted that Libya would be the next domino to fall into the Islamic camp.
“Libya’s leadership will soon undergo a change that will align the nation with Islamic extremist nations like Iran,” we wrote February 10, 2011—seven days before the revolution officially began, and even while Qadhafi was still in power and had plenty of strength. Now, a year and a half later, the Islamist roots of the revolution are becoming clear, and Libya’s future looks ominous.
