In Post-Gadhafi Libya, Islamists Start To Rise 3JAN12 & Strength of Egyptian Islamists proves a test for Obama’s pro-democracy policy in the Middle East 5JAN12

AMERICAN government officials and politicians are expressing their concern about the rising influence and political power of conservative Islamist political parties Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen and possibly Syria. In reality their concern is not for the fate of democracy in these countries, nor for the human rights of their citizens, but for the state and profitability of American corporate interest and of the U.S. military-industrial complex, dependent on sales of tools of government repression and weapons of mass destruction to the region. Oil and war are the reasons for American concern, not freedom, democracy and human rights, and American support of the violent defeat of the revolution in Bahrain has shown these countries what the American governments interest really are.
One also has to compare the extreme right wing "religious" policies of some of the Islamist parties in these countries with the "religious" policies of some politicians in the U.S. Some of the gop / tea-baggers presidential candidates (ron paul) are supported by and adhere to the beliefs of the "christian" reconstructionist movement, which calls for the nation to be governed by strict "religious" laws that differ with the Islamic Salafist only in the name of their faith. The others (rick perry, newt gingrich, mitt romney, rick santorum) support and are supported by "religious" groups that limit the human rights of women and children and preach intolerance of other faiths, secularism and ethnic groups, the same as mainstream Islamist like the Muslim Brotherhood. Maybe we should be more concerned about the threat to our freedom, democracy and human rights from the extreme "religious" right here in America before worrying about "religious" extremist in the Arab world. Here are two interesting articles from NPR and the Washington Post....

by Lourdes Garcia-Navarro

Listen to the Story

Morning Edition

[7 min 51 sec]

 

Enlarge Sergey Ponomarev/AP A rebel fighter stands on a monument inside Moammar Gadhafi's main compound in Tripoli.

One year ago, protesters across the Arab world began to rise up against autocratic rulers, forcing several from power. These revolutions have led to the region's biggest upheaval in decades. It's still not clear how these seismic changes will play out, and so far, the results have been mixed. In a six-part series, NPR is taking a look at where the region stands today. In the second installment, NPR's Lourdes Garcia-Navarro reports on how Islamists in Libya, long suppressed during Moammar Gadhafi's 42-year rule, are now able to operate freely.
Kolo Street in Tripoli is unpaved, potholed and lined with crumbling concrete and mud brick homes. The residents here complain of decades of neglect under Moammar Gadhafi.
But now, after Libya's revolution, there's a sudden interest in their plight, and it's not coming from the transitional government.
On a recent day, a man answered questions about his family's situation from members of an Islamic charity that just started operating in the neighborhood. The group is promising to help him and the six members of his family with food and financial support.

More In This Series

Part 1: Turning Elections Into Democracy
Today: Islamists On The Rise
Part 3: Syria — A Looming Civil War?
Part 4: Bahrain — An Uprising Suppressed
Part 5: Turkey's Expanding Role
Part 6: The U.S. And The Arab Spring

One of the men, Shukry Jualy, who started the Helping Hands charity, says he is a Salafi Muslim — part of an ultra-conservative movement that exists in a number of Muslim countries.
While Jualy says his group has no political affiliation, Salafist parties have done well in neighboring Egypt's elections. Much of their support came through grass-roots community work that translated into votes.
Unlike in Egypt, though, Islamists in Libya are starting almost from scratch. Gadhafi was much more aggressive in stamping out Islamist influences in Libya. For example, his security forces arrested anyone with a long beard, a sign of Muslim piety. And attending the early morning prayers at mosques, a timeless ritual in most every Muslim country, was actually forbidden in Gadhafi's Libya.
But now that the dictator is gone, Islamist groups are wasting no time as they try to spread their influence.
'Rehabilitation' In Misrata
The men in this makeshift prison in Misrata are from all over Libya, captured in various battles, all purported to be Gadhafi fighters. At prayer time, they line up in a covered courtyard, kneeling and pressing their heads to the floor.
One of the striking things is that all of the men have uncut beards.
A prison guard calls the prison a "rehabilitation center." He says the men are required to pray five times a day and they are taught Islam.
Guard Haitham Mohammed says when the prisoners arrive, they have no idea how to read the Quran or how to be properly observant Muslims. The guards then begin teaching them, he says.

Timeline: The Major Events Of The Arab Spring

A look at the most important developments in the Arab world over the past year.

But what they are being taught is the Salafist strain, which the men who run the prison follow.
The prisoners say they are obligated to pray and leave their beards uncut, and they're forbidden to smoke. Anyone caught breaking the strict code is whipped.
Fattah Abdulsalam Dares runs this facility. Like many things in Libya these days, his appointment was haphazard. He had no prison guard experience. He's a businessman who became a rebel fighter and then took over the prison.
Dares' story is similar to that of many Islamists in Libya. Charming and voluble, he recounts how he was arrested and tortured under Gadhafi in the very same building he oversees as a prison now. His crime, he says, was simply sporting a long beard. Now, he encourages all of the prisoners to wear one.
"We Islamists want to show people our real face, not the evil one painted on us by the former regime," Dares says. We believe in charity and honesty, he says.
Islamists Becoming More Prominent
The Islamist message has resonated across the region in the wake of the Arab Spring.
"There's no doubt that this is the moment for Islamist politics and Islamist movements," says Samer Shehata, an assistant professor of Arab politics at Georgetown University.
Michael Hanna, a fellow at The Century Foundation, a progressive, nonpartisan think tank, adds that the decades of repression have actually helped push Islamist groups toward their strong position now.

There's no doubt that this is the moment for Islamist politics and Islamist movements.

- Samer Shehata, assistant professor of Arab politics at Georgetown University

"This is a reckoning that was a long time in coming," Hanna says. "The postponement of the integration of political Islam into the political process, and the opening up of democratic potential probably exacerbated the current situation."
Still, it's something that makes many in the West uneasy. In the case of Libya, the fear is that NATO's intervention will clear the way for hard-line Islamists to take power, as happened in Afghanistan in the 1990s after the Soviets were driven out.
Already, many of the most powerful Islamists in Libya have a complicated relationship with Western nations. Britain and America often colluded with Gadhafi's regime against Islamist militants in the wake of the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Among the most infamous cases is that of Abdul Hakim Belhaj, who headed the now defunct Libyan Islamic Fighting Group. It was deemed a terrorist organization with links to al-Qaida, though Belhaj has denied belonging to Osama bin Laden's global terrorist group. Belhaj is now the powerful head of the Tripoli Military Council.
In an interview with NPR, he told of his rendition back to Libya from Malaysia in 2004.
Belhaj is now suing the British government for what he says is its complicity in his kidnap and torture at Gadhafi's hands. Documents recently discovered seem to support his claim that Britain's MI6 organized his transfer back to Tripoli.
Belhaj now has political aspirations, and he's been in talks with other prominent Islamists since last April. He plans to start a political party, but infighting has delayed a formal announcement.
Divisions Among Islamists
There are many different kinds of Islamists in Libya, and there are deep divisions among them. The Libyan Muslim Brotherhood, which was initially slated to join the group, has now backed out.
Libya's Islamists are worried about their reception in a country with no history of political parties for 42 years and relentless propaganda by the Gadhafi regime against them. So, they have been trying to attract other groups to what they are branding a nationalist party and calling the National Assembly.
The party's manifesto, though, was written by one of the leading Islamist figures in Libya, Sheik Ali Sallabi.
In an extensive interview with NPR, Sallabi said the new party will be inclusive and independent in nature. While Islam and Sharia law will be the basis for any Libyan constitution, he says, he looks to models like Malaysia and Turkey instead of Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. He talks of a moderate Islam that is open to the outside and democratically minded.
It's a speech intended to ease concerns of critics in the West and in Libya. Recent polls show that while Libyans are pious and believe in Islam's role in society, they are extremely leery of Islamist parties.
"I think they are going to limit our freedom," says pharmacist Nouri Ghariyani. "Of course, we are Muslim but not Islamic. It is different; personally, I don't like them."
In many street interviews, people from all walks of life reiterated that fear.
And so Libya's Islamists are treading gingerly for now, waiting to see if, after 40 years under the shadow of a dictator, they can seize what seems to be their day.

More From This Series

 

The Arab Spring: One Year Later

Bahrain: The Revolution That Wasn't

After a crackdown, the government has promised reforms. But so far, little has changed.

The Arab Spring: One Year Later

Syrian Uprising Raises The Specter Of Sectarian War

Upheavals in Syria and elsewhere in the Middle East have left minorities feeling vulnerable.

The Arab Spring: One Year Later

In Post-Gadhafi Libya, Islamists Start To Rise

Moammar Gadhafi long suppressed Islamists; with his death, Islamists are now starting to organize.

Strength of Egyptian Islamists proves a test for Obama’s pro-democracy policy in the Middle East

 By Karen DeYoung and Leila Fadel
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/strength-of-egyptian-islamists-proves-a-test-for-obamas-pro-democracy-policy-in-the-middle-east/2012/01/05/gIQAbvDjdP_story.html 

The strong electoral showing of Islamist parties in Egypt has provided the first major test of the Obama administration’s pledge to support democratically elected governments in the Arab world, even when its preferred candidates lose.
U.S. officials described recent outreach to the Muslim Brotherhood, which appears destined to win the largest share of parliamentary seats, as a chance to put in practice policies President Obama first outlined nearly three years ago in a major speech proposing a new relationship of mutual respect with the Muslim world.
Last May, three months after Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak resigned in the face of massive public protests and U.S. abandonment, Obama reiterated the theme, while acknowledging that “not every country will follow our particular form of representative democracy, and there will be times when our short-term interests don’t align perfectly with our long-term vision for the region.”
For now, White House officials said they are taking the long-shunned Brotherhood at its word, accepting promises of respect for the rule of law and civil rights and waiting to see how it governs.
“We have . . . had some good reassurances from different interlocutors, and we will continue to seek those kinds of reassurances going forward,” State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Thursday.
A senior administration official, speaking on the condition of anonymity about the sensitive talks, said that U.S. interlocutors are “not just in a listening mode; we are actively making clear that we want to see an inclusive Egypt that respects women and minorities, as well as the importance of regional stability. We’re hearing the right things, but the proof will be in their actions.”
The top U.S. diplomat for the Middle East, who arrived in Cairo on Wednesday night, told a Cairo news conference that the United States has “no more important partner in the Arab world than Egypt.”
Assistant Secretary of State Jeffrey D. Feltman is expected to meet Friday and Saturday with Muslim Brotherhood leaders and other political figures. Those discussions are likely to be easier than the talks that began his four-day visit, with the current military-led government that replaced Mubarak.
Tensions between the two governments have been high since Egyptian security forces raided at least 10 pro-democracy civil society organizations, including three American groups, as part of a crackdown on dissent ahead of the crucial transition to elected governance.
The ruling military council had promised U.S. officials that the International Republican Institute, the National Democratic Institute and Freedom House — all Washington-based democracy-building groups that receive U.S. government funding — would be reopened and their confiscated equipment returned.
But the offices remain closed, and Egyptian government officials have publicly defended the raids and vowed to continue investigations into what they believe is illicit foreign funding.
After meeting with Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamal Amr, Feltman said he was “encouraged” that the organizations would be legally registered and allowed to operate.
U.S. influence with longstanding allies in the military will be further tested in the coming weeks, as civilian groups move to form a government they expect to take over sooner rather than later.
Although final results of the last round of elections this week are not yet known, “it’s clear now that the Muslim Brotherhood will have a very large plurality, over 40 percent, in parliament,” said Marwan Muasher, vice president for studies at the Washington-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and a former Jordanian foreign minister.
“One thing to watch is whether they will choose to have a coalition with the Salafists,” the radically conservative Islamists who have so far won a surprising 20 percent of the vote, Muasher said, “or with liberals” in the secular parties the United States had hoped would make a stronger electoral showing.
Some conservative Republicans, including a number of the current GOP presidential candidates, have denounced Obama’s Muslim outreach as indicative of what they call his international “apology” for the actions of previous administrations.
But Muasher and other experts on the region have described it as a pragmatic realization that “the option of not dealing with the Islamists is simply not there. You cannot say you’re not going to deal with them, because that would in effect be saying you’re not going to deal with a very large number of countries in the Middle East, including Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia,” where a moderate Islamist party in October won the region’s first democratic election following the Arab Spring uprisings.
That recognition, he said, also requires a more sophisticated understanding of divisions within the Islamic world. “People in the West think political Islam is either al-Qaeda or Hamas and Hezbollah,” Muasher said. “The overwhelming majority of political Islam in the region belongs to the Brotherhood, and the last time they carried arms was in the 1960s.”
Meanwhile, Feltman also met in Cairo with members of the Cairo-based Arab League to discuss continued unrest in Syria and brutal crackdowns on protesters by Syrian security forces.


Fadel reported from Cairo.