Libya Assures World It Will Be Moderate Muslim Country

Attempting to calm fears raised in the West after his statement that Libya would look to Islamic law as its main source of legislation, (see prior posting), Libyan National Transitional Council leader Mustafa Abdul-Jalil said yesterday: "I would like to assure the international community that we as Libyans are moderate Muslims." AP reports that meanwhile a London-based spokesman for the National Transitional Council said that Libya would not become a theocracy. It will be a civic and democratic state. At the daily U.S. State Department press briefing yesterday (full text), Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland said:

I think we’ve seen various Islamic-based democracies wrestle with the issue of establishing rule of law within an appropriate cultural context. But the number one thing is that universal human rights, rights for women, rights for minorities, right to due process, right to transparency be fully respected.