OnIslam.net

BENGHAZI – Repressed for decades under the regime of the fallen strongman Muammar Gaddafi, Libya’s Muslim Brotherhood held its first public conference on Thursday, November 17, calling for a broad national reconstruction effort that gathers all Libyan factions.

“This is an historic day for us and for the Libyan people,” its leader Suleiman Abdelkader told Agence France Presse (AFP) at the opening of the three-day congress in the eastern city of Benghazi.

The slickly organized event was heavy in revolutionary references, with the stage draped in the new national colors and speeches given by guest speakers from Tunisian moderate Islamist party Ennahda and Syria's banned Muslim Brotherhood.

There was also a general mood of celebration for a movement that was founded in 1949 but which organizers said had not held a public meeting in Libya until now.

Brotherhood officials said it was their first public meeting inside Libya in almost quarter of a century, although it met underground during Gaddafi’s rule for fear of reprisals or held their congress abroad.

Officials of Libya’s ruling National Transitional Council, including Islamic Affairs Minister Salem el-Sheikli and Defence Minister Jalal al-Degheili, attended the opening in Benghazi.

Keeping their identity secret for years, members gathering at the conference were intellectuals with advanced degrees and spoke fluent English.

Those members had joined the group decades ago and had either lived abroad or were forced to keep their membership secret for fear of arrest, torture and imprisonment.

"I feel great. It's freedom," Abdallah Dahmani, a 65 year-old university lecturer in chemistry, told Reuters.

“It's like a dream for us.”

After so many years of secrecy, they said they were eager to show the Libyan public that there was nothing sinister about their group; an offshoot of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, that country's most popular and organized political force.

"There's nothing secret. We're not planning to destroy the country," said Abdou Majid Saleh Musbah, 56, an engineer from Tripoli who joined the movement in 1979.

Rebuilding

As Libya emerges from a bloody civil war, the gathering members of Muslim Brotherhood praised the rebellion and called on Libya's factions to unite.

"Rebuilding Libya is not a task for one group or one party but for everyone, based on their ability," Abdelkader told the meeting.

They also expressed support for a technocratic interim government, which Abdurrahim El-Keib, the prime minister designate, is trying to assemble by a Tuesday deadline.

"Maybe some (members) will join based on their qualifications and ability," he told Reuters after his speech.

“But for this time period we will not join as a party.”

The movement's leader, Abdelkader, emphasized the group's moderate nature in his speech, calling for establishing a civil state in new Libya.

"We don't want to replace one tyranny with another. All together, we want to build a civil society that uses moderate Islam in its daily life," he said.

"Now our shared task is to protect Libya, to talk to each other instead of fighting," he added.

The meeting, which is due to last three days, was called after the revolution to appoint a new leadership as the Brotherhood evolves from an organization in exile to a group based throughout Libya, outgoing leader Abdelkader said.

In addition to appointing a new leadership, the party would discuss which direction it should take as the oil-rich country moves toward democracy, delegates said.

"We are still discussing the form that we should take in the new Libya," Abdelkader told Reuters.

He would not be drawn on whether the Brotherhood would form an alliance with other Islamists in next year's elections.

"We will support whoever makes the wishes of the Libyan people come true," he said.