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Friday, April 2, 2010

Liberation of Islamist prisoners leads Libyan blogs

In the wake of the release of hundreds of imprisoned Islamists, Libyan bloggers are trying to foresee where the move will take the country.

By Jamel Arfaoui for Magharebia in Tunis – 01/04/10

Tripoli's release of 214 Islamist prisoners, including leaders of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), topped Libyan blogs this week. The Arab League summit that closed in Sirte on Sunday (March 28th) was another popular subject.

"Let's just hope that things will turn out for our good," wrote blogger Mohammed Omar Hussain. "We hope that [the Islamists' ideological] revisions will be the starting point for correcting ways of thinking, changing to constructive efforts, and adjusting the steps for allowing our proud people to heave a sigh of relief, and gradually proceed to achieve more reforms that we consider necessary".

"The relief of our brothers' distress is a significant sharia and human rights motivation," he added. "It's good to allow our people to live at ease, promote their condition and fix the paths in a way that will eventually be for the good of everyone."

"In spite of the size of the wounds and grief, justness of demands and rightfulness of hopes, we consider the day of release of our imprisoned brothers an historical event, an outcome and victory of the language of reason, logic of argument, and a desired introduction for dealing in the same way with many other files and issues that need such treatment. Yet, we hope their pace will be a bit faster," the blogger added after the Islamists' release.

For his part, blogger Issa Abdul Qayum said he considered the release to be "very positive, even imperative, amid the uncertainty that surrounded the case after the statements that were made in Sirte, which suggested that it was impossible for the leaders of that group to be released from prison".

"In order for the step to become an item on the agenda of the required human rights path in Libya's case, we hope it will be followed by constitutional amendments and legislation, by raising the ceiling of national dialogue to the highest possible level, and by giving the Libyan elite a central role in establishing a culture of dialogue and tolerance, so that it may not seem to be used as an emergency exit only," he added.

Meanwhile, the Arab League caught the eye of blogger Salim Elragihe, who focused a satirical eye on the text of the closing communiqué of the Sirte summit.

"As usual, the summit of Arab garbage gave us a useless long communiqué as if they have written it on a long toilet paper roll!" he proclaimed. "The funny thing is that in the Sirte summit communiqué, every government has put whatever demands, desires and political objectives they want for local consumption and saving their face before their peoples."

"Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, for instance, has come forward with the Arab Union Project, a project which the Yemeni president tries to use to escape from his national failures and severe domestic problems to a big imaginary project outside Yemen! As for Col. Kadhafi, he has put in whatever he wanted and desired about his problem with Switzerland, and also his call for holding another summit in September in Sirte," added the blogger. "In this way, the Arab summit in Sirte came to a close by 'meeting their needs' and after watching shows of Libya's folk dancing. After that, each delegation went home in order to watch things – exactly like the rest of the Arab citizens."

Blogger Ahmed Faitouri wrote that "the only thing remaining for Arabs is their league… all projects, whether bilateral, trilateral, quadrilateral and even multilateral, have collapsed".

"There are so many causes for death, but it's just one death after all," he added. "The only thing remaining is the Arab League, which brings Arabs together in summits like no others. Yes, it may be black comedy, but the Arab League is the only bright spot remaining in this sea of conflicts and distraction. In many of its summit sessions, this league has been able to serve as a stage, allowing some people to show off their acting talents."

Source: Magharebia.com
Link: http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/blog/2010/04/01/feature-05.

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