Libya assembly votes for Sharia law

Red_Dwarf

eh was this the plan when NATO was helping to remove Muammar Gaddafi

Libya's National Assembly has voted to make Sharia, Islamic law, the foundation of all legislation and state institutions in the country.

The immediate scope of the General National Congress''s (GNC) decision on Wednesday was not clear, but a special committee will review all existing laws to guarantee they comply with Islamic law.

"Islamic law is the source of legislation in Libya," the GNC said in a statement after the vote. "All state institutions need to comply with this."

The decision may impact banking, criminal and financial laws. One specific reform might include a shift to Islamic finance regulations that avoid interest and pure speculation.

Libya has been in a state of transition for two years, with no new constitution, since the NATO-backed uprising that ousted Muammar Gaddafi.

The GNC's decision came shortly before a vote to form a 60-member committee that will draft the new constitution.

As in Tunisia and Egypt where autocratic leaders were ousted in Arab Spring revolts, Libya has seen fierce debate over the role of Islam in its new democracy.

The Muslim Brotherhood's Justice and Construction party is one of the most well-organised forces in Libya and promotes Islamic law.

But the secular-leaning National Front Alliance, formed after the revolt, calls for a more liberal position.

Unlike codified Western law, Sharia is more loosely based on moral and legal guidelines of the Quran, the sayings of the Prophet Mohammed and Muslim traditions.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2013/12/libya-assembly-votes-sharia-law-2013124153217603439.html

force eleven

Libghanistan.

5starpool

Red_Dwarf wrote: »

eh was this the plan when NATO was helping to remove Muammar Gaddafi



http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2013/12/libya-assembly-votes-sharia-law-2013124153217603439.html

I'd say the plan when NATO was helping to remove Gaddafi was that they would decide for themselves how to run their country, not have one man tell them. It is hardly unforeseen that they would turn to this system of government as lots of Islamic countries have done recently, whatever the rest of us think of it.

Rubat

This is why democracy doesn't work with these places.

Mint Aero

What was so bad about Gaddafi anyways?

arse..biscuits

Religion is a curse on this planet. Keeps us in the dark ages and at each other's throats.

megafan

Back to the stone age (literally) for them so! Like Iraq, Syria, & Egypt will be too busy fighting & killing themselves… other than odd terrorist threat will have no military might to cause real trouble!

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

Rubat wrote: »

This is why democracy doesn't work with these places.

The GNC is democratically elected - what's the porblem?

biko

Like in Egypt the army will rise and toss the islamists out, inshallah.
And we'll be back to square one again.

Sir Humphrey Appleby

Rubat wrote: »

This is why democracy doesn't work with these places.

"these places"
WTF???

MonstaMash

Their religion, their culture, their country...their choice :eek:

Sir Humphrey Appleby

biko wrote: »

Like in Egypt the army will rise and toss the islamists out, inshallah.
And we'll be back to square one again.

Unlike Egypt, where the army deposed a democratically elected government in an illegal Coup d'état, Libya does not have a unified "Army" as such, so a similar scenario is most unlikely.

Tony EH

MonstaMash wrote: »

Their religion, their culture, their country...their choice :eek:

I would wonder how much of the Libyan people want to see Sharia law become the law of the land.

Just because "Libya's National Assembly" have voted this into place doesn't mean it's following the wishes of the majority of the people of the country.

pickarooney

sharia banking laws seem a lot more sensible than ours at a glance

ruthloss

It's none of my business.
It would never work here, Imagine an Irish man telling his wife to cover up and walk behind him. Good luck with that brother.:P

Sierra Oscar

biko wrote: »

Like in Egypt the army will rise and toss the islamists out, inshallah.
And we'll be back to square one again.

I wouldn't be too sure of that. Unlike in Egypt, the Libyan Armed Forces was disbanded by the rebels upon taking power. The National Liberation Army was then incorporated into what is now the Libyan National Army, ensuring that those that fought for power will cling on to it no matter what.

It was a bit of a silly move totally disbanding the Libyan Armed Forces considering that there is effectively no security apparatus in the state anymore. Militias are running the country, not the government. There is widespread political unrest with weekly running gun battles in Tripoli and elsewhere.

Libya has gone out of the headlines in recent times, but it is heading for yet another divisive civil war when the government inevitably tries to flex its muscles to bring down the militias and establish proper security.

Santa Cruz

If they hadn't killed Gadaffi they could bring him back in to power but strictly on a "no more nice guy" basis.

jmayo

Sierra Oscar wrote: »

I wouldn't be too sure of that. Unlike in Egypt, the Libyan Armed Forces was disbanded by the rebels upon taking power. The Free Syrian Army was then incorporated into what is now the Libyan National Army, ensuring that those that fought for power will cling on to it no matter what.

No wonder the whole place is screwed up if the Syrians are joing the Libyan army

Sierra Oscar wrote: »

It was a bit of a silly move totally disbanding the Libyan Armed Forces considering that there is effectively no security apparatus in the state anymore. Militias are running the country, not the government. There is widespread political unrest with weekly running gun battles in Tripoli and elsewhere.

But the US did the same thing in Iraq.
They should have left the Iraqi army in place.
Ok take out the likes of the republican guard, but leave the most of it in place to help rule the country.

Sierra Oscar wrote: »

Libya has gone out of the headlines in recent times, but it is heading for yet another divisive civil war when the government inevitably tries to flex its muscles to bring down the militias and establish proper security.

Libya is heading towards Somali, a failed state used as base for all sorts.

Sierra Oscar

jmayo wrote: »

No wonder the whole place is screwed up if the Syrians are joing the Libyan army

Ooops, slip of the tongue. Corrected!

jmayo wrote: »

But the US did the same thing in Iraq.
They should have left the Iraqi army in place.
Ok take out the likes of the republican guard, but leave the most of it in place to help rule the country.

The US reformed the Iraqi Army. They didn't disband it completely per-say, but yes it is a similar comparison to make. The only difference is that the US had boots on the ground to be able to maintain security while doing so, and to prevent the collapse of the new government. All the same it took a US occupation of eight years to achieve this.

The National Transitional Council should have taken a more step by step approach to reforming the army as you suggest. It was obvious from the civil war that Gaddafi was heavily relying on the army brigades that his family controlled, and had to supplement with pro-militia forces.

jmayo wrote: »

Libya is heading towards Somali, a failed state used as base for all sorts.

Aye, seems so unfortunately. The government needs to establish security immediately, but it does not want to tackle the militias.

You can *sort of* draw parallels with our own history when the IRA was banned in 1936. In a proper state there can really only be one force that has a monopoly on violence (i.e. the national army). It is impossible to govern when militias are continually making threats against the democratic government, as is the case in Libya at the moment.

In order to progress, Libya will inevitably have to ban the militia movements or try to incorporate them into the army. However the fear is that there will be a violent backlash when they try to do that, and that backlash has already begun.

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

Tony EH wrote: »

I would wonder how much of the Libyan people want to see Sharia law become the law of the land.

Just because "Libya's National Assembly" have voted this into place doesn't mean it's following the wishes of the majority of the people of the country.

But maybe they are. One way or the other, it;s still democracy.

My name is URL

Mint Aero wrote: »

What was so bad about Gaddafi anyways?

He was too fond of providing social incentives and supports to his own people. Can't have that sort of thing going on in our glorious capitalist world.

edit:

Here's a few things Libyans were entitled to under that vile monster

• free healthcare (protected as a basic human right)
• free education (also protected as a human right)
• free housing for those who needed it
• free electricity and virtually free petrol (around $0.10 per litre)
• protection of women in society and of women's rights
• extremely cheap basic foodstuffs (40 loaves of bread cost about $0.15)
• if someone was unable to find employment after graduating, they were paid the average salary of that of their chosen profession for up to 5 years

Literacy rates were about 20% before Gadafi was in charge, today the figure is over 85%. Libya wasn't considered to be the most prosperous nation in Africa for no reason.

Of course he had an evil streak too, and the above doesn't negate the abuses that existed under his regime.. but the country certainly wasn't the hellhole that some made it out to be around the time of the 'uprising'. You can be damn sure that it'll be a lot worse for many people once Sharia law is introduced to any degree. Good luck to 'women's rights' once that backwards and archaic system kicks in.

General General

My name is URL wrote: »

He was too fond of providing social incentives and supports to his own people. Can't have that sort of thing going on in our glorious capitalist world.

edit:

Here's a few things Libyans were entitled to under that vile monster

• free healthcare (protected as a basic human right)
• free education (also protected as a human right)
• free housing for those who needed it
• free electricity and virtually free petrol (around $0.10 per litre)
• protection of women in society and of women's rights
• extremely cheap basic foodstuffs (40 loaves of bread cost about $0.15)
• if someone was unable to find employment after graduating, they were paid the average salary of that of their chosen profession for up to 5 years

Literacy rates were about 20% before Gadafi was in charge, today the figure is over 85%. Libya wasn't considered to be the most prosperous nation in Africa for no reason.

Of course he had an evil streak too, and the above doesn't negate the abuses that existed under his regime.. but the country certainly wasn't the hellhole that some made it out to be around the time of the 'uprising'. You can be damn sure that it'll be a lot worse for many people once Sharia law is introduced to any degree. Good luck to 'women's rights' once that backwards and archaic system kicks in.

I'm not in a position to dispute this, but why does my Doctor from Egypt tell me that the people (the average guy on the street) in Libya were so much worse off than an Algerian or an Egyptian??? Is he just flat out wrong? Have you ever heard anyone else from North Africa say this kind of thing?

Playboy

Wish people would try and understand what Sharia law is before jumping to conclusions that its all stoning and chopping off hands. It is a complex legal system and can be implemented in many different ways depending on the dominant Islamic School in the country. Sharia in Libya likely will be nothing like Sharia in Saudi unless the wahhabists have been exported there recently.

General General

Playboy wrote: »

Wish people would try and understand what Sharia law is before jumping to conclusions that its all stoning and chopping off hands. It is a complex legal system and can be implemented in many different ways depending on the dominant Islamic School in the country. Sharia in Libya likely will be nothing like Sharia in Saudi unless the wahhabists have been exported there recently.

I think the fear is that Saudi is exporting them anywhere they can...

My name is URL

General General wrote: »

I'm not in a position to dispute this, but why does my Doctor from Egypt tell me that the people (the average guy on the street) in Libya were so much worse off than an Algerian or an Egyptian??? Is he just flat out wrong? Have you ever heard anyone else from North Africa say this kind of thing?

They may have been worse off. I wouldn't argue with that at all, but there are any number of reasons why that may have been the case. Those outspoken against Gaddafi and his regime were not treated very well at all, and were more than likely denied the same entitlements that were available to those that supported him. His regime was a dictatorship after all.

International sanctions and embargoes on trade and finances didn't help matters either, though. Countries were all too happy to use Gaddafi's wealth up until about 2011. He was head of an international investment fund which even Ireland went looking for money from at one stage in 2010

http://www.news.com.au/business/ireland-sought-libyan-bailout/story-fn7mjon9-1226013196144

General General

My name is URL wrote: »

They may have been worse off. I wouldn't argue with that at all, but there are any number of reasons why that may have been the case. Those outspoken against Gaddafi and his regime were not treated very well at all, and were more than likely denied the same entitlements that were available to those that supported him. His regime was a dictatorship after all.

International sanctions and embargoes on trade and finances didn't help matters either, though. Countries were all too happy to use Gaddafi's wealth up until about 2011. He was head of an international investment fund which even Ireland went looking for money from at one stage in 2010

http://www.news.com.au/business/ireland-sought-libyan-bailout/story-fn7mjon9-1226013196144

Well, my point is that I've heard about all the 'good things' that were supposedly going on under Gaddafi, but say for instance the only way you got free healthcare, free education, free housing or women's rights was if you were in a minority that he favored, well, then that changes things... I find it hard to hear that conditions were so below those of Egypt, Algeria, Morocco (despite all that oil money for a country with such a small population) & still believe that these claims about anything like such universal 'state care' are not just propaganda.