When in fear of Islamists, punt, or, at least accept their efforts to make sharia the law of the land so they don’t oust you from power. That’s what is happening in Libya, where the General National Congress voted on Wednesday to make sharia the law of the land so the moderate Islamists can’t be accused by hard-line Islamists of being un-Islamic.
Ibrahim al-Gharyani of the National Forces Alliance party said, “The legislative system does not contain many laws that contradict Islamic law so it is easy to say sharia would be the sole source of legislation.”
Ansar al-Sharia, the group widely assumed to have planned the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi in 2012, has been accusing the Libyan government of being un-Islamic as it fights with the government’s forces in east Libya. Mohammed al-Zaroug, from the Muslim Brotherhood’s Justice and Construction Party (JCP), which looks to make sharia the law of the land, said, “This statement will close the gap on anyone who says the GNC is not working parallel with sharia law.” The Congress went so far as to assert that a special committee would make sure existing laws do not conflict with sharia.
One clear difference from the capitulation to sharia may be more Islamic finance regulation, to eliminate interest and pure speculation.