Muslim Social Network & Lifestyle Magazine

The chairman of Libya’s transitional government gave his first public address in Tripoli on Monday, exhorting thousands of cheering Libyans in the central square to support a democratic system that honours Islam, respects the rule of law and repudiates the personality cult of Moammar Gaddafi.

Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, the transitional government leader, addressed a rowdy crowd of thousands in Martyrs Square in central Tripoli, a site that until recently was famous for pro-Gadhafi rallies. Flanked by a few dozen revolutionary leaders in their largest public gathering since rebel forces stormed into the capital on Aug. 21, he called on Libyans to build a state based on the rule of law.

“No retribution, no taking matters into your own hands and no oppression. I hope that the revolution will not stumble because of any of these things,” he said.

“We will not accept any extremist ideology, on the right or the left,” Mr. Abdul-Jalil added. “We are a Muslim people, for a moderate Islam, and will stay on this road.”

“We strive for a state of the law, for a state of prosperity, for a state that will have Islamic sharia law the basis of legislation.”

The speech capped a day of new international recognition of the rebel National Transitional Council as Libya’s legitimate government, as well as reminders that Col. Gadhafi and his followers remain a threat to that government’s stability.

Earlier, forces loyal to Col. Gadhafi attacked an important oil refinery at the Mediterranean port of Ras Lanuf, and the transitional government said at least 15 anti-Gadhafi fighters had died. But in a hopeful sign for the council, China, the last major power to withhold recognition of its legitimacy, officially changed positions and accepted it.

Abdulrahman Busin, a spokesman for the council’s military operations, said the loyalist attack on Ras Lanuf was apparently a response to news that the council had taken steps to restart oil production, which had been one of the country’s major contributors of income before the conflict began. He said that forces allied with the council were still fighting loyalists to bring an industrial area in Ras Lanuf back under control. “We have them surrounded,” he said.

The transitional government has not revealed which of the country’s oil facilities are working again, but has said it was attempting to get all reopened as soon as possible. Ras Lanuf is one of Libya’s main oil installations.

There were other indications Monday that efforts to declare complete victory over Col. Gadhafi and his holdouts were moving slowly or stalled. NATO, which helped the rebel forces in a bombing campaign against Col. Gadhafi’s military, said its work remained unfinished in Libya. Two days have passed since a deadline for remaining Gadhafi loyalists to surrender, with no indication that they have lost their will to fight.

And while leading figures of the deposed government and Col. Gadhafi’s family have fled – his son Saadi Gadhafi was the latest to escape, seeking sanctuary in Niger over the weekend – Col. Gadhafi’s whereabouts remained unknown. Al-Rai, a television channel based in Syria that has become a conduit for pro-Gadhafi messages, broadcast a statement Monday that it said had been written by Col. Gadhafi, denouncing his Libyan adversaries as traitors and vowing: “We will not surrender Libya to colonialism.”

New York Times News Service/Associated Press