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Reporting from Tripoli, Libya—
A struggle between secular politicians and Islamists seeking to define the character of the new Libya burst into the open Tuesday, highlighting the challenge authorities face with reconciling demands repressed for decades by Moammar Kadafi that are now suddenly coming to the surface.Even as the Transitional National Council tries to establish itself in the capital, restore Libya's oil industry and public order, and crush remaining pockets of support for Kadafi, Islamists have focused their ire on Mahmoud Jibril, a U.S.-educated political scientist who is serving as de facto prime minister.
On Tuesday, a prominent Islamist scholar denounced Jibril and his allies as "extreme secularists" who seek to enrich themselves via "the deal of a lifetime."
Jibril and his associates were guiding the nation into "a new era of tyranny and dictatorship," Ali Salabi told the satellite news channel Al Jazeera in comments posted Tuesday on its website. The cleric charged that the new administration could be "worse than Kadafi."
The broadside seemed sure to escalate a conflict that has been simmering for some time. A plan approved Sunday by the transitional leadership to bring rebel fighters under civilian authority angered the rebel commander whose forces patrolTripoli. That commander, Abdel-Hakim Belhaj, is an ally of Salabi.
The rebels' civilian administration based itself in the eastern city of Benghazi during the six-month struggle to oust Kadafi. Jibril arrived in Tripoli only on Friday, almost three weeks after the capital fell to rebel forces.
