Despite concerns of the UW’s own Ali Terhouni, Reuters reports hopeful signs in Libya that democracy has taken root.
Terhouni, a former UW economist, returned to Libya as a member of the provisional government, but resigned in
protest to organize a new political party. His party is now one of several emerging in the New Libya. Reuters describes these parties as a reaction to the years of enforced dogma of Gaddafi’s “green revolution.”
I am especially struck by the way Islam and democracy are complimenting each other. The new parties all call themselves Islamic but their ideologies seem to range from Ayn Rand free enterprise to the Muslim All of these seemingly agree that the new law should build on the Islamic concepts of democracy.
The idea of islamic democracy, still strange to most Americans and Europeans, is presented very well in Reza Aslan’s seminal book, “No God But God”. Aslan says that the Muslim Brotherhood began as an effort to development of an alternative to western democracy. While under sharia, Allah’s law is interpreted by a ruling body of clerics, Aslan describes the Brotherhood as being committed to a secular political system in which laws are written on Islamic principles much as the US parties ascribe their principles to Jesus. 
The Brotherhood saw this democracy as being built on Mohammed’s role as a leader and judge of the Jews, Muslims, and non abrahamic peoples of Medina. This is not a lot different from the claims of the American revolution to be built on christian principles I think Jefferson would have been as able to edit the Koran as he was able to produce his own version of the Christian bible.
(The-AVE.US continues to cover the history of the Libyan Revolution)