Esam Omran Al-Fetori/Reuters
People gathered near the body of an anti-Qaddafi fighter after an attack on an oil refinery in Ras Lanuf on Monday.
TRIPOLI, Libya — The chairman of Libya’s transitional rebel 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 honors Islam, respects the rule of law and repudiates the personality cult of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, the deposed leader whose 42-year rule was upended last month.
The speech by the transitional government leader, Mustafa Abdel Jalil, was, symbolically at least, the most significant action taken by him since an alliance of rebel forces routed Colonel Qaddafi from Tripoli. Over the past few weeks, anti-Qaddafi fighters have isolated his loyalists to a few pockets of the country, including Colonel Qaddafi’s hometown of Surt. But up until this weekend, Mr. Jalil had not moved to Tripoli and remained based in the eastern city of Benghazi where the uprising began in March.
“We will not accept any extremist ideology, on the right or the left,” Mr. Jalil said, according to news accounts of the speech in Tripoli’s Martyr’s Square, formerly known as Green Square during the Qaddafi era. “We are a Muslim people, for a moderate Islam, and will stay on this road.”
