Libyan politician and Head of the Justice and Construction Party (the Muslim Brotherhood’s political party in Libya) Mohammad Swan insists that his party is a moderate one with aspirations of fair, political dialogue, despite criticism against it of inciting discord.

Mohammad Swan, how did Dar al-Ifta react to your resentment against their fatwa to boycott the Government of National Accord (GNA)?

Libyan politician and Head of the Justice and Construction Party (the Muslim Brotherhood’s political party in Libya) Mohammad Swan insists that his party is a moderate one with aspirations of fair, political dialogue, despite criticism against it of inciting discord.

Mohammad Swan, how did Dar al-Ifta react to your resentment against their fatwa to boycott the Government of National Accord (GNA)?

We are not waiting for Dar al-Ifta’s reaction because we did not discuss an analysis or a hypothesis; we presented conclusive facts from the Memorandum of Agreement. We said Dar al-Ifta relied on inaccurate or rather incorrect information and that the Presidential Council entered Libya via a Libyan naval base.

Dar al-Ifta said the Supreme Council of the state is an advisory council that does not have any powers, but, by referring to the memorandum, it is clear that the Supreme Council has very broad powers, including amending the Constitution, withdrawing confidence from the government and positions of sovereignty and concluding the Constitution.

We do not mean to incite arguments; we only revealed indisputable facts defined in the memorandum of political agreement.

In the past few days, a video of you spread on social media in which you said the Libyan Parliament has fallen into the trap with relations to the constitutional amendment. Do you think one should engage in the dialogue with the mentality of managing legal conspiracies?

This video was recorded in a hall filled by hundreds of citizens, but unfortunately, it was understood in the wrong way. I said the parties of the dialogue conspired against the main rivals, which are the Conference and the Parliament, which both claim legitimacy. Therefore, we worked a trick to approximate the point of views by creating a text that allows both the Parliament and the Conference to amend the constitutional declaration. In the language of dialogue, this is called ‘constructive ambiguity,’ which is a way to bring two views together and it exists in our Islamic heritage.

Why did your party receive a big blow when it lost the Parliamentary elections in June 2014, contrary to the gains it attained in the General National Congress elections?

This is simply not true because the parties did not participate in the Parliamentary elections. We did not participate since we do not have a block in the Parliament, but we have one in the General National Congress. We have a few independent members who entered the Parliament, but we do not have a block and are not involved in partisan work.

Is it true that the Skhirat Dialogue was the only way for the Justice and Construction Party to return to the political scene in Libya, especially after the results of the Parliamentary elections?

These are some of the inaccuracies that people make. The parties were not involved in the Parliament due to the politicians’ deficiency and to the fact that the Parliament was elected on an individual basis.

As for the Skhirat issue, we firmly believe that the solution to Libya’s problem and to avoid division will only be resolved by sitting at the dialogue table. We are also sure that the Justice and Construction Party played a key role in the success of the dialogue. There is no doubt that the Justice and Construction Party successfully led the dialogue in the western part of Libya.

We want Libya to become a state; we want the parties to get involved in the political scene. This is not the time for gains. It is the time to work patriotically regardless of any partisan agenda. The parties might change, but our country is a constant. We want to resolve the crisis and have a country in which we would compete on the political process.

According to some activists, your dispute with the General National Congress and your participation in the Skhirat dialogue were like escaping a drowning ship. How do you respond to that?

What I see is that the General National Accord is not the Parliament’s dome, walls, or concrete; it is the will of its members. We knew from the beginning that most of them firmly believe that Libya’s problem will only be solved politically and through dialogue. However, the congress’ presidency specifically used non-democratic methods to interrupt the sessions and violate the internal regulations until it shrunk down to only its head and 15 members. The General National Congress is the will of its members, and its former hundred members have joined the Supreme Council of the state.

Your party was accused of seeking to undermine the General National Congress after you held them responsible for the helicopter that went down which was carrying a number of armed formations, military officers and bank employees west of Libya in October. Does the party have any proof that the Congress was actually responsible?

This is not true. The party held the General National Congress responsible for not opening the road between Tripoli and the west, which forced citizens to use boats and ambulance planes. Thus, the party held the National Congress indirectly responsible for the fall of the helicopter.

In one of your statements, you mentioned that the party was accused of all the failures of the Islamic parties in Libya. What are these failures and why were you held responsible?

I believe that some Islamic Movement affiliates are mostly individuals with no official affiliations other than their Islamic passion, which is far from reality. Unlike parties classified as Islamic Movements, the Justice and Construction party is a national party with an Islamic reference. However, the reality is that the National Moderate Trend is the closest to the Justice and Construction party. Thus, the grey area that contains most of the Islamic Libyan citizens is closer to the Justice and Construction Party than those who consider themselves Islamists and radically differ with the aforementioned party that believes in the peaceful circulation of power, the state of law and institutions and democracy, as a tool for the success of the political process. However, we always assume the actions of irresponsible people that are often attributed to our party.

After the resignation of prominent members of your party, it was accused of deviating from its goals and that its leaders took decisions without referring to the members. How do you comment?

First of all, parties are open institutions. Hence, membership is flexible and there is no doubt that a difference in opinions is a healthy phenomenon especially in institutions like the Justice and Construction Party.

At the same time, the issue you mentioned in your question happened a long time ago specifically during the period where the party was accused of being biased to the Libyan-Libyan dialogue sponsored by the United Nations, as it is the main solution for the Libyan crisis.

Some believed that the court ruling was enough to solve Libya’s problem, but the party’s leadership was aware that the court’s ruling will not affect the situation despite being a true one and despite our wishes that the international community will commit to the decision of the Libyan jurisdiction. Thus, we went to the dialogue and although some members did not like that at first, 90% of them now have retracted their position and are convinced that the party was right from the start.

The opposing party accuses you of having affiliations beyond Libya, meaning that the party is politically and ideologically affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Ennahda party in Tunisia and the Justice and Development party in Turkey. How do you respond?

The Justice and Construction Party is a Libyan party with a pure Libyan agenda and has no affiliation to any other party. The Justice and Construction party is among the moderate parties extended east of the Arab world and as an ideological school, it is close to the Justice and Development party in Morocco, the Justice and Development party in Turkey, the Ennahda party in Tunisia and others.

Our party is close to the mentioned parties since it is a moderate ideological school with political diligence and it represents a cultural project that seeks to establish the identity of the Islamic nation. However, there are some other political trends spread in neighboring countries that we do not have any links or relationship with. We are focused primarily with our Libyan society.

Finally, how do you evaluate the military operations in Benghazi?

There is no doubt that these operations committed significant violations that did not take place during the liberation war against Gaddafi due to Haftar’s exploitation of the terrorism fear. But, unfortunately, we always forget the events.

Haftar appeared on Al-Arabiya channel before he mentioned terrorism under Zidane. He said he occupied Tripoli and all institutions should be handed over to him. He also announced the freezing of the Constitution, but when he was not able to execute this command, he went to Benghazi and camped in Rajma camp and announced that he would start a war on terrorism.

We do not deny the existence of extremist terrorist groups in Libya specifically in Dernah, Sabratha, Sirte and Benghazi. However and despite the existence of armed groups influenced by ISIS ideological thought, there are other truthful rebels who politically disagree with Haftar, whom they believe is an actor of a coup that should be resisted.

During the ISIS-Libyan war, ISIS was defeated in both Dernah and Sabratha in days, but when the war had different objectives in Benghazi, ISIS was not defeated because unlike what some people believed, this was not a war on terrorism.