Rebels pave Libertyville man's path back to Libya

Ibrahim Mohamed sits on a curb in July at the Libyan border with Egypt before returning to his home city of Benghazi, Libya, for the first time in 31 years. Photo courtesy of Ibrahim Mohamed

Libertyville resident Ibrahim Mohamed was able last month to return to Libya, his birthplace, for the first time in 31 years when rebels weakened the stronghold of Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi, who has Mohamed on a "wanted list."

As he watched the Libyan rebels quickly march into the dictator's home city of Tripoli Sunday night, the 55-year-old felt that his homeland's transition to democracy was under way.

"I've been waiting for this day all my life," Mohamed said Sunday night. "It took me 31 years just to be able to visit."

Mohamed grew up in the rebel-held city of Benghazi, the country's second-largest city, and made his first trip back home last month since leaving the country in 1976.

"I've been on his wanted list. There was no way for me to go back," Mohamed said. "With a brutal regime like this you don't risk it."

When he walked the streets of his newly-liberated birthplace for the first time since his youth, he could see firsthand the toll that Gadhafi's reign had taken on the city.

"It was unbelievable to walk in the neighborhood and see friends you haven't seen in decades just to be in places where your friends and memories are," he said. "My city was whittling away, so it was sad to see that, but the people are still the people."

Mohamed, who is now the Chief Operating Officer of an automobile technology company, said he spoke with his family members in Benghazi as they celebrated the rebels' march on the capital city during the early morning hours local time.

"They said it is jubilation in Benghazi today. People are celebrating in the streets. There are at least a half-million people in the square," he said.

In early spring, the city was the site of a brutal battle between protesters and democracy-seeking rebels and the dictator's forces, which ended with the retreat of Gadhafi's tanks. It has since been the unofficial capital of the rebel's governing body, the National Transitional Council.

"Exhilarating. There was no word that describes it," Mohammed said, describing his first trip back. "You see people who are my age, 55, my classmates who I went to high school together with who all look like they are in their 70s or 80s because of what they had been through the past three decades."

Mohamed watched the historic march on the capital from O'Hare International Airport where a number of people with ties to the country gathered around TVs broadcasting what he hopes will be the start of a democratic revolution.

"People are calling each other congratulating each other," he said from the airport. "People are very eager and excited to transition. Knowing what they want now, having smelled the fresh air of freedom, they know now there is no going back."

For decades, Mohamed thought he would never return to Libya, much less see a democratic revolution, but the speed at which the rebel forces took control of nearly the entirety of the country astounded him.

"Those people who were fighting on his side for the most part were fighting under the gun -- by force," he said. "Now that they see the Oz behind the curtain, they realize there is nothing there and they are stepping away from his shadows and leaving his side."

As news broke that opposition fighters captured Gadhafi's heir-apparent son and had taken control of most of the city, Mohamed knew the most difficult task ahead would be creating a functioning constitutional democracy from scratch.

"Things are not going to be completed with a turn of a switch," he said. "It's not going to be a walk in the park, simply because no institutions exist today in Libya at all."

It was not just the Libyan people who he thinks sparked the revolution, but the will power of the globalized world.

"The world unites today, and has been united the last five months or so," he said. "I'm really happy to see humanity come together."