"We certainly did not expect the results, but ... our future is certainly better than our present and our past," said Sami al-Saadi, the former ideologue of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group and the founder of the political party al-Umma al-Wasat, which finished third in Central Tripoli during Libya's recent parliamentary election.
The man whom Taliban leader Mullah Omar once called the "Sheik of the Arabs," and who authored the LIFG's anti-democracy manifesto "The Choice is Theirs," accepted the apparent victory of Libya's more liberal forces.
Indeed, the results raised eyebrows, even of those analysts who did not expect an Islamist landslide.