Libyans Pass Law Excluding Qaddafi-Era Officials BENGHAZI, Libya - Young Libyans call their government "rule of the mooq-mooq," a nonsensical neologism used to mock the armed militias left over from the uprising against Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi. And on Sunday, some said, Libya's transitional General National Congress handed a new triumph to the mooq-mooq. Bowing to pressure from armed Islamists and other militiamen, the congress passed a law to exclude former officials of the Qaddafi era from public office. Its text was so broadly written that it may force out of office both the president of the congress, Mohammed Magarief, and the prime minister, Ali Zeidan. Both spent long careers in opposition to Colonel Qaddafi after short stints as Libyan diplomats at the beginning of his 40-year reign. Although the law's full repercussions remain to be seen, its backers made clear that their first aim was to exclude from power Mahmoud Jibril, the politician who leads the main coalition in congress opposed to the Islamists. A political scientist trained at the University of Pittsburgh, Mr. Jibril organized the rebels" provisional government during the battle to oust Colonel Qaddafi and played an integral role in enlisting crucial Western backing for the fight. But before that he worked for three years as the head of an economic planning board under the Qaddafi government. The congress had promised for months that as its first order of business it would enact some form of ban to stop former Qaddafi officials from returning to power in the current government. But the chamber of novice lawmakers had previously failed to reach an agreement. The term mooq-mooq comes from graffiti seen in the background of images of a demonstration by militiamen in support of the law during the debate. Mr. Jibril's coalition, apparently in an attempt to slow the legislation, proposed broadening it to exclude even those who served the Qaddafi government long ago and former members of the armed Islamist opposition who reached reconciliation agreements to win release from Colonel Qaddafi's jails. Then last week, groups of Islamists and other militiamen armed with Kalashnikovs and truck-mounted artillery surrounded and shut down the buildings housing the ministries of justice and foreign affairs, refusing to leave until the law was passed. "We are carrying the demands of the people to the national congress," said Sami Saadi, a leader of an Islamist party and the former leader of an armed Islamist insurgency. Even under the law, he said, Mr. Jibril "can take all of his rights except participating in the government for a period of time." Human Rights Watch said in a statement that the law violated both international norms and Libya's interim Constitution "because it allows for guilt by association rather than provable misdeeds." The group called the law vague, overly broad and open to arbitrary application, and noted that the congress had set a dangerous precedent for the balance of powers by exempting the law from judicial review even before its drafting. Just as worrisome, said Hanan Salah, the group's representative in Libya, was the congress's frank capitulation to the fighters who had surrounded the ministries. "The vote went ahead despite several ministries being under siege by these militias," she said. What will happen next time? Members of Parliament "openly voting and mooq-mooqs watching, waiting in the next street," one Libyan marveled on Twitter. "Demooqmooqracy," another Twitter user wrote. Supporters of the law celebrated Sunday night in the streets of Tripoli, the Libyan capital. Militiamen fired their rifles in the air and two revelers carried a hand-painted sign that read, "I am mooq-mooq and proud." Osama al-Fitory contributed reporting.