The town of Derna has a rich history and a stunning location on the Mediterranean. It also has a reputation as a hotbed of jihad. And this causes diplomats and analysts to ask whether the unrest in Libya might provide an opening for al Qaeda and fellow travelers next door to Europe.Derna even made it into Wikileaks. A cable from 2008 calls it a "wellspring of Libyan foreign fighters" for al Qaeda in Iraq. High youth unemployment, discrimination by the government and the influence of veteran jihadis from Afghanistan have all played a role in radicalizing a new generation.
"Other factors include a dearth of social outlets for young people, [and] local pride in Derna's history as a locus of fierce opposition to occupation. Most young men watched a mix of al-Jazeera news, religious sermons and western action films on English language satellite channels broadcast from the Gulf. The result was a heady mixture of violence, religious conservatism and hatred of U.S. policy in Iraq and Palestine," said the cable.
Derna is now in the opposition's hands, and reports from eastern Libya say Islamists and others are fighting side-by-side with one aim: removing Moammar Gadhafi. But what next?
Al Qaeda has already sensed an opportunity. Its leading ideologue, Abu Yahya al-Libi -- a Libyan himself -- told local jihadis: "Store your weapons and do not relinquish them." In an audio tape released on March 12, he said that "ousting these regimes is not the end in making a change."
The next week, the leader of al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) had a similar message. In an audiotape posted on jihadi websites and translated by SITE, Abu Musab Wadud told Gadhafi's opponents: "We will be side-by-side with you, Allah willing."
Which brings us back to the Wikileaks cable, in which a US diplomat who traveled to Derna, quoted a local resident who had "likened young men in Derna to Bruce Willis' character in the action picture 'Die Hard,' who stubbornly refused to die quietly. For them, resistance against coalition forces in Iraq is an important act of 'jihad' and a last act of defiance against the Gadhafi regime."
"It's jihad -- it's our duty, and you're talking about people who don't have much else to be proud of," he told the diplomat.