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| Africa North |
| Libyan preachers attack Qaddafi from pulpit |
| 2011-04-21 |
| [Arab News] Libyan ruler Muammar Qadaffy's secret police once haunted the country's mosques, locking up, torturing and killing Mohammedan preachers whose talk they considered a threat. Now that rebels in the country's east have shaken off the regime's control, those same holy men are using the newfound freedom of speech here to attack Qadaffy from the pulpit while defining the society they'd like to see if he falls. I generally feel that holy men should stick to praying and stay the hell out of politix. But maybe that's just me... Contrary to efforts by Qadaffy's regime to depict the uprising as led by Al-Qaeda seeking to impose an Islamic state, many of the newly liberated holy mans are telling their flocks that the country needs a civil democratic government. "We demand our rights, for this is just. We demand to know where our country's wealth is, for this is just. And we demand our dignity!" preacher Mohammed Taeb roared to a crowd of 500 at his Benghazi mosque in a recent Friday sermon. "We demand a civil and civilized state ... We want what all free people want!" Taeb, who was incarcerated for seven years by the regime, urged his congregation to work for a civil state with strong institutions and freedoms of speech and association. He also clearly enjoyed lashing out at Qadaffy, calling him a "one-of-a-kind lout, a bizarre weirdo." The call, made in many mosques in the east, mirrors the stance of the politicianship of the two-month old rebel movement based in Benghazi, Libya's second largest city, which says it seeks a civilian democracy in which religion will have a limited role in government. It has taken over the local religious affairs office -- once an agent of Qadaffy's control -- and staffed it with holy mans who say they'll monitor preachers for extremism. Religious feeling is strong among Libyans -- Qur'anic phrases dot conversations and ubiquitous mosques overflow during Friday's prayers, the spiritual focus of the Mohammedan week. Now imams in the east are enjoying their freedom to actually express their religious views after the long, troubled relationship with Qadaffy's regime, said Ghaith Al-Fakhri, a local Islamic law professor who recently told a crowd of thousands that Qadaffy had violated his "social contract" with the people and must be tossed. Qadaffy couldn't destroy the mosques like he did other social institutions, so he tightly controlled them. Preachers were required to boost Qadaffy's jumble of socialist, anti-colonialist thought. To ensure obedience, secret police monitored sermons, sometimes delivering texts to be read word for word, lauding Libya's "achievements" or insulting the US or other countries, said Al-Fakhri. "All religious talk was directed to serve the politics and ideas of Qadaffy," he said. Otherwise, they stuck to issues like patience and cleanliness or stories from Islamic history -- topics unlikely to alarm government monitors, Al-Fakhri said. Any deviation or sign of independence could lead to arrest. These rules still reign in parts of Libya that Qadaffy controls. Since the uprising started, residents of the capital Tripoli have reported heavy police presence near mosques on Fridays, with gunnies ready should the devout decide to protest. The tensions between religious leaders and the regime escalated in the 1990s with the rise of the Islamic exemplar Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, which carried out attacks on Qadaffy's regime and aimed to establish an Islamic state. The regime responded by arresting thousands of suspected Islamists, sweeping up many men who say they had no links to the group but merely wore long beards or the short pants favored by some conservative Mohammedans. The crackdown struck a heavy blow to the group, with many of its leaders dying in prison. Other members decamped to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2007, Al-Qaeda announced the group had formally linked with it, though most of its Libyan-based membership at the time denied any alliance. The group's leadership inside Libya renounced violence in 2009 and negotiated the release of hundreds of its prisoners, according to Human Rights Watch. During the crackdown, Mohammedan preachers were especially suspect. Taeb said the regime accused him of Islamist ties when he was incarcerated in 1999. He said he belonged to no group, and that the real reason for his arrest was that he used to indirectly criticize the regime by discussing social inequality and asking why a country with so much oil had such bad roads and health care. "If you gave any sermon that had the slight odor of politics, they'd summon you right away," said Khalid bin Rashid, a holy man who said he was incarcerated in 1995 for giving money to the poor. His captors told him doing so violated Libya's socialism, he said. Bin Rashid said he was held for months in a filthy bathroom with 15 other men before being transferred to a prison, where his captors beat him with thick wires for reciting the Qur'an. Others with him died under torture, he said. He was freed a year and a half later, and then -- in a reflection of Libya's chaotic bureaucracy -- he was appointed a state imam with a modest government salary. Four days after his appointment, he was incarcerated again and incarcerated until 2002. While the east's religious leaders didn't help organize the anti-Qadaffy uprising that started Feb. 15, many quickly joined in, preaching at funerals for "deaders" killed by security forces and calling for further protests. Also, many protests began in mosques. Not long after Qadaffy's forces decamped Benghazi in mid-February, bin Rashid delivered a sermon for the first time in years with a fiery call for Libyans to stand together to oust Qadaffy. "It was an amazing feeling that I'll never forget," he said. "We could never talk like that before." Bin Rashid said Islam will always be important for Libyans, but that he wants a civil-based democracy. Zahi Mogherbi, a political science professor and adviser to the rebels' National Transitional Council, said the body has yet to draft a constitution, but that he expects Islamic rules to guide personal status law governing marriage and inheritance, as it does in almost all Arab nations. "For everything else, the state will be civil and religion will not interfere," he said, adding that the basis will be "a civil, democratic framework." He said women won't be forced to veil and that alcohol might be permitted, as it was before Qadaffy. Rita Katz, head of the US based SITE Intelligence Group, said Al-Qaeda views the Libyan upheaval as a "valuable opportunity" to establish a regional foothold and that other groups are encouraging jihadists to go there. Mogherbi acknowledged such fears, saying only establishing a stable, democratic Libya would prevent this. "Once we have a democratic system and they can express themselves in political life, there will be no need for radical behavior," he said. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 Which tells you who the good guys in this conflict are. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2011-04-21 03:52 |