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 Mesaj Başlığı: Libya minister quits over Sufi shrine attack
MesajGönderilme zamanı: 25.12.12, 11:19 #mesajın linki (?)
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Libya minister quits over Sufi shrine attack

Interior minister resigns after Sufi Muslim sites are demolished by armed groups witnesses say claim to be Salafis.

The Libyan interim interior minister has resigned, after members of the newly-elected parliament accused his ministry of not doing enough to stop attackers who bulldozed a Sufi shrine and mosque.

The official Libyan news agency LANA reported that Fawzi Abdel-Al submitted his resignation to Prime Minister Abdurrahim el-Keib on Sunday.

Abdel-Moneim al-Hurr, the spokesman for Libya's security services, said that the interior minister's resignation had been accepted by both the prime minister and parliament.

Hurr said that 17 people had been arrested in connection with the desecration of the Sufi shrine.

The attackers destroyed the mosque, which contained Sufi Muslim graves in the centre of Tripoli, a day after Sufi shrines in the city of Zlitan were wrecked and a mosque library was burned.

The demolition of the large Sha'ab mosque happened in broad daylight on Saturday, drawing condemnation from government officials and Libyans across the country and abroad.

In Zlitan, witnesses said that an armed group, claiming to be Salafis, carried out the assault on the Sufi shrine, the tomb of Abdel Salam al-Asmar, a 15th-century Muslim scholar.

The president of Libya's newly elected National Congress, Mohamed al-Magariaf, called the prime minister to an emergency meeting on Sunday.

"What is truly regrettable and suspicious is that some of those who took part in these destruction activities are supposed to be of the security forces and from the revolutionaries," Magariaf told reporters on Saturday night.

He did not elaborate on how security forces took part.

A public protest was planned for Sunday at the Algeria Square in Tripoli, calling for support against "the lawless minority" that carried out the attacks.

A Reuters reporter saw the bulldozer level the Sha'ab mosque as police surrounded the site and prevented people from approaching and did not stop the demolition. Inside the mosque, empty graves lay open in the rubble.

"A large number of armed militias carrying medium and heavy weapons arrived at the al-Sha'ab mosque with the intention to destroy the mosque because of their belief graves are anti-Islamic," a government official said.

He told Reuters that authorities tried to stop them but, after a small clash, decided to seal off the area while the demolition took place to prevent any violence spreading.

Sectarian attack

"The SSC [Libya's Supreme Security Council] joins the ... condemnation," Abdel Moneim al-Hurr, the council spokesman, said.

A man who appeared to be overseeing the demolition told Reuters the interior ministry had authorised the operation after discovering people had been worshipping the graves and practicing "black magic". The ministry was not available for comment.
This video of the Tripoli mosque being destroyed was uploaded onto Youtube

"A group of criminals who have committed crimes against people inside and outside Zliten, entered and took cover in the mosque and fired at the revolutionaries," Mohamed al-Teer, a witness, said.

"The revolutionaries fired back. They killed and captured some of them and the others escaped."

The attackers also set fire to a historic library, reducing years of academic and religious writing to ash. While the official line from the government is condemnation, there are reports security forces stood by and just let this destruction go ahead.

One of Libya's highest-profile cultural clashes since the toppling of Muammar Gaddafi has been between followers of the mystical Sufi tradition and ultra-conservative Salafis, who say Islam should return to the simple ways followed by its prophet.

Salafis have formed a number of armed brigades in Libya. They reject as idolatrous many Sufi devotions - which include dancing and the building of shrines to venerated figures.

The Sha'ab mosque in Tripoli housed close to 50 Sufi graves inside and, outside, the tombs of Libyan Sufi scholar Abdullah al-Sha'ab and a martyr who fought Spanish colonialists.

Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... 9yp9MrDUxI

http://www.aljazeera.com/video/africa/2 ... 45366.html


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Puritan zealots strike again in Libya

by Irfan Al-Alawi

6th September 2012


Destroying all traces of the past: al-Shaab Mausoleum, Tripoli after the Salafi visitDestroying all traces of the past: al-Shaab Mausoleum, Tripoli after the Salafi visit

Desecration of spiritual Sufi shrines by Islamist ultra-fundamentalist ‘Salafists,’ i.e. Wahhabi adherents, has led to a political crisis in Libya.

On Sunday, 26 August, Libyan interior minister Fawzi Abdelali resigned from his position after the government failed to halt an orgy of anti-Sufi vandalism.

That night, residents of the suburb of Janzour, near Libya’s capital, Tripoli, mobilized armed militia committees to protect Sufi shrines, according to The Miami Herald. On Tuesday, 28 August, Abdelali withdrew his notice of departure from his government post, as described by The New York Times.

Devastation of Islamic sacred sites is based on the Wahhabi sect’s preaching that ‘pure Islam’ is focussed only on God and cannot include praise of, or blessings to, the Prophet Muhammad, his close associates, and his saintly successors through Muslim history. It is difficult to understand, and counter-intuitive to today’s non-Muslims.

Wahhabi destruction of gravesites and mosques is therefore motivated by the perverse belief that in honouring the saintly individuals buried in the graves and commemorated in the mosques, and delivering blessings to their souls, the Muslims are committing the sin of polytheism, i.e. putting people or objects of worship or veneration alongside Allah, as Christians do with Jesus, and, according to Muslim belief, with Mary, icons and statues.

But permission to visit and bless the graves of prophetic and spiritual figures was a well-established practise of the Muslim majority until the advent of Wahhabism 250 years ago, and visiting tombs and graves is widespread and popular among traditional Muslims in most of the world today.

Muslims of the past receiving such praise include Prophet Muhammad (in his shrine in Medina), the Prophet’s family, the Companions of the Prophet, and the first generation of Successors after them, as well as later Sufis and other distinguished figures.
Islamic heritage

The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) condemned the damage to Islamic heritage in Libya.

On Friday, 24 August, in Zliten on the Mediterranean coast east of Tripoli, the front of the Sidi Abdul-Salam Al-Asmar Al-Fituri shrine, dedicated to a fifteenth-century CE Sufi, was struck by Wahhabi-fired mortar shells. So were the mosque and library of the nearby University of Al-Asmari, an Islamic school. In trying unsuccessfully to remove the body of Sidi Al-Asmar from his tomb, the Wahhabis dug a hole 16 feet deep. Thousands of volumes in the university library were reduced to ashes.

The independent Libya Herald reported that the Friday attack on the Sidi Al-Asmar complex came after a week of fighting in Zliten that left up to three people dead and eight wounded. The Wahhabi raid on the Sidi Al-Asmar shrine and the Al-Asmari University was apparently unrelated to the earlier combat.

The next day, Saturday, 25 August, saw Wahhabi destruction of one of the outstanding Sufi structures in Libya, the Abdallah Al-Shaab mausoleum in Tripoli, as reported by the US military news portal. The Al-Shaab sanctuary was levelled using two bulldozers. Also on Saturday, Wahhabis demolished the shrines of Sidi Al-Masry and Sidi Selim in Tripoli and of Sheikh Ahmed Al-Zarruq in Misrata.
Devious

Wahhabi aggression against the Al-Shaab shrine in Tripoli has been blamed on members of the Libyan state security apparatus who allegedly blocked the road to prevent local residents from defending the site. The Libyan government has denied the charge, but in a devious manner. An unnamed Libyan state official told the Al-Jazeera television channel that the authorities ‘closed the road to preserve security only so that no problems or clashes may take place. The Supreme Security Committee has nothing to do with the destruction of graves.’ But the road closure enabled the outrage against the Al-Shaab shrine.

On 25 August, the Grand Mufti of Libya, Sheikh Al-Sadek Al-Gheriani, who had sought to mediate between traditionalists and Wahhabis, issued a fatwa condemning the desecration of graves. He wrote, ‘What some armed people do in digging up graves by force and removing their remains is not permissible… because this involves violation of the sanctity of the dead and of their relatives who are still alive… This prohibition about digging up graves includes non-Muslims’ graves as well.’ Al-Gheriani pointed out, ‘There were non-Muslims’ graves in Medina and other Muslim cities that were conquered, but neither the Prophet nor any of his Companions issued orders for their removal.’

Al-Gheriani affirmed the classical position of the Muslim scholars for more than a thousand years before the appearance of Wahhabism in the 18th century – that is, the graves of the early Muslims and their noble successors, mosques built to celebrate eminent Muslims, and cemeteries in general are a part of Islamic heritage that should be preserved and visited.

The Libyan Grand Mufti failed to note that Wahhabis in Libya are encouraged by those in Saudi Arabia that devastated the cemeteries sheltering the remains of Prophet Muhammad’s family and companions, along with numerous significant later Muslims, when the House of Saud took over the holy cities in 1924-25. The Wahhabi vision of eradicating Arabia’s Islamic heritage resulted in covering the grave of Prophet Muhammad’s mother, Amina bint Wahb with petrol and setting it afire which is constantly repeated by the Saudi Wahhabis.
Legacy

The Muslim lands, as well as other countries, are undergoing a wave of violence against the sacred sites of all believers. Before it is too late, moderate leaders of all religions, as well as secular cultural historians and preservation experts must unite to protect the legacy of all faiths. Ravaging of the Bamiyan Buddhas by Al-Qaida and the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2001; the wave of homicidal bombings at Sufi shrines in Iraq, Pakistan and India in recent years; despoliation of Shia Muslim meeting houses and mosques in Bahrain; Wahhabi calls for removal of Christian churches from Muslim countries; Egyptian radical threats against the Pyramids and Sphinx – all are aspects of a frenzy for obliteration of the past that has seized the minds of Muslim and other extremists.

This mania is, put simply, no less anti-human than open terrorism and its incitement.

***

Why does Saudi Islam destroy history?

The Wahhabi destruction of grave sites and mosques is motivated by the perverse belief that in honouring the saintly individuals buried in the graves and commemorated in the mosques, including the Prophet (in his shrine in Medina), the Prophet's family, the Companions of the Prophet, and the first generation of Successors after them, as well as later Sufis, Muslims are committing the profound sin of ‘shirk’. Shirk is an Islamic concept that outlaws associating people or objects of worship with Allah. Christians are regarded as the prime offenders, with their worship of Jesus as the Son of God.

Christians argue that human beings have an in-built desire to worship. They believe that Jesus is the incarnation of the Father God, and uniquely satisfies the inherent need to worship because, say Christians, they are made that way. All other worship is unsafe, whether of Mary, icons or saints, and is simply misplaced and diminishes or distorts.

But Muslims who visit graves and mosques to do not ‘worship’ the people buried there. They honour the Prophet and his Companions and Successors and saintly people for who they were, and pray for their intercession. They do not consider them divine.

The classical position of Muslim scholars, which was the principle for 1250 years before the appearance of Wahhabism in the 18th century, is that graves of early Muslims and their saintly successors, mosques built to celebrate saintly Muslims, and cemeteries in general are a part of Islamic heritage that should be preserved and visited.

This is the dominant position among traditional Muslims all over the world today.

Wahhabi destruction of the sacred sites associated with the Prophet is carried out to prevent people from asking intercession of the Prophet, his Companions, Successors, family, and the most prominent Sufis, since Wahhabis consider equating human beings with divine personages as equivalent to the Christian attitude toward Jesus. The Wahhabis do not want any prayers associated with Prophet Muhammad. It is of course a perverse attitude unknown in any other major religion, but the Wahhabis preached that ‘pure Islam’ is focussed only on God and cannot include even praise of the Prophet and his close associates. It is difficult to understand and counter-intuitive to the outlook of Westerners. That is the point.

Wahhabis also prohibit celebration of the Prophet's birthday and similar observances.

http://www.lapidomedia.com/puritan-zealots-strike-again-libya


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The Battle of the Shrines

BY SHARRON WARD

SEPTEMBER 12, 2012

The attack on the U.S. diplomats in Benghazi isn't the first time that Libya's ultraconservative Islamists have tried to shake things up. Can the country's nascent democracy rise to the challenge?

The protestors who stormed the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, where the U.S. Ambassador and three others were killed last night, belonged to a group called the Ansar Al-Sharia Brigade. Ansar al-Sharia is part of the ultraconservative Salafi movement in Libya, but until the attack on the consulate they were better known for acts of vandalism against inanimate objects -- namely, ancient Sufi shrines, representing a brand of Islam rejected as blasphemous by these ultraorthodox Muslims. (The image above shows their destruction at the Sidi Abdel Salam al-Asmar al-Fituri mosque in Zliten on August 25.)

Yet the Salafi campaign to "cleanse" Libyan Islam of what they view as pernicious cultural influences has far more in common with the attack on U.S. diplomats than might at first seem apparent. In both cases the ultraconservative Salafis are aiming to undercut Libya's new democratically elected government, which they also deem to be insufficiently Islamic.

Starting last November, Libyan Salafis have staged a series of attacks on Sufi shrines around the country. But the campaign really began to go into high gear in August, when the extremists attacked several shrines in quick succession. On August 25, Ansar al-Sharia even deployed an excavator to destroy the Sidi Al-Sha'ab Mosque (which contained the tomb of a Sufi saint) in the center of Tripoli, unchallenged by government security forces.

That same day, Mohammed al-Magariaf, the president of the General National Congress (GNC) and interim Prime Minister elected earlier this year, denounced the shrine attacks as "disgraceful acts," and said that "those involved were criminals who would be pursued." He was immediately contradicted by the country's Interior Minister, Fawzi Abdel A'al, who commands the security forces who presumably answer to the government. Abdel A'al declared that he was not prepared to "shed any blood for the sake of some tombs." He went on to claim that he didn't have the firepower to compete with the armed Salafi militants in the country. "I won't embark on a losing battle and drag the country to war," he told reporters -- effectively capitulating to the extremist threat.

His claim is hard to believe. By most counts the government's security forces, grouped under a body known as the Supreme Security Committee (SSC), number up to 100,000, which surely ought to be enough to counter the threat from scattered extremist groups. But given these recent incidents, many Libyans are now worrying that the government's own security forces may be penetrated by the extremists. The assault on the Benghazi consulate raises similar questions, given that forces loyal to the government were conspicuous primarily by their absence.

The Salafis are resorting to such acts as a way of countering the effect of the elections on July 7, which didn't go the way they would have preferred. When Islamist parties were roundly trounced in the elections (Libya's first free vote in half a century), many observers rejoiced at the clear indication that Libya was "bucking the Islamist trend." Libyan voters had categorically and democratically rejected extremist and fundamentalist Islamic views and opted for a modernist, secular state.

The Salafis, who preach a return to the primal Islamic community of the Prophet Mohammed, are trying to impose their will nonetheless. Their puritanical version of Islam regards the Sufi shrines, where believers sometimes pray to the bodies of buried saints, as "idolatrous." But the Salafi attacks also have a broader political goal, which is to exploit the weakness of the GNC before it takes full power. In the July election, Libyans selected 200 members of the GNC, the legislative body that is to choose a future prime minister and cabinet. Nominations for the prime ministerial post have already been submitted and are currently being considered. The new prime minister and the cabinet members selected by him are due to take power in the coming weeks. The GNC also has the job of appointing a committee that will draft the eagerly anticipated Libyan constitution.

By destroying Sufi shrines across Libya in what appear to be coordinated attacks, the Salafis are demonstrating "a highly symbolic way to assert control," writes Libya expert Stephen Schwartz, the executive director of the California based Center for Islamic Pluralism, in a recent article.

The weakness of the government response to the shrine attacks has given rise to credible claims that the SSC itself, the Ministry of Interior, and the Ministry of Justice have a number Salafis among their ranks, as even Magariaf has been forced to admit. "Salafis are now the core of SSC and have branched out in different agencies beyond the Ministry of Interior," says Mazin Ramadan, a bystander who witnessed the attack on the Sidi Al-Sha'ab Mosque. He identifies one of the men leading the attack as a member of the Ministry of the Interior. "The SSC blocked the street and he managed the tomb raiders," says Ramadan. "I spoke to him and he said that they will not stop until they have cleansed Tripoli."

Instead of stopping the destruction of the mosque, the Ministry of Interior sent the SSC to "protect" the Salafis, who then proceeded to finish the job. Instead of arresting the perpetrators, SSC members intimidated protestors and arrested journalists who were trying to document the destruction. "I was harassed and they actually took my camera from me, but luckily I managed to get it back," one female Libyan photojournalist told me. "They also told me I should cover my hair." The government's security forces even allowed the Salafis to abduct one of the Sufi leaders who was protesting the demolition. This abuse of power highlights the SSC's increasing tendency to restrict some of the fundamental freedoms won by the Libyan revolution.

Over the past few months the SSC has been steadily increasing its power and authority even as the government remains mired in the turmoil of transition. On the day of the Tripoli attack, Deputy Prime Minister Mustafa Abushagur issued a statement openly admitting that the security forces had defied his order to protect the site -- prompting additional questions about the extent to which the government remains in control of its own security forces.

Abdel A'al's Interior Ministry says that battling Salafi vandals is entirely secondary to the bigger task of waging war against pro-Qaddafi insurgents. But the two problems have more in common than is at first apparent.

Saadi Qaddafi, one of the deposed leader's sons now living in exile in Niger, has publicly allied himself (in Arabic) with the Salafis and pledged repeatedly to return to Libya to lead a counter-revolution. Despite his widespread reputation as a playboy under the old regime, Saadi recently declared: "I am not a politician. I am a Salafi." By refusing to tackle the Salafis head-on, the security authorities are thus potentially allowing pro-Qaddafi elements to undermine stability in Libya.

Concern about Saadi doings has much to do with the fear of rising Saudi involvement in Libyan politics. Saadi also has well-documented links with the ultraconservative Wahhabi sect of Saudi Arabia, which has been promoting the Libyan Salafi movement. The Libyan Salafis desecrating the shrines base their actions on fatwas, Islamic legal pronouncements, from Saudi clerics. Libyan Islamic scholars have issued a statement blaming Saudi Arabia for the attacks on Sufi shrines, noting that the Saudi scholar who issued one of the anti-Sufi fatwas receives a salary from the Saudi government. The transitional government has complained to the Saudi government, which it accuses of interfering in its internal affairs.

The attacks have deeply shocked many Libyans -- who, after all, voted overwhelmingly for secular political forces in the July election. "These acts of destroying religious and educational sites are the most dangerous events to take place in Libya since last year's war," Hafed Al-Ghwell, a long-time opponent of the Qaddafi regime, told me. "They demonstrate that we have a force that is outside the law that can impose its will on both the government and people of Libya with impunity." Last night's shocking attack on the U.S. consulate confirms such fears.

There have been some encouraging signs of a backlash against the rise of the Salafis. Last Friday, residents of the Libyan town of Rajma, 30 miles southeast of Benghazi, took to the streets to battle a group of ultraconservative Islamists who had arrived on the scene with a peculiar mission: to destroy an ancient Sufi shrine. The townspeople held the outsiders at bay until government security forces arrived to lock the place down -- but not before the fighting had taken three Salafi lives, leaving another seven people wounded. (Similarly, the Libyan government statements on the tragedy in Benghazi have been admirably straightforward in their condemnation of the attack.)

For their part, Western governments, who were highly vocal in support of the Libyan revolutionaries, have been notably silent about the shrine attacks. Perhaps the rise of Islamic extremism as a response to the Arab Spring is an inconvenient truth some would prefer not to acknowledge. But the international community should take note: Salafism is the fastest- growing Islamic movement in the world. Western governments ignore this threat at their peril. We have now seen where this has led: to the deaths of Americans on Libyan soil.

James Wheeler, an American who came to Libya to help the wounded during the revolution, has stated the issue clearly. "Extremists did not win the war in Libya," he wrote in a recent tweet. "They cannot and must not win the peace."

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2 ... s?page=0,0


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Libya Sufi shrines attacked 'by Islamist hardliners'

Shrine in Tripoli being attacked with a digger (photo supplied to the BBC by Tripoli resident)

This photo of Sufi shrine in Tripoli being attacked with a digger was sent to the BBC


A shrine in the Libyan capital Tripoli venerating a Sufi Muslim saint has been partly destroyed - the latest in a series of attacks blamed on ultra-conservative Salafi Islamists.

Tripoli residents said men with bulldozers attacked the shrine of al-Shaab al-Dahmani, unimpeded by police.

The attack came a day after hardliners were accused of damaging the tomb of a Sufi scholar in the city of Zlitan.

Hardline Salafists regard the shrines as idolatrous.

On Friday, a group attacked the tomb of 15th-Century scholar Abdel Salam al-Asmar in Zlitan, about 160km (100 miles) south-east of Tripoli. The Reuters news agency said its dome had collapsed.

Video footage showed chunks of masonry littering the floor, bullet holes pockmarking the walls and ornate Islamic tiling destroyed.

People in Tripoli say they saw bulldozers destroy part of the al-Shaab al-Dahmani mosque and Sufi shrine.

One, a student named Abdurrahman, told the BBC: "There's a large group of Salafists - they are the one with the bulldozers, and some military police are also present.

"They seem to be overseeing the process, rather than preventing it... There are some bystanders who seem to approve".

He said the Salafists were also handing out pamphlets issued by a Saudi Arabian mufti from the hardline Wahhabi school of Islam.
'A crime'

The destruction in Zlitan follows two days of clashes between rival local tribes which left at least three people dead.

Omar Ali, an official from the Zlitan military council, told Reuters: "The extremist Salafis took advantage [of the fact] that security officials were busy calming down the clashes and they desecrated the shrine."

Libya's Deputy Prime Minister Mustafa Abushagur tweeted: "The destruction of shrines and mosques is a crime. Those who commit these crimes will be held responsible."

In November last year, the bodies of two Muslim clerics were removed from the Sidi Nasr shrine and mosque in Tripoli and reburied according to the principles of the hardline Wahabi school of Islam.

There has recently been an international outcry over the destruction of centuries-old shrines in Timbuktu, Mali.

The Sufi sites were attacked by the al-Qaeda-linked Ansar Dine group which seized the city in April.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-19380083


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Libya’s Sufism being bulldozed to the ground

Published: 26 August, 2012,
Edited: 28 August, 2012,

http://rt.com/news/libya-sufi-sites-bulldozed-579/

Resim
Libyan Islamist hardliners use a bulldozer to raze the mausoleum of Al-Shaab Al-Dahman near the center of Tripoli
(AFP Photo / Mahmud Turkia)

Libyan Islamist hardliners use a bulldozer to raze the mausoleum of Al-Shaab Al-Dahman near the center of Tripoli
(AFP Photo / Mahmud Turkia)


Religious sectarian tensions are reaching record levels in post-Gaddafi Libya, with two Sufi religious sites attacked and destroyed in just two days by Salafi activists.

­An armed group of people including government security personnel have bulldozed the Al-Shaab Al-Dahman mosque, containing many graves, in the center of Tripoli on Saturday over allegations that a Sufi Muslim sect has been engaging in “black magic”.

Libya’s government has condemned the attack and also voiced concern at the authorities’ involvement in the demolition.

"What is truly regrettable and suspicious is that some of those who took part in these destructive activities are supposed to be members of the security forces and from the revolutionaries,” the president of Libya's newly-elected National Congress, Mohamed al-Magariaf, told reporters.

It is unclear how many security forces personnel were involved in the bulldozing. Authorities tried to stop the demolition, but after a small clash with the armed group, the police decided to cordon off the area while the destruction took place to prevent any violence erupting.

"A large number of armed militias carrying medium and heavy weapons arrived at the al-Sha'ab mosque with the intention of destroying the mosque because they believe graves are anti-Islamic," an anonymous government official told Reuters.

Reuters also has information that the Interior Ministry allegedly gave the green light to the bulldozing "after discovering people had been worshipping the graves and practicing 'black magic'".

Tripoli’s Al-Shaab Al-Dahman mosque contained around 50 Sufi graves, including the tombs of Libyan Sufi scholar Abdullah al-Sha'ab and of soldiers who fought Spanish colonialists.

Mohamed al-Magariaf called the Prime Minister to an emergency meeting on Sunday and slammed the Interior Minister Fawzi Abdel A’al for a general lack of security in the country. The attack on the mosque comes on the back of a similar incident in Zlitan and a double car bombing that killed two people in Tripoli a week ago.

The criticism did not go down well with the Interior Minister. In protest to the rebuke, he tendered his resignation.

AFP Photo / Mahmud Turkia

Friday saw another attack on Sufi worship sites in the city of Zlitan. Ultra-conservative Islamists destroyed the tomb of a 15th-century Sufi scholar and set the Mosque’s library on fire.

The vandals bulldozed the grave of Abdel Salam al-Asmar and set a historic library in a neighboring mosque ablaze, according to witnesses. The structure’s dome collapsed and a minaret was pitted with holes.

"We are distraught at the destruction of this historical and spiritual place in Libya," said Mohamed Salem, caretaker of the mosque.

Meanwhile, a Facebook page called "Together for the Removal of the Abdel Salam al-Asmar Shrine" praised supporters on the "successful removal of the Asmar shrine, the largest sign of idolatry in Libya."

Following the ousting of Colonel Gaddafi, cultural clashes between followers of the mystical Sufi tradition and ultra-conservative Salafis have taken central stage in the new Libya.

Sufism is a mystical sect of Islam which includes dancing and building of shrines to venerated figures. Followers make pilgrimages to them.

As Libyan authorities struggle to control countless armed rings that refuse to surrender weapons following last year’s civil war, Salafis, who say Islam should return to the simple ways followed by Mohammed, have established a number of armed gangs in post-Gaddafi Libya. They view Sufi practices as idolatrous.

Since the start of the Arab Spring uprising across the region, a number of Sufi sites have been attacked in Egypt, Mali and Libya.
AFP Photo / Mahmud Turkia


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Libya Islamists destroy Sufi shrines, library: military

Saturday, 25 August 2012

Zlitan residents protest against the destruction of tombs in front of the shrine of 15th-century Sufi scholar Abdel Salam al-Asmar in Zlitan city, about 160 km (90 miles) west of Tripoli in early March. At the time, it was alleged that ultra-conservative Salafis were on their way to destroy it as part of a campaign to wipe out any symbols they see as idolatrous. (Reuters)

Resim

Zlitan residents protest against the destruction of tombs in front of the shrine of 15th-century Sufi scholar Abdel Salam al-Asmar in Zlitan city, about 160 km (90 miles) west of Tripoli in early March. At the time, it was alleged that ultra-conservative Salafis were on their way to destroy it as part of a campaign to wipe out any symbols they see as idolatrous. (Reuters)


By Reuters Zlitan

Conservative Islamists blew up the tomb of a 15th century Sufi scholar and burned down a library in the Libyan city of Zlitan, a military official said on Saturday, the latest attacks on sites in the region branded idolatrous by some sects.

The attackers used bombs and a bulldozer to destroy a complex of shrines that included the tomb of Abdel Salam al-Asmar on Friday and ruined thousands of books at the Asmari Mosque library, said witnesses and Zlitan military council official Omar Ali.

Hardliners, many of them emboldened by the Arab Spring revolts, have targeted a number of sites belonging to Islam's mystical Sufi tradition in Libya, Egypt and Mali over the past year.

The assaults have also recalled the 2001 dynamiting by the Taliban of two 6th-century statues of Buddha carved into a cliff in Bamiyan in central Afghanistan.

Friday's attacks followed two days of clashes between tribal factions in Zlitan which killed two people and injured 18, according to military council counts.

“The extremist Salafis took advantage (of the fact) that security officials were busy calming down the clashes and they desecrated the shrine,” Ali told Reuters, referring to conservative Muslims who see many Sufi sites as idolatrous.

http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2 ... 34143.html


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 Mesaj Başlığı: Re: Libya minister quits over Sufi shrine attack
MesajGönderilme zamanı: 25.12.12, 16:14 #mesajın linki (?)
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Tomb of Sayed Abdul Salam al-Asmar (one of Imam Hassan [as] descendants ) in Libya demolished recently by Nasibis PHOTO

Resim

This is the most vicious attack on Libya's religious and cultural identity since the Spanish crusades of the early 16th Century. Even Mussolini's fascists did not treat our spiritual heritage with such contempt.

The campaign started with a clear Fatwa to destroy and kill by the Madkhali School of Saudi Wahhabism for which the League of Libyan Ulema hold the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia fully responsible.

= Fatwa by the League of Libyan Ulema regarding the destruction of Sufi tombs & mosques by extremists

http://www.scribd.com/doc/104317849/Fat ... ma-English


http://libyasos.blogspot.com/2012/09/li ... st-04.html


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 Mesaj Başlığı: FATWA: Statement by the League of Libyan Ulema
MesajGönderilme zamanı: 25.12.12, 17:04 #mesajın linki (?)
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28 August 2012

In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Dispenser of Grace

Statement by the League of Libyan Ulema Regarding the Assault on Libya's Mosques and Mausoleums

Praise be to God, the Lord of the Worlds, and peace and blessings on the Prophet Muhammad, his Family, and his Companions.
The Libyan revolution, which was launched on February 17th of last year, initially sought to achieve legitimate goals through peaceful means. Despite the fact that the government was flagrantly killing innocent Libyan men while carrying out sexual assaults on Libyan women, many young men remained in their homes, under the influence of scholars who argued that the government was legitimate, and accordingly, rising up against it was an act of sedition.
Only after the Lord granted the revolutionaries victory did these youth join the fray, trying to present themselves as leaders of the movement – this despite the fact that up until that moment (and even afterwards) they had allied themselves with Saadi Gaddafi who financed the establishment of a puritanical Salafi school for them in one of the mosques of Tripoli.
This group has repeatedly attempted to undermine the stability of our country to achieve their fiendish goals. To this end, they have set off bombs at the tombs of saints, destroyed places of worship, burned down religious schools, pillaged libraries with rare and priceless manuscripts, and abducted and tortured dozens of those whose only crime was to refute their errors or stop their destruction, as in Zliten. In this, the more radical elements of the security apparatus have been complicit.
These renegades are inspired by a school of thought foreign to our venerable and indigenous traditions, a school of thought comprised of the most errant positions at odds with the teachings of the vast majority of Muslim scholars.

Assaulting a tomb and exhuming its inhabitant is a grave sin in Islam. The classical jurist Malik narrated in his Muwatta that the Prophet (peace be upon him) cursed those who dig up the graves of others.1 Similarly, the Prophet (pbuh) declared, "Breaking the bone of a dead Muslim is as grave as breaking their bone when they are alive."2 And at the funeral of the Prophet's wife Maymouna, Ibn Abbas firmly instructed the pall-bearers: "When you raise up the bier, make sure not to let it shake back and forth, but carry it with the utmost care."3 It should go without saying that digging up someone's body and blowing up their grave is that much more blasphemous. 4
These renegades claim that visiting the mausoleums of the saints amounts to idolatry, a position which contradicts the Prophet (pbuh)'s saying that "While I used to forbid you from visiting people's graves, feel free to do so now, since visiting them is a good remembrance of one's own mortality"5 not to mention that it contradicts the well-established practice of Muslim society from its very beginnings. To the extent that there are some people who pray to these saints to the exclusion of God, this is due to their own ignorance and does not in any way call for the destruction of these sites or the murder of its attendants.
The Grand Mufti of Libya recently published a fatwa legitimizing the destruction of mosques built around a tomb; this fatwa is inappropriate for several reasons. First of all, the mufti should well know that all tombs in Libya, without exception, which are attached to a mosque are separated from the actual prayer area by a wall. Secondly, the mufti bases his fatwa on the isolated position of the medieval jurist Ibn Taymiyya, whom he describes as "the great sage of Islam (shaykh al-Islam)" – as if there have not been scores of scholars who have shared this encomium. The fact is that the vast majority of Muslim scholars have found no problem with having a tomb adjoin a mosque in the manner found in our society. And in any case, the Great Mosque of Medina contains not only the tomb of our Prophet (pbuh), but those of his close Companions Abu Bakr and Umar – and not a single Muslim from the Prophet's generation ever suggested that their bodies be moved out of the mosque precinct or that the mosque should be relocated. Furthermore, the fact that the Companions debated whether to bury the Prophet (pbuh) beneath his pulpit only underlines the acceptability of this. And the Prophet himself (pbuh) commanded that "A prophet should be buried wherever he breathes his last."6 And Lady Ayesha, who was well-versed in Islamic law, would perform her prayers next to his grave. Thirdly, the mufti has contravened the position of the dominant school of law here in Libya –namely, the Maliki school – even though he formally committed himself to its rulings through the Fatwa Law which he himself drafted.

Accordingly, those who murder civilians and destroy our very heritage are renegades who defy God's law. Islam enjoins on us to restrain them by force and hold them accountable for all their crimes, for as the Lord says in scripture: "It is but a just recompense for those who make war on God and His apostle, and endeavour to spread corruption on earth, that they are slain in great numbers, or crucified in great numbers, or have, in result of their perverseness, their hands and feet cut off in great numbers, or are [entirely] banished from [the face of] the earth: such is their ignominy in this world. But in the life to come [yet more] terrible suffering awaits them" 7 and "Hence, who could be more wicked than those who bar the mention of God’s name from [any of] His houses of worship and strive for their ruin, [although] they have no right to enter them save in fear [of God]? For them, in this world, there is ignominy in store; and for them, in the life to come, a terrible suffering." 8
In conclusion, it is the responsibility of the National Conference and the Interim Government to take measures to deter these renegades and hold them to account; to rebuild what they destroy and retrieve what they steal; as well as to hold to account those elements in the security apparatus who have betrayed their office to aid these criminals.
Similarly, the League of Libyan Ulema calls on the venerable National Conference and Interim Government to pressure the government of Saudi Arabia to restrain its clerics who meddle in our affairs in the following ways: providing intensive courses for Libyan youth where they are brainwashed with extremist ideas and taught to give their allegiance to the Saudi clerics to the exclusion of the just Lord Himself; promoting millions of free books and tapes in Libya which attack our moderate religious traditions; and pounding the simple masses with the propaganda that Libyan scholars are worthless and should not be heeded. Accordingly, a formal complaint should be submitted to the League of Arab States and the Organization for Islamic Cooperation regarding this flagrant intervention in our domestic affairs.
Neglecting the grave responsibility of the security and stability of our country is a dereliction of duty; as the Prophet himself (pbuh) stated, "Those who do not actively care for the well-being of the Muslim community are not part of it." 9

Sedition ever lies below the surface; May God curse those who would stir it up.

Peace be upon you and the blessings of God

The League of Libyan Ulema
Dr. Umar Mawloud Abdu l-Hamid



___________________________________________________

1 The Book of Funerals, On Matters of Disappearance, No. 44.
2 Narrated by Imam Malik in The Muwatta , The Book of Funerals, On Matters of Disappearance, No. 45. 3 Sahih Al-Bukhari, The Book of Marriage, Chapter on Having Several Wives.
4 Refer to the Al-Mabsut (The Unravelled) of Al-Sarakhsi, vol. 1, p. 190; Al-Sharh Al-Kabir (The Great Commentary) of Al-Dardir, vol. 1, p. 188; Al-Hawi (The Container) of Al-Mawardi, vol. 2, p. 336 and Al-Insaf (The Equity) of Al-Mawardi, vol. 1, p. 348.
5 The Sunan of Abu Dawud, The Book of Funerals, Chapter on Visiting Graves, No. 3235.
6 The Sunan of Ibn Majah, The Book on What Has Been Related Regarding Funerals, Chapter on What Has Been Related Regarding His (PBUH) Death and Burial, No. 1628.
7 The Holy Qur an [Al-Ma idah 5:33] 8 The Holy 8 Qur an [Al-Baqarah 2:114
9 Narrated by Al-Bayhaqi in The Branches of Faith, Chapter on Asceticism, No. 10586.

For inquiries: 091 3226168 092 5159497 LIBYANOLAMA@YAHOO.COM


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