- Salafists destroy major Sufi shrine
- By Farah Waleed. Tripoli, 28 March 2013: The Al-Andlusi mausoleum in Tajura area, one of the major Sufi shrines in Libya, was destroyed early this morning, Thursday, in a bomb attack that is ...
Prominent local Sufi cleric, Sheikh Mustafa Rajab Al-Mahjoubi,
was murdered on Friday morning in Derna, shot by unknown assailants just as
he was leaving his home early in the morning, reportedly to buy bread.
http://www.libyaherald.com/2012/08/30/league-of-libyan-ulema-draws-links-between-salafists-saadi-qaddafi-and-ssc/
- axzz2ffFuFuEZ
Tripoli, 22 September
2013:
A prominent local Sufi cleric, Sheikh Mustafa Rajab Al-Mahjoubi,
was murdered on Friday morning in Derna. He shot by unknown assailants just as
he was leaving his home early in the morning, reportedly to buy bread.
There is shock in the town at the killing. “He was a lovely man,
a decent man”, one Derna resident told the Libya
Herald. “He was very popular. No one disliked him – except for
some fanatics.”
Responsibility for the murder has been claimed by a supposedly
Islamist group calling itself “Vanguards Of The Caliphate”. However, some
locals refuse to believe that Islamists were responsible. “I don’t’ believe
it,” said one, indicating he thought there others were involved.
There has been an ongoing struggle between Sufis and Salafists
over the past two years throughout Libya with Salfist supporters destroying
dozens of Sufi shrines and mausoleums.
Derna itself has earned
the reputation of being a centre of Salafist militancy, notably involving Ansar
Al-Sharia, although this is said by many in the town to be an exaggeration.
However, it was one of the earlier towns to see its main Sufi shrine destroyed.
In June last year, a bomb exploded at the Sahaba Mosque destroying the tomb of Zuhayr Ibn Qais
Al-Balawi, a seventh-century Arab commander who helped bring Islam to the area.
Derna comes second only
to Bengahzi in the number of political killings there over the past year. These
are said to be connected to power struggles in the town between Islamists and
state officials. In July, a retired colonel, Abdullateef Emdawi Al-Dali
Almzeni, was murdered in the town, just a week after the Commander of the Search and
Rescue division of the Libyan Air Force, Colonel Fathi El-Emami was assassinated there.
In June, a prominent local judge, Judge Najib Mohamed Huwaidi was
also assassinated. Buildings too have been attacked.
Friday’s killing, though, is the first of a religious leader.
- Salafists destroy major
Sufi shrineBy Farah Waleed. Tripoli, 28 March 2013: The Al-Andlusi
mausoleum in Tajura area, one of the major Sufi shrines in Libya, was
destroyed early this morning, Thursday, in a bomb attack that is ...
- Why the Supreme Security
Committee must be brought to heel – before it’s too late
By George Grant. Tripoli, 29 August: Many outsiders looking at events in Libya from afar are probably not fully aware of the powerful significance of the recent desecration of Sufi shrine... - League of Libyan Ulema draws
links between Salafists, Saadi Qaddafi and SSC
Tripoli, 30 August: The League of Libyan Ulema has issued a statement condemning the recent desecration of Sufi shrines, drawing clear links between those responsible and officials within Li... - Sebha Sufi shrine attacked
Tripoli, 10 May 2103: The Hamid Hudairi Sufi shrine in Sebha has been extensively damaged as a result of a rocket during the early morning on Thursday. The building was reportedly hit by ... - Salafists target historic
madrassa in central Tripoli
Tripoli, 29 August: Salafists have destroyed almost 30 graves at an historic madrassa in central Tripoli, in the latest spate of religiously-motivated violence to hit Libya. The Othman Pa...
In a wide-ranging statement condemning the
recent desecration of Sufi shrines, the League also accused the government of
Saudi Arabia of supporting Salafist clerics in Libya.
The League of Libyan Ulema has issued a statement condemning the
recent desecration of Sufi shrines, drawing clear links between those
responsible and officials within Libya’s security services.
Several reports have emerged in recent days accusing members of
the Supreme Security Committee of complicity in the attacks, a charge repeated
by National Congress Speaker Mohammed Magarieff on Saturday.
In the statement, the Ulema also accuse those responsible of
having links with Saadi Qaddafi, one of Muammar Qaddafi’s seven sons, who is
currently in exile in Niger.
Saadi has previously allied himself with the Salafists, who
represent a small minority of Muslims in Libya. During a television address in
February, during which he threatened to return to Libya to lead a
counter-revolution, Saadi declated: “I am not a politician. I am a Salafist”.
The Ulema have also criticised Grand Mufti Sheikh Sadiq
Al-Ghariani for issuing a fatwa “legitimisising the destruction of mosques
built around a tomb”. The Mufti has condemned the recent desecrations, which
have nevertheless focused on shrines enclosing tombs.
Saudi Arabia is also singled out for criticism in the statement,
with the Ulema calling on the government and the National Congress “to pressure
the government of Saudi Arabia to restrain its clerics who meddle in our
affairs”.
The league accuses Saud clerics of “promoting millions of free
books and tapes in Libya which attack our moderate religious traditions”, and
calls on the government to submit a formal complaint to both the League of Arab
States and the Organisation for Islamic Cooperation regarding what it describes
as unacceptable interference in Libya’s domestic affairs.
The Ulema call on both the National Congress and the government
to take active measures both to deter future attacks and to hold those
responsible 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.”
The statement is reproduced in full below:
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 17 February 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. Similarly,
the Prophet (pbuh) declared, “Breaking the bone of a dead Muslim is as grave as
breaking their bone when they are alive.” 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.” It should go without saying that digging up someone’s body and blowing
up their grave is that much more blasphemous.
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” 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 legitimising
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.” 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” 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.”
In conclusion, it is the responsibility of the National Congress
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 Congress 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 Organisation 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.”
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
No comments:
Post a Comment