-
7/31/2019 The Jamestown Foundation_ Political Islam in Libya
1/3
Pakistan's Trou bled Frontier
One of the only books of its kind in existence,
Pakistan's Troubled Frontier examines the
militants and movements in Pakistan's volatile
northwest region and offers expert analysis
that is invaluable to today's policymaking
community.
The Changing Face of Islamist
Militancy in North Africa
Proceedings f rom a panel of Jamestow n's
2008 December terrorism conference entitled
The Expanding Geography of Militant Jihad.
Publication: Terrorism Monitor Volume: 3 Issue: 6
May 5, 2005 12:23 PM Age: 7 yrs
Political Islam in Libya
By: Alison Pargeter
Libya is an orthodox Sunni Muslim country that broadly follows
the Maliki school. Like all the countries of North Africa,Libya
experienced an Islamist revival from the late 1970s onwards that
expressed itself predominantly through theMuslim Brotherhood
(Ikhwan Muslimeen) as well as through a number of more militant
groups. Whi lst the regime hadmore-or-less managed to stamp out
these groups by the end of the 1990s, there remains a strong
sympathy for theirideologies among the Libyan population.
The Early Years
After coming to power in 1969, Muammar Qadhafi made Islam, along
with Arab national ism and socialism, one of thekey tenets of his
new revolutionary state. He introduced his own particular political
system the Jamahiriyah (state ofthe masses) in which he outlawed
political parties and made it clear that he would not tolerate any
organizedpoliticized group, including those of an Islamic nature.
In a bid to rid his country of what he viewed as the
corruptpractices of the former monarchy, that had derived much of
its religious legitimacy through its links to the Senussiorder a
Sufist movement that was established in Libya in the late 19th
century the new leader also implemented aseries of Islamic reforms.
However his unorthodox ideas about Islam soon drew criticism from
the religiousestablishment. As a result, Qadhafi took steps to
undermine the authority of the ulema, prompting many to flee
thecountry. Others who remained and who continued to voice their
criticisms of the regime, such as the highly popularimam of Tripoli
Sheikh al-Bishti , simply "disappeared".
One ofthe regime's early targets was the Muslim Brotherhood
(Ikhwan Muslimeen), which first appeared in Libya in the1950s. The
Libyan branch was founded by Dr. Ezadine Ibrahim and a number of
other Egyptians who were given refuge
by the former Libyan King Idris after fleeing persecution in
Egypt. [1] The King allowed them a relative degree offreedom to
spread their ideology and the movement soon attracted a number of
Libyan adherents. It gained furthermomentum through Egyptian
teachers working in Libya. Qadhafi, however, took a less
accommodating stance andregarded the Brotherhood as a potential
source of opposition. Soon after coming to power, he arrested a
number ofEgyptian brothers and forced them back to Egypt. In 1973,
the security services arrested and tortured members of theLibyan
Brotherhood, who, under pressure, agreed to dissolve the
organisation. Some fled the country, includingAbdullah Busen, who
was at one time imprisoned with the Egyptian Brotherhood
ideologist, Sayid Qutb. [2] As a result,the Brotherhood remained si
lent throughout the remainder of the 1970s.
The 1980s
By the start of the 1980s however, the Brotherhood , which had
renamed itself the Libyan Islamic Group (Al-Jama'a al-Islamiya
al-Libyia) and who aspired to replace the exist ing regime with
sharia law through peaceful means, were
beginning to gather a fol lowing once again. The group was given
a boost by a number of Libyan students who had goneabroad to study
in the UK and the U.S., where they were exposed to a range of
Islamist ideas. These students returnedto Libya and began to spread
the Brotherhood ideology. The movement operated covertly in groups
of interlinked cellsthat were spread throughout the country. Much
of the group's popular appeal was drawn from the fact that i ts
memberscarried out charitable and welfare work. It attracted in
particular members of the middle classes primarily
academics,students, engineers and those involved in commerce. The
movement was especially strong in the east of the country inand
around the city of Benghazi where the main tribes have
traditionally opposed Qadhafi's rule. Moreover, thepopulation in
the east is particularly conservative and open to the type of
ideology promoted by the Brotherhood.
The regime continued to take an uncompromising stance towards
the movement, executing one of its members inTripoli in 1983. More
famously, in 1986 it arrested a group of nine Islamists, reportedly
members of the Brotherhood,and accused them of murdering a
high-ranking security off icial. The following year, six of them
were publicly hanged inBenghazi sports stadium and their executions
televised. Despite these setbacks the group continued to
gathermomentum.
The 1980s also witnessed a more militant strand of politicised
Islam taking root inside the country. A group of jihadistsbegan
gathering around the leadership of Emir Awatha Al-Zuwawi who
travelled around the country preaching jihad. Itwas a highly
secretive movement, with no official name and it was spread across
a number of Libyan cities. Unlike theBrotherhood, it advocated
launching military operations against the regime in order to
overthrow Qadhafi. To this end,it worked covertly to acquire
weapons and ammunition and according to one prominent Libyan
Islamist, Abu Munder al-
http://www.jamestown.org/programs/books/single/?tx_ttnews[tt_news]=34815&tx_ttnews[backPid]=16&cHash=6486d0a45fhttp://www.jamestown.org/programs/books/single/?tx_ttnews[tt_news]=34717&tx_ttnews[backPid]=16&cHash=a6e9ea34e8http://www.jamestown.org/programs/books/single/?tx_ttnews[tt_news]=34815&tx_ttnews[backPid]=16&cHash=6486d0a45fhttp://www.jamestown.org/programs/books/single/?tx_ttnews[tt_news]=34717&tx_ttnews[backPid]=16&cHash=a6e9ea34e8http://www.jamestown.org/programs/books/single/?tx_ttnews[tt_news]=34815&tx_ttnews[backPid]=16&cHash=6486d0a45fhttp://www.jamestown.org/programs/books/single/?tx_ttnews[tt_news]=34717&tx_ttnews[backPid]=16&cHash=a6e9ea34e8http://www.jamestown.org/programs/books/single/?tx_ttnews[tt_news]=34717&tx_ttnews[backPid]=16&cHash=a6e9ea34e8http://www.jamestown.org/articles-by-author/?no_cache=1&tx_cablanttnewsstaffrelation_pi1%5Bauthor%5D=261http://www.jamestown.org/programs/books/single/?tx_ttnews[tt_news]=34717&tx_ttnews[backPid]=16&cHash=a6e9ea34e8http://www.jamestown.org/programs/books/single/?tx_ttnews[tt_news]=34717&tx_ttnews[backPid]=16&cHash=a6e9ea34e8http://www.jamestown.org/programs/books/single/?tx_ttnews[tt_news]=34815&tx_ttnews[backPid]=16&cHash=6486d0a45fhttp://www.jamestown.org/programs/books/single/?tx_ttnews[tt_news]=34815&tx_ttnews[backPid]=16&cHash=6486d0a45f
-
7/31/2019 The Jamestown Foundation_ Political Islam in Libya
2/3
Saadi, its job was to "monitor targets against which the
organisation could begin its military operations such as wellknown
people in the Libyan security services or the Revolutionary
Committees." [3] The group engaged in a long termpreparation for
its military campaign and as part of its strategy, many of its
members seized the opportunity to go tofight the Soviets in
Afghanistan, where they and other Libyans set up their own camp and
underwent military training.Many returned to Libya to launch
attacks against the regime, but by 1989 the authorities had
discovered the group'sexistence and they carried out a campaign to
liquidate i t. The regime arrested and imprisoned many of the
group'smembers including Al-Zuwawi, devastating the organisation
until its surviving members were able to reinvent it as theLibyan
Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) in the early 1990s.
Militancy in the 1990s
It was in the 1990s however that political Islam really found a
strong popular following in Libya. Despite its vast oilwealth, the
country was suffering from chronic socio-economic problems brought
about by a combination of economicmismanagement, falling oil prices
and the international sanctions that were imposed in 1992 because
of Qadhafi'srefusal to hand over the two Lockerbie suspects. With
no other political alternative on the horizon, the population
wereripe for the radical brand of political Islam that was sweeping
the whole region. Not only did the Brotherhood garnermore support,
a number of new groups also sprang up. These included the Is lamic
Gathering (Harakat AtajamaaAlislami), founded by Mustafa Ali
Al-Jihani. Its support base was almost entirely in the east of the
country and itsideology was very similar to that of the
Brotherhood. The Jama'at al-Tabligh also succeeded in drawing a
following atthis time, mainly in the western areas. However, they
chose to distance themselves from politics, after a number ofthem
had been arrested at the end of the 1980s and became co-opted by
the regime, some of them being given postsas imams or speakers. It
i s rumoured that they developed good connections with Saadi
Qadhafi one of Qadhafi'ssons. [4]
More militant groups also appeared on the scene in the 1990s,
made up largely from veterans of the war inAfghanistan. These
included LIFG and the much smaller and less well known groups that
mostly consisted of an emirand a handful of fol lowers, such as the
Harakat al-Shuhada'a al-Islamiyah (Libyan Islamic Martyrs
movement), headedby Al-Hami, and Ansar Allah (Supporters of Allah).
LIFG tried to bring all of the mili tant groups under its wing to
createa more united front against the regime. These groups came
into open conflict with security services in the mid 1990sand also
made a number of assassination attempts against Qadhafi, most
notably in 1996 and 1998. The regimeretaliated by launching a
campaign to liquidate these movements once and for all. It employed
brutal tactics, arrestingand killing many of their members and
suspected sympathizers who had not been able to flee the country.
There wasno way that Qadhafi was going to allow what had unfolded
next door in Algeria to occur in Libya.
Qadhafi targeted the more moderate elements as well as the
militants. In 1998 it surprised the Libyan Islamic Groupby
launching a full-scale offensive against its members. It carried
out a sweep of arrests of over 150 of its hard coremembers who were
held incommunicado for many years. They were eventually sentenced
in a mass trial in 2002; two of
them were given the death sentence while others received life
imprisonment. Their appeal failed and the sentenceswere upheld in
December 2004. They remain in the notorious Abuslim prison,
although there are rumours that they arein discussions with the
Qadhafi International Charitable Foundation that is run by
Qadhafi's son Saif al-Islam. Thearrests, however, were suffi cient
to greatly weaken the movement.
Current State of Play
By the end of the 1990s, the regime had more or less wiped out
its organized Islamic opposition inside the country.There are still
remnants, however, of the militant groups and pockets of jihadist
resistance operating in the east of thecountry. These are thought
to consist of cells of one or two individuals and do not have the
necessary skills orresources to launch any serious attacks against
the regime. However, according to the Iraqi Human Rights Ministry
anumber of Libyans have been arrested in Iraq. These include Haidar
Waw Shnawa, who was arrested by Iraqi police in
Najaf in 2004 and implicated in bombings in Karbala and
Khadamiya. [5] A number of insurgents have also returned toLibya
from Iraq, such as Khlaid al -Zayidi from Benghazi, who was
reportedly killed by the Libyan security services onhis return. The
regime clearly isn't taking any chances, especially now that
American companies are returning to thecountry. Qadhafi has been
beefing up domestic security measures of late in the name of
fighting terrorism, andcontinues to display his total intolerance
to politicized Islamists of any persuasion that he refers to as
Zanadiq(heretics).
However, the regime has been unable to prevent the growing
religios ity that has taken hold among the Libyanpopulation in
recent years, as it has across much of the Arab world. Increasing
numbers of the population are coming tosympathise with a
Brotherhood-type of ideology and to aspire to the kind of Islamic
al ternative promoted by theBrotherhood in what could be
interpreted as a form of passive resistance to the regime.
Alison Pargeter is a Research Fellow at the International Policy
Institue, Kings College London. She has publishedwidely on
Libya.
Notes:
-
7/31/2019 The Jamestown Foundation_ Political Islam in Libya
3/3
1. Al-Hajj Faraj al-Najar: Ikhwan Libyia fi Ayoun al Misreen.
[Libyan Brothers through Egyptian Eyes]. 21 December2004. Available
in Arabic on www.ikhwanonline.com.
2. Aymad al-Banani: Al-Ikhwan fi Libyia intisharoun hakiki ragma
al-tadyiq [The Brothers in Libya: Spreading DespiteOppression.] 10
February 2005. www.pi-libya.com.
3. Sheikh Abu Munder Sami al-Saidi fi likah khas ma'a majallat
bayarak al-majd al-Islamiyah [Sheikh Abu Munder Samial-Saidi in a
special interview with the Islamic Magazine, Bayarek al-Majd].
Undated Available
onwww.almuqatila.com/interviews/munzarbayareq.htm.
4. Noman bin Othman: Al-hal al-Libyia wa muatayat al-Islah wal
tagir [The Libya situat ion and prospects for reform andchange] 11
April 2004. www.akhbar-libya.com.
5. The Shia Strategy in Iraq and Pakistan. Zafar Hashmi. 22
January 2005. Available
onwww.shianews.com/hi/articles/politics/0000400.php.
TweetTweet
1
Like 0
Email this article to a friend
The Jamestown Foundation
1111 16th St. NW, Suite #320, Washington, DC 20036
Phone: 202.483.8888 | Fax: 202.483.8337 | [email protected]
2012 The Jamestown Foundation
mailto:[email protected]://vimeo.com/user5484625/videoshttp://www.jamestown.org/index.php?id=subscribegeneralhttp://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Jamestown-Foundation/106920576037705http://twitter.com/JamestownTweetshttp://www.jamestown.org/sentofriend/http://www.shianews.com/hi/articles/politics/0000400.phphttp://www.almuqatila.com/interviews/munzarbayareq.htmhttp://twitter.com/search?q=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2FhGpoHphttps://twitter.com/intent/tweet?original_referer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.jamestown.org%2Fprograms%2Fgta%2Fsingle%2F%3Ftx_ttnews%255Btt_news%255D%3D306%26tx_ttnews%255BbackPid%255D%3D180%26no_cache%3D1&related=%3A&source=tweetbutton&text=Political%20Islam%20in%20Libya&url=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2FhGpoHp
