LNA’s complacency with movement risks contributing to the spread of extremism and the change of the religious identity of Libyan society.
Eastern Libya is being increasingly infiltrated by the Salafist movement, and the matter has become of great concern to the local population that views the members of this movement and its fatwas as alien to the cultural and religious environment as Libyan society is known for its moderation and its traditional ties to Sufism. In recent years, however, hardline fatwas have made their way into society.
This extremist current, represented by the Salafist-controlled Endowments Authority, is leading these days a campaign to combat sorcery, but this campaign is seen by many as nothing but an attempt to distract society from its basic problems and to undermine anti-corruption protests called for by activists who launched the Hirak demonstrations in Tripoli on August 23.
In a recent statement, the Endowments Authority presented a draft law on sorcery which it submitted to the deputy prime minister for endowment affairs, who will refer it to Prime Minister Abdullah Al-Thinni, who in turn is supposed to refer it later to the Parliament for approval.
The law stipulates the death penalty for anyone convicted of practicing sorcery and an unspecified prison term plus a fine for anyone who seeks the services of a sorcerer.
A source from Benghazi told The Arab Weekly that the statement published by the Endowments Committee with the draft law appears to be directed at the people, but in fact carries a message to the security services insisting on the necessity to implement this fatwa. The Minister of Interior in the Interim Government, Ibrahim Bushnaf, seems to have picked on this message and diplomatically rejected the contents of the statement.
The statement said that “the Libyan Penal Code did not address at all the crime of witchcraft and sorcery, for it was subsumed under fraudulent crimes addressed by Article 461.”
Bushnaf issued a statement that reflected an implicit rejection of this Salafist campaign and a veiled warning to the security services, which it has been repeatedly reported that some of them have been infiltrated by the Salafist movement and that they started implementing the law before its approval by the parliament.
Bushnaf sent a memo to the heads of the security services directing them to make sure that the members of the police force deal with cases of witchcraft and sorcery in accordance with the existing law.
In the memo, he explained the mechanisms of legal action needed in such cases, stressing that defending the interests of the social environment is a right and a duty, provided that it does not violate the provisions of the law in force or turn into a threat to the foundations of legitimacy or become a threat to the social system. Bushnaf indicated that “until the legislator intervenes to frame the fatwa attributed to the Supreme Ifta Committee, in particular, the matter must be dealt with according to the law in force.”
However, the source believes that the danger does not lie in the security services of the Ministry of Interior, but rather in the Salafist Tariq Bin Ziyad Battalion, which is allied with the Endowment Authority, and which uses force to stop any activity that the authority deems not permissible religiously.
The source, who declined to be identified for security reasons, added that this battalion is the indirect military arm of the Salafist movement in the eastern region and it is assumed that it receives its orders directly from the General Command of the Army.
This battalion, which is said to control mosques as well, committed a number of violations during the war against extremist groups in Benghazi, Derna and Tripoli, and harassed people and infringed on their freedoms. It had previously raided a women’s café in Benghazi and detained its workers.
The battalion also launched a campaign against books it said were “promoting secularism, pornography and atheism,” including books by the late Egyptian writer and Nobel laureate Naguib Mahfouz, Syrian writer Muhammad al-Maghout and German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche.
Observers view Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar’s overlooking these violations as a form of support for this battalion, which is one of the most powerful military battalions that the army relies on in its wars.
In early August, Haftar visited the Tariq Bin Ziyad Battalion, as part of his inspection of the Armed Forces units to determine their readiness, in a move that reflected the great rapprochement between the two parties.
This rapprochement is provoking the majority of the society who reject extremism, while observers warn of its repercussions that could contribute to the spread of extremism and the change of the religious identity of Libyan society, because such a rapprochement encourages those Libyans who are still wavering about their religious orientations to adopt Salafist ideology.
Eastern Libya is currently experiencing an unprecedented deterioration in living conditions, such as frequent power outages, high prices, scarcity of liquidity, and widespread poverty and unemployment.