{"id":46136,"date":"2012-06-24T12:59:27","date_gmt":"2012-06-24T12:59:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=46136"},"modified":"2012-06-24T12:59:28","modified_gmt":"2012-06-24T12:59:28","slug":"libya-democracy-clashes-with-fervor-for-jihad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/libya-democracy-clashes-with-fervor-for-jihad\/","title":{"rendered":"Libya Democracy Clashes With Fervor For Jihad"},"content":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0David D. Kirkpatric<\/a>k – The New York Times –<\/p>\n

DARNAH, Libya \u2014 Abdul-Hakim al-Hasadi first took up arms nearly 20 years ago to try to bring Islamic law to Libya. He studied under the\u00a0Taliban<\/a>\u00a0in Afghanistan, and during last year\u2019s uprising he led a local militia council here in a city famous as a cradle of Islamic jihad<\/p>\n

But now Mr. Hasadi has refashioned himself as an eager politician running for local office, looking to the ballot box to promote his Islamic values. \u201cThere is no reason for weapons now,\u201d he said. \u201cWords are our weapons. Politics needs politics. It doesn\u2019t need force.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Portraits of people killed in the uprising hang in a mosque in Darnah, a town known as a cradle of Islamic jihad, but where many have put their faith in elections.\/Photo Nicole Tung for The New York Times<\/p><\/div>\n

In the same town,\u00a0Sufian bin Qumu<\/a>leads a militia that flies the black flag of militant Islam. A former truck driver for Osama bin Laden who spent six years as a prisoner at Guant\u00e1namo Bay, Cuba, Mr. Qumu says the Koran is the only constitution he knows. He insists that he will remain armed until Libya adopts a Taliban-style Islamic government.<\/p>\n

\u201cI lived in Kabul, in Afghanistan, when it was under Islamic law,\u201d he said approvingly in a recent local radio broadcast that has been his only public statement. \u201cIf an Islamic state is established here, I will join it.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an unfolding contest here over the future of the Islamist movement, Mr. Hasadi\u2019s vision of peaceful change appears ascendant. For the West, his success may represent the greatest promise of the Arab Spring, that political participation could neutralize the militant strand of Islam that has called thousands to fight and die in places like Iraq and Afghanistan.<\/p>\n

That hope for democracy, however, is now imperiled by lawlessness in Libya, signs of sectarian war in Syria and military rule in Egypt. In Egypt, especially, the generals\u2019 attempts to thwart an Islamist electoral victory could validate militant arguments about the futility of democratic reform.<\/p>\n

Some in the West fear militants will find new staging grounds. In Darnah, which the United States Army says sent more jihadis to fight the United States in Iraq than any other town its size, Mr. Qumu and other militants still command a following, according to local officials and residents. Many blame Islamist militants for a spate of violent crimes, including the bombing of Mr. Hasadi\u2019s empty Mercedes-Benz.<\/p>\n

But many former jihadis here say they have put their faith in elections, starting with a vote for a Libyan national assembly expected next month.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want our politics to be like Israel,\u201d said Mosab Benkamaial, 25, referring to the Jewish state\u2019s melding of religious identity and electoral democracy. Mr. Benkamaial, who was captured by United States troops in Baghdad, now runs Darnah\u2019s most popular restaurant, a kebab grill called Popeye\u2019s.<\/p>\n

Other prominent Libyans who once traveled abroad to fight in the name of Islam are also moving in the same direction.\u00a0Abdel Hakim Belhaj<\/a>\u00a0led an Islamist insurgency in Libya, fought the Soviets in Afghanistan and later joined the Taliban before the C.I.A. captured him in Malaysia. The leader of the Tripoli Military Council, he has founded a political party modeled after Turkey\u2019s loosely Islamic governing party.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are not an Islamist party,\u201d said Anas al-Sharif, a former spokesman for the Islamist insurgency.<\/p>\n

There are, however, still signs of division among Darnah\u2019s jihadis. During last year\u2019s rebellion, graffiti proclaimed \u201cNo to Al Qaeda.\u201d Now the word \u201cno\u201d is blacked out. A few weeks ago, after Mr. Hasadi spoke at a mosque about the coming elections, militants blew up his car.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor sure we have extremists,\u201d said Mohamed el-Mesori, 52, who leads the local governing council. \u201cThere are people who are not with Hasadi because he speaks about democracy and elections,\u201d he said, adding: \u201cSufian bin Qumu is not yet convinced of that, but we think he is open. People are trying to show him that this is the only way to convince people of your ideas.\u201d<\/p>\n

Surrounded by mountains pocked with deep caves, Darnah has been a natural center of guerrilla resistance since the\u00a0Ottoman Empire<\/a>. In the 1980s, some of its young men joined the fight against the Soviets in Afghanistan, then returned in the 1990s to form the core of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, which for a brief time threatened Colonel Muammar el-Qaddafi.<\/p>\n

After its defeat, many, including Mr. Qumu and Mr. Hasadi, fled to Afghanistan.<\/p>\n

Most remain deeply suspicious of the West. \u201cSo far I have never seen anything good in American politics,\u201d said Mr. Benkamaial, the restaurateur, who spent years in a United States-run prison in Iraq.<\/p>\n

Approached by a Libyan intermediary working for The New York Times, Mr. Qumu shouted \u201cGo to hell!\u201d through his door. \u201cI was in Guant\u00e1namo for six years, and the Americans weren\u2019t interested in talking to me! Why would I talk to an American now?\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Qumu, who completed only the seventh grade, was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 1993 for a drug crime. He escaped, according to government records, and fled to Sudan, where he first fell in with Bin Laden.<\/p>\n

He was captured in 2002 by Pakistani intelligence and taken to\u00a0Guant\u00e1namo Bay<\/a>. In 2008, he was transferred to a Libyan prison.<\/p>\n

Now Mr. Qumu has become a lightning rod for fears of renewed Islamist violence, especially among followers of unconventional schools of Islam.<\/p>\n

Ultraconservatives who sat out the revolt for religious reasons say they live in fear of the armed jihadis. \u201cMy heart is in pain,\u201d said an ultraconservative imam, speaking on the condition of anonymity.<\/p>\n

Sufis \u2014 Muslim mystics \u2014 say militants destroyed their place of worship. One prominent Sufi psychiatrist said that Mr. Qumu visited to argue about Islamic law on beards. \u201cGrandiose,\u201d said the doctor, Monsifa Moussa.<\/p>\n

When Mr. Qumu appeared on the radio program in January, callers accused him of ordering killings and harboring foreign fighters, and they demanded to know why he had not taken a more active role in civic life like Mr. Hasadi. \u201cWhat is it about the city that Sheik Sufian doesn\u2019t like?\u201d one asked.<\/p>\n

He pleaded for acceptance, reminding callers of his years in isolation in Guant\u00e1namo Bay. \u201cIf I speak about it now, you will not hold your tears.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said he did not order killings \u2014 \u201cYou have to be an emir to give such orders\u201d \u2014 and would never force women to wear a veil. \u201cOut of the question!\u201d<\/p>\n

It is impossible to know how many in Darnah stand behind Mr. Qumu. But some former jihadis and others in their milieu seem embarrassed by his views. \u201cThey think they are the only real Muslims in the city,\u201d said Faris el-Ghariani, 32.<\/p>\n

Others were open to compromise, like bending the current prohibition to allow alcohol in tourist hotels. \u201cWe want Islamic law, but we also want help from the West,\u201d said Mahir el-Musmari, 37, who traveled to Iraq to fight after the American invasion. \u201cWe will have to meet halfway.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Hasadi, the jihadi turned politician, boasted that he had just asked a woman to become his fourth wife. He recommended that the West try Islamic corporal punishments, like cutting off thieves\u2019 hands, as a deterrent.<\/p>\n

But he is trying to broaden his appeal. Once a schoolteacher, he leads prayers at a local mosque, hosts television and radio programs and courts the local and international news media. He says the Taliban were wrong to restrict the careers of women (they will vote in Libya).<\/p>\n

He and Mr. Qumu remain friends, Mr. Hasadi said, and he was working on persuading Mr. Qumu to trust in democracy and lay down his weapons, or at least take down the jihadi flag over his compound.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou are sullying our image,\u201d Mr. Hasadi said he had told him. \u201cIt is fine to have that flag, but if it scares people, why do you have it? You can\u2019t do anything. Why not leave this place?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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