#this is of course not talking about modern day salafism

[islam-and-u]

reading about Salafi history is so interesting

what do you mean you were kinda cool (not fully, but definitely some based ideas) but then one dude got a little too into wahabism and so created a whole knew version of salafism which went against original salafism what

what do you mean you were originally a political movement against western imperialism and the authoritarian-esque hiearchies within sufism and spent most of your time preaching for rational discussions and scientific innovation but that was stopped cause OF ONE FRICKING DUDE

idk it's just so funny that the salafi movement's entire point was "lets do stuff from the past" which is textbook conservative but then the stuff in the past was "science is amazing and i love reframing my worldview with every new discovery" which is textbook progressive.

(I do think they're wrong btw, i just think they had a few good ideas sprinkled amongst the weird stuff)

[lovehardenemycollector]

If you recognize the term “Wahhabi” or “Wahhabism,” the conservative state religion of Saudi Arabia, it’s probably because of 9/11. It was in the wake of that attack that institutions like Freedom House began to publish reports about “Wahhabi ideology” that seemed to provide some intellectual context for a senseless event. The same goes for Salafism, for which there wasn’t even a standard spelling in 2001: The Guardian went with “Salafee” in one post-9/11 article.Trump Administration Preps New Weapons Sale To Saudi ArabiaThe terms still tend to be tossed around by non-Muslims, with renewed vigor after the rise of ISIS, as examples of a “fundamentalist Islam” promoted by Saudi Arabia, which vaguely corrupted the Muslim world and was often embraced by jihadi terrorists. But understanding Saudi religion, and what it did abroad, requires considerably more nuance. It’s true that, for decades, the Saudis used their austere religious vision as a tool of soft power to promote their interests around the world among Arabs and also in Indonesia, in Nigeria, in Kosovo and almost anywhere else with a sizeable Muslim community. But over the course of six decades, the faith the Saudis spent so lavishly to spread had unpredictable effects on the ground, and its most violent apostles actually turned against the kingdom.The Saudi brand started to deteriorate during the Gulf War of 1990–1991, when non-Muslim U.S. troops were accepted on the holy soil of Arabia in order to protect it from Saddam Hussein. That move, and the perceived hypocrisy of the Saudi clerics who greenlit it, dented Saudi Arabia’s cultivated image as a leader of Muslims everywhere. And it ended the golden age of Saudi dawa, which means literally “the call” or “invitation” to Islam, and refers more generally to proselytizing.But 9/11 was something else. Fifteen out of the 19 hijackers were Saudi nationals and popular opinion about the kingdom quickly soured. Just six months after the attack, 54 percent of Americans agreed that “the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is a state that supports terrorism.” The Gulf War was a blow to Saudi Arabia’s bid for leadership of the Muslim world, but 9/11 brought it to its knees.The 838-page-long joint inquiry by the House and Senate Intelligence Committees into the 9/11 attacks published in 2002 contains a long-suppressed 28-page section on Saudi financing that was only declassified in 2016 and found that some of the hijackers “were in contact with, and received support or assistance from, individuals who may be connected to the Saudi Government.”Something else happened while Saudi Arabia was in the spotlight: it experienced a 9/11 of its own. Al Qaeda, led by the ex-Saudi national Osama bin Laden, attacked major targets inside the kingdom, destroying a housing compound in Riyadh in 2003 and then Saudi oil fields in 2004.The stunned Saudi government set up a joint task force with the U.S. to investigate terrorist financing, and in May 2003, introduced banking regulations that temporarily stopped all private charities from sending funds abroad. These shock waves would be felt around the Muslim world, where Saudi charity had become an integral part of education and development. In 2003, the kingdom briefly considered recalling its religious attachés, diplomats under the Saudi Ministry of Religious Affairs, Dawa, and Guidance who oversaw dawa activities in about two dozen foreign countries. In 2004, a royal decree was issued to centralize all Islamic charities.Thus, 9/11 briefly imploded the transnational Saudi dawa apparatus. So when we talk about Saudi money today, it’s essential to keep this dynamic in mind; it is no longer accurate to refer to some kind of all-powerful, centralized, ideologically coherent global project. We need to appreciate it at face value: piecemeal, diluted, opportunistic. DEFINING DEFINITIONSSaudi Arabia’s mid-century ambitions to define orthodoxy in the Muslim world, fight revolutionary ideologies coming from Iran and Egypt, and support besieged Muslim minorities abroad stretched its global campaign, by the 1990s, into a project that frankly outpaced its capacities. For the eminent Saudi scholar Madawi al-Rasheed, who lives in self-imposed exile in London, the phenomenon of jihadis like Bin Laden, a Saudi citizen by birth, perfectly encapsulates the tension between the kingdom’s rhetoric to “obey their current rulers at home while at the same time fostering the spirit of jihad abroad.” That gets to the heart of why Saudi dawa has such chaotic effects outside the kingdom’s borders.Wahhabism is an ultraconservative religious movement founded by the fiery 18th-century Arabian preacher Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab. It focuses on removing idolatry and “deviations” in Islam, and after Ibn Abd al-Wahhab signed a pact with the royal House of Saud, it became the official religion of the family and their successive attempts to consolidate a state on the Arabian peninsula, the last of which came together in 1932 and is modern-day Saudi Arabia.Salafism, meanwhile, is a revivalist Sunni Islamic movement that seeks to return to the traditions of the salaf, the first three generations of Muslims in the seventh and eighth centuries. It came out of late 19th century Egypt, chiefly as a reaction to Western colonialism. In practice, Salafis and Wahhabis have a lot in common. Both religious currents tend to promote personal austerity as well as intolerance of other beliefs, not only those of Christians, Jews, Buddhists, but of Muslims who have not embraced what they consider the true faith. Shia Muslims are a particular target. Wahhabism is highly linked to Saudi royal authority, which makes little sense outside the Gulf, so Saudi dawa tends to create Salafi communities abroad.Inside Saudi Arabia, as proved most recently by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s brash moves to modernize civil society, the state can rein in the excesses of the Wahhabi clerics if it thinks that is necessary. Outside, Saudi-promoted Salafi movements are much harder to control.Does Saudi dawa actively create terrorists? Sometimes, but in very specific conditions, like the Afghan jihad, when it sponsored people including Abdullah Azzam and Osama bin Laden. Has Saudi dawa inspired terrorists, jihadists, and extremists? Much more broadly, yes. But they are a subset of a broader universe. “Salafi-jihadism,” the strain of violent Salafism that includes al Qaeda, Boko Haram, ISIS, and others typically draws from a larger pool of nonviolent Salafis in a given region, and those broad communities often have direct connections to Saudi dawa. The most infamous Salafi-jihadist group, ISIS, rose to global prominence claiming to be the world’s true Wahhabi state, and it set up its own printing press in Mosul in 2014 to publish Ibn Abd al-Wahhab’s texts, much to Saudi Arabia’s chagrin. The surprisingly widespread phenomenon of hardline Muslims destroying ancient holy sites, from Palmyra to Timbuktu, also follows a distinctly Wahhabi logic of eliminating occasions for “idolatry” and “polytheism” by razing shrines and tombs. ISIS is the worst offender, but non-jihadists do this, too: in Bale, Ethiopia, Saudi-affiliated fundamentalists destroyed more than 30 Sufi shrines in the early 2000s. The world’s growing anti-Shia rhetoric, too, speaks in the distinctly Wahhabi language of “deviance” and “polytheism.” And even blasphemy convictions often echo the Wahhabi logic of takfir, “excommunicating” improper Muslims. Even if Saudi officials occasionally decry the violent effects of past dawa, they are in an awkward position, given that these actions are completely in accordance with the ideas of the most famous Saudi preacher of all time.Nigeria is an instructive example. ‘PRESERVING VIRTUE’In December 2015, Abdullahi Muhammad Musa crammed into a sedan with six relatives for the five hour drive from Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, to the northern state of Zaria to celebrate Quds Day, the international expression of solidarity with Palestine. Abdullahi, 32, made it back to Abuja alive. But all the rest in that car, and at least 340 other civilians, were gunned down by the Nigerian military in what is now known as the Zaria Massacre. All were followers of an outspoken Shia group, the Islamic Movement in Nigeria, that has long been under attack by Sunnis, Salafis, and the state. As in many other parts of the Muslim world, this anti-Shia sentiment was fueled by Saudi-oriented Salafis. But in Nigeria, it’s taken an especially deadly turn. It’s estimated that roughly half of Nigeria’s 191 million people are Muslim, although religious demographics are so contentious that the question has not been posed on the census since 1963. The country is a huge arena for global contests over Islamic dogma, and in such a volatile religious climate, the rise of Saudi-affiliated Salafism stirred things up, and then spiraled in unpredictable directions.Saudi Arabia started its outreach to West Africa shortly after Nigeria won independence from British rule in 1960. Within a decade, a generation of Salafis emerged in northern Nigeria, whose Muslims had, until then, been predominantly Sufi or non-denominational. Salafis created the Izala movement for “preserving virtue” and were influential in deciding the shape of sharia, Islamic law, which was implemented across the north of Nigeria starting in 1999. The most infamous Nigerians to identify as Salafis are the members of Boko Haram, the Salafi-jihadist group responsible for hundreds of terror attacks and the kidnapping of thousands of schoolchildren since 2009. At one point, in 2015, Boko Haram even surpassed ISIS as the world’s deadliest terror group. But it did not emerge in a vacuum. The founder of Boko Haram, Muhammad Yusuf, studied with the most prominent Saudi-educated Salafi in Nigeria, Jafar Mahmud Adam, and even briefly sought refuge, like many Islamists under fire, in Saudi Arabia itself.The Salafi-jihadism of Boko Haram, although an extreme fringe, emerged from the rich Salafi tapestry that was woven in Nigeria over the previous half century. Since the 1960s, Saudi outreach cultivated deep personal contacts in the postcolonial nation and seeded opportunities to study in the kingdom. The resulting Salafis have clashed with both the reigning Sufi orders and the parallel, Iran-affiliated Shia movement. Some have been mainstreamed into government positions, while others laid the ideological groundwork for Boko Haram. BOKO HARAMIn April 2014, Boko Haram boldly kidnapped 276 female students from their school in Chibok, in the northeastern state of Borno. The event horrified observers inside Nigeria and around the world, who were stunned at the inability of the state to protect the girls or to negotiate effectively with the terrorist group (112 of the 276 girls are still missing). In more recent incidents, Boko Haram has kidnapped over 1,000 children since 2018 and, as recently as 2018, abducted 110 more girls from the town of Dapchi. Even during one of my visits in May 2019, a handful of staffers were kidnapped from a girls’ school in Zamfara State. Easily the most infamous Islamic movement in northern Nigeria today, Boko Haram also has contributed to a devastating regional famine by preventing farmers from planting crops and blocking access to Lake Chad. Since Boko Haram styles itself as a Salafi-jihadist group, it begs the question of how closely it is linked with the greater Salafi movement in the region, and of whether that Salafi movement would have flourished in northern Nigeria without Saudi dawa. In a word, the answer is no. Saudi proselytizing has been integral to Salafism in northern Nigeria, and Boko Haram’s ideology directly springs from the Salafi corpus spread there by Saudi-educated Nigerian preachers. But in an ironic twist, the majority of mainstream Nigerian Salafis oppose the jihadi group and have even tried to wage public debates with its leaders, albeit to little effect. The resulting situation is typical of what Saudi proselytizing often looks like in the wild, rife with unstable by-products. Boko Haram has praised al Qaeda and it pledged allegiance to ISIS in 2015, but it remains more a localized insurgency than a transnational jihadist group. In fact, it existed for six years as a nonviolent fundamentalist group and only turned violent in 2009, when its founder was killed. Its context is deeply local to Maiduguri, the northeastern state where it is headquartered. And Salafism would never have entered Maiduguri were it not for a preacher named Jafar Adam, the most popular and charismatic Saudi educated Salafi in modern Nigeria. He founded a group called Ahl Al-Sunna, which considered itself more purely Salafi, and less tainted with politics, than Izala had become by the new millennium. And Adam’s star student was a young man named Muhammad Yusuf. Adam even appointed him to lead Ahl Al-Sunna’s youth wing. But just as Adam branched off from Izala in a more hardline direction, so Yusuf did to Adam, whom he rejected as insufficiently Islamic.In 2007, Yusuf published the foundational manifesto of Boko Haram: “This is our creed and method of proclamation,” which mostly consisted of quotations from Saudi Salafi texts. Boko Haram was not his own name for the group. He called it Jama’at Ahl as-Sunnah lid-Dawah wa’l Jihad, the Group of the People of the Sunnah for Preaching and Jihad. Nigerian media came up with the shorter cognomen, which captured Yusuf’s central idea that Western education, or “Boko” in Hausa, was forbidden. This newer, even more charismatic breakaway movement drew hundreds of young people. Everyone in Maiduguri knew Yusuf and vice versa. “Once I met him in a gas station and he instantly recognized me and asked whether I was still part of the army of Satan,” one resident told me. Yusuf eventually attracted thousands of followers across the northeastern states and even from neighboring Niger, Chad, and Cameroon. But within a few years, this volatile Salafi coterie headquartered in Maiduguri became an ouroboros, the snake that eats its own tail. In 2007, Jafar Adam, the most influential Saudi-educated nonviolent Salafi preacher of the decade, was assassinated under mysterious circumstances—most likely on the directive of Boko Haram. And then, in 2009, Boko Haram clashed with the Nigerian military amid allegations it was building bombs. One thousand people died, 700 in Maiduguri alone. Among them was Muhammad Yusuf, who was interrogated by police and then executed. The heavy-handed military confrontation was the proximate cause for Boko Haram’s turn toward violence, but in the bigger picture, it’s obvious that Boko Haram could not have formed as a group, nor attracted its popular base across multiple states without its ideological background and the charismatic Salafi preachers at its core. Boko Haram’s material links to Saudi and Gulf actors are basically opportunistic. Around 2002, Osama bin Laden reportedly sent an aide to Nigeria with $3 million to distribute among local groups including Boko Haram. In 2015, Boko Haram switched allegiance to the Islamic State and restyled itself as the “Islamic State in West Africa.” It’s worth noting that, in its current, violent iteration, Boko Haram considers Saudi Arabia to be a state of unbelief. Under the leadership of Abubakar Shekau, who took over from Yusuf in 2009, Boko Haram declared its enmity toward literally every other Islamic group and entity imaginable, including the Sufis, Shia, Izala, the Nigerian government, and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. In a video message filmed in December 2014, Shekau, holding a rifle that he periodically shot off to punctuate his address for emphasis, screamed, “The Saudi state is a state of unbelief, because it is a state that belongs to the Saud family, and they do not follow the Prophet … the Saudi Arabians, since you have altered Allah’s religion, you will enter hellfire!” Saudi Arabia was the site of an attempted negotiation between Boko Haram and the Nigerian state in 2012 to 2013. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the peace talks held there did not make much headway.Given the persistent rifts and splintering among Nigerian Salafis, it’s not surprising that Boko Haram experienced its own internal split in 2016, where a rival named Abu Musab al-Barnawi made a bid for leadership over Shekau and linked his faction more closely with ISIS. There’s no chance Saudi Arabia foresaw any of these chaotic effects back in 1965, when its dawa outreach to Nigeria started. Indeed, it’s likely that every successive splintering of Nigerian Salafism became more and more distant from the original Saudi soft power project, which was formed on close personal contacts between Nigerian and Saudi leaders, but became more localized over time. Spreading such a charged ideology abroad was like opening a can of worms. It’s why so many jihadist groups today prize Wahhabi theology and revile the kingdom itself. Thus the central paradox today: even if Saudi Arabia is embarrassed by its reputation for spreading extremism and the unsavory effects of its campaign, it’s not really a problem the Saudis can solve anymore.This excerpt is adapted from The Call: Inside the Global Saudi Religious Project, by Krithika Varagur.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

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[beyondvisualgeopolitic]

<p><img data-attachment-id="2620" data-permalink="https://beyondvisualgeopoliticcom.wordpress.com/2018/03/22/there-is-more-going-on-in-zuwara-libya-than-people-trafficking-slavery-and-crime-and-its-all-revolving%e2%80%8b-around-israel/screen-shot-2018-03-22-at-00-36-57/" data-orig-file="https://beyondvisualgeopoliticcom.files.wordpress.com/2018/03/screen-shot-2018-03-22-at-00-36-57.png?w=474" data-orig-size="252,167" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="Screen Shot 2018-03-22 at 00.36.57" data-image-description="" data-medium-file="https://beyondvisualgeopoliticcom.files.wordpress.com/2018/03/screen-shot-2018-03-22-at-00-36-57.png?w=474?w=252" data-large-file="https://beyondvisualgeopoliticcom.files.wordpress.com/2018/03/screen-shot-2018-03-22-at-00-36-57.png?w=474?w=252" class=" size-full wp-image-2620 aligncenter" src="https://beyondvisualgeopoliticcom.files.wordpress.com/2018/03/screen-shot-2018-03-22-at-00-36-57.png?w=474" alt="Screen Shot 2018-03-22 at 00.36.57" srcset="https://beyondvisualgeopoliticcom.files.wordpress.com/2018/03/screen-shot-2018-03-22-at-00-36-57.png 252w, https://beyondvisualgeopoliticcom.files.wordpress.com/2018/03/screen-shot-2018-03-22-at-00-36-57.png?w=150 150w" sizes="(max-width: 252px) 100vw, 252px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>The new Flag of the Amazigh in Zuwarah western Libya. Zuwarah is best known for the people trafficking, migrants dying in the sea long with other crimes that Western Media never publishes. Smuggling. Oil Smuggling, Drug smuggling, Arms smuggling. Those that don’t know Libya and the Religion that dominates it are Gaslighted by Western Mass Media emanating from culturally ignorant USA, but the many who know these days the state of the Education system in that dangerous Country still mop up the Propaganda.</p> <p>The Amazigh are a minority in Libya, and like other tribes spread across the region, they are not limited to Libya. They stretch across Tunisia, Algeria and into Morocco. Like the Kurds in Syria, Turkey, Iraq and Iran, they are not a Country, never have been and this is not actually their flag or even representative of them. And they are now claiming a very large area, Zionist backed of course, and it is not inhabited either by their religion or their customs.</p> <p><img data-attachment-id="2621" data-permalink="https://beyondvisualgeopoliticcom.wordpress.com/2018/03/22/there-is-more-going-on-in-zuwara-libya-than-people-trafficking-slavery-and-crime-and-its-all-revolving%e2%80%8b-around-israel/tamazgha_map/" data-orig-file="https://beyondvisualgeopoliticcom.files.wordpress.com/2018/03/tamazgha_map.jpg?w=474" data-orig-size="720,432" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="tamazgha_map" data-image-description="" data-medium-file="https://beyondvisualgeopoliticcom.files.wordpress.com/2018/03/tamazgha_map.jpg?w=474?w=300" data-large-file="https://beyondvisualgeopoliticcom.files.wordpress.com/2018/03/tamazgha_map.jpg?w=474?w=474" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-2621" src="https://beyondvisualgeopoliticcom.files.wordpress.com/2018/03/tamazgha_map.jpg?w=474" alt="tamazgha_map" srcset="https://beyondvisualgeopoliticcom.files.wordpress.com/2018/03/tamazgha_map.jpg?w=474 474w, https://beyondvisualgeopoliticcom.files.wordpress.com/2018/03/tamazgha_map.jpg?w=150 150w, https://beyondvisualgeopoliticcom.files.wordpress.com/2018/03/tamazgha_map.jpg?w=300 300w, https://beyondvisualgeopoliticcom.files.wordpress.com/2018/03/tamazgha_map.jpg 720w" sizes="(max-width: 474px) 100vw, 474px" /></p> <p>They refer to their co-inhabitants as “Arab Fake Brothers”. And they intend to take this entire area. And of course, the Zionists just love it. Bernard Levy is in the background as he has been since day one of the Libya Invasion. The Zionists love it because the Amazigh, instead of being a minority in Malaki Sunni dominated Libya is a remnant from the Battles of Nahrawan Khawarijj, along with Judaising. But instead of taking the Customs of ancient Pre Islamic people’s of the Region, such as the Tuareg (which Western Media claims are Amazigh but is not), this tiny minority, and indeed they are a tiny minority are misogynist and equal rights of women do not exist. Which contrasts extremely with Judaism.</p> <p>Every other Tribe of the Mahgreb and Sehel are Malaki. Tuareg – who have retained that ancient custom of revering women as leaders, the men covering their faces and not the women (to hide their handsomeness from wandering female eyes)….are Malaki Sunni. And the Amazigh are laying claim to every tribe and every region, and they never owned it in the first place. Their language is different. Their customs are different. And they are not Muslim.</p> <p>In the 18th Century they were the “Slave Traders”. Capturing their neighbours and selling them to the Imperialists. UK, the USA, in fact all European and Western countries that have the vile scar of Slave Trading in their history owe it to the Amazigh.</p> <p>They have a lot ethically ingrained into them over thousands of years that is actually not far away from the early Talmud of the Zionists. Slavery. Is one of the ideologies of the culture.</p> <p>They occupy a very small area of Western Libya. Zuwara and the Nafusa Mountains and although indigenous, they are certainly not the only people there in that region. Malaki, Sufi, in fact even in Zuwarah they are not a huge majority.</p> <p>Famous characters of the Libya War who are Amazigh reputedly include Abdel Hakim Belhaj who converted to a sort of Salafism. In fact the very presence of Amazigh can create pockets of conservatism and Khawarijj. In one way it is rebellion against them, and in another way it is similarities. For according to Islam they are not Muslims. And they are not. They have a history of proselytising aggressively and are in fact a mixture of Judaised Christian and many other fragments of their surroundings. From Pre Roman and Pre Greek times. They also do not recognise “Individual Property” and there is a saying in the Mahgreb:</p> <p>“Those who walk around the larder”.</p> <p>They are natural thieves and it’s a culture. They believe in taking and redistributing. They have a history of pulling down Empires. From the Nabateans to many others. Marauding and invading.</p> <p>And contrary to Western Mass Media they are a tiny minority in the region, across all of this region that they claim for themselves. The Tuareg, the Tebu, none of them are Amazigh as Western Zionist Mass Media claims. An Amazigh is not a Berber these days. Tuareg are Berber, so are Tebu. But they have been Malaki Sunni for up to 1000 years.</p> <p>Whether it is intentional of the USA or not, it could be just sheer ignorance. They just survey the entire area of a myriad of Tribes and assume they are all the same. But the costumes they wear as their heritage are not even the same. They look, act and dress nothing like the Tuareg – there are so few similarities it is like looking for a needle in a haystack. Their horsemanship perhaps, some of their musical instruments. But that is where it begins and ends. And their fate if they are not careful, is going to be the same as the Kurds historically. Harnessed by Zionists, used and then abandoned, because this is a very Zionist idea and its stupidity and simple-mindedness are not even scratching the surface of Zionist ignorance they try to project onto the rest of the World. No wonder Nicky Haley has been employed. Only she would buy it. Talking to Fake Leaders of fake Countries is her skill set.</p> <p>The Flag is relatively modern. Those who know Zionism and the Israelis will recognise the colours. for anyone who has studied “Colour and Form” they have chosen colours that are enticing. Desert, Green and Sky/Sea Blue. The red “Tuarect” in the middle of the Flag is actually from Chad. From an ancient Chadian Tribe. There is nothing Libyan about it.  And there are no similarities between them and the Chadians these days either.</p> <p>So what has this got to do with Israel and Nikky Haley? well of course Israel is always about establishing Countries from pre History, it makes their quest seem more normal. Not that Israel’s early Talmudic Quest is normal or Jewish. But that is the excuse they will use. For what the Amazigh of Zuwarah have been doing is the same as the Faliyye Kurds of Iraq. Desperately seeking assistance from Israel to take back all of the lands and so much more, as can be seen by the branding used in this article. And their marauding behaviour and lack of recognition of individual property is so Zionist it’s a match made in hell.</p> <p>David Gerbi is the man. The latest. He is Ex IDF and a representative of the “North African Jews” – replacing Raphael Luzon who in late 2017 was caught dealing with Gwell of the GNC Transitional Government and ensconced in Misrata. To set up an extra Iellgal Israeli State there.</p> <p>The UK Govt. David Cameron was all about reintroducing Jews to Libya. Arabs would like real Jews back for sure. In almost all of their Countries. So would Pakistan. But the problem is with these ignorant leaders of Countries, is their lack of Education. And the refusal to admit that Zionists are not Jews. Something else Zionists have in common with the Amazigh. Amazigh are Judaised Christians too. Subbotnik almost. But just older. More Ancient.</p> <p>And there is another problem. David Gerbi is selling the idea to Nikki Haley that Jews from the invasion of NAZIS in Mussolini’s day need their land back as he claims they were not compensated as they fled to Palestine (where they were welcomed and treated well as Refugees by the way)…….but this is simply not the Case. Under Gadaffi they were compensated magnanimously and it wasn’t requested, it was offered. So Israel, via David Gerbi and a couple of Agents in Zuwarah and Tripoli are telling lies. To spread the Zionist Imperialism to North Africa, along with IDF and US Military machine back- up.</p> <p>And if the last couple of years is anything to go by, with marauding Slavery and People Trafficking, Smuggling and other Crime (they don’t believe in individual property and they don’t believe in borders)- if the Zionists get their way things are only going to get a hundred times worse. Because Mr Amazigh who resides in Naluf is allying with Al Qaeda and ISIS, Ansar Al Islam to get his way. Via Al Swehly. The favoured US and UK backed Ex ISIS and Ex-Terrorist leader in Tripoli. Who has been taking trips to make deals with David Gerbi in Rome the past few months.</p> <p>And if you have a facebook account you can simply look for “David Gerbi” and find his facebook Page, and see it all going on for yourself.</p> <p>Libya will not tolerate this and the surrounding Countries certainly will not. But with Western Favouritism from grants to social projects, and a blind eye turned to marauding and thieving and criminal Slaving ways…………… the “Balkanisation” of all neighbouring Countries is on the Agenda, if Zionism doesn’t get its way then the Balkanisation of the entire Region is planned. And those Tribes across the Sehal and the Mahgreb and beyond into West Africa that have been traditionally Slave Traded for Centuries by the Amazigh will be used and abused in ways that the recent revelations in Libya across the Media in all it’s true ugliness will be a mere drop in the ocean.</p> There is more going on in Zuwara Libya than People Trafficking, Slavery and Crime. And it’s all revolving​ around Israel.

  The new Flag of the Amazigh in Zuwarah western Libya. Zuwarah is best known for the people trafficking, migrants dying in the sea long with other crimes that Western Media never publishes. Smuggling. Oil Smuggling, Drug smuggling, Arms smuggling. Those that don’t know Libya and the Religion that dominates it are Gaslighted by Western Mass Media emanating from culturally ignorant USA, but the many who know these days the state of the Education system in that dangerous Country still mop up the Propaganda.

The Amazigh are a minority in Libya, and like other tribes spread across the region, they are not limited to Libya. They stretch across Tunisia, Algeria and into Morocco. Like the Kurds in Syria, Turkey, Iraq and Iran, they are not a Country, never have been and this is not actually their flag or even representative of them. And they are now claiming a very large area, Zionist backed of course, and it is not inhabited either by their religion or their customs.

They refer to their co-inhabitants as “Arab Fake Brothers”. And they intend to take this entire area. And of course, the Zionists just love it. Bernard Levy is in the background as he has been since day one of the Libya Invasion. The Zionists love it because the Amazigh, instead of being a minority in Malaki Sunni dominated Libya is a remnant from the Battles of Nahrawan Khawarijj, along with Judaising. But instead of taking the Customs of ancient Pre Islamic people’s of the Region, such as the Tuareg (which Western Media claims are Amazigh but is not), this tiny minority, and indeed they are a tiny minority are misogynist and equal rights of women do not exist. Which contrasts extremely with Judaism.

Every other Tribe of the Mahgreb and Sehel are Malaki. Tuareg – who have retained that ancient custom of revering women as leaders, the men covering their faces and not the women (to hide their handsomeness from wandering female eyes)….are Malaki Sunni. And the Amazigh are laying claim to every tribe and every region, and they never owned it in the first place. Their language is different. Their customs are different. And they are not Muslim.

In the 18th Century they were the “Slave Traders”. Capturing their neighbours and selling them to the Imperialists. UK, the USA, in fact all European and Western countries that have the vile scar of Slave Trading in their history owe it to the Amazigh.

They have a lot ethically ingrained into them over thousands of years that is actually not far away from the early Talmud of the Zionists. Slavery. Is one of the ideologies of the culture.

They occupy a very small area of Western Libya. Zuwara and the Nafusa Mountains and although indigenous, they are certainly not the only people there in that region. Malaki, Sufi, in fact even in Zuwarah they are not a huge majority.

Famous characters of the Libya War who are Amazigh reputedly include Abdel Hakim Belhaj who converted to a sort of Salafism. In fact the very presence of Amazigh can create pockets of conservatism and Khawarijj. In one way it is rebellion against them, and in another way it is similarities. For according to Islam they are not Muslims. And they are not. They have a history of proselytising aggressively and are in fact a mixture of Judaised Christian and many other fragments of their surroundings. From Pre Roman and Pre Greek times. They also do not recognise “Individual Property” and there is a saying in the Mahgreb:

“Those who walk around the larder”.

They are natural thieves and it’s a culture. They believe in taking and redistributing. They have a history of pulling down Empires. From the Nabateans to many others. Marauding and invading.

And contrary to Western Mass Media they are a tiny minority in the region, across all of this region that they claim for themselves. The Tuareg, the Tebu, none of them are Amazigh as Western Zionist Mass Media claims. An Amazigh is not a Berber these days. Tuareg are Berber, so are Tebu. But they have been Malaki Sunni for up to 1000 years.

Whether it is intentional of the USA or not, it could be just sheer ignorance. They just survey the entire area of a myriad of Tribes and assume they are all the same. But the costumes they wear as their heritage are not even the same. They look, act and dress nothing like the Tuareg – there are so few similarities it is like looking for a needle in a haystack. Their horsemanship perhaps, some of their musical instruments. But that is where it begins and ends. And their fate if they are not careful, is going to be the same as the Kurds historically. Harnessed by Zionists, used and then abandoned, because this is a very Zionist idea and its stupidity and simple-mindedness are not even scratching the surface of Zionist ignorance they try to project onto the rest of the World. No wonder Nicky Haley has been employed. Only she would buy it. Talking to Fake Leaders of fake Countries is her skill set.

The Flag is relatively modern. Those who know Zionism and the Israelis will recognise the colours. for anyone who has studied “Colour and Form” they have chosen colours that are enticing. Desert, Green and Sky/Sea Blue. The red “Tuarect” in the middle of the Flag is actually from Chad. From an ancient Chadian Tribe. There is nothing Libyan about it.  And there are no similarities between them and the Chadians these days either.

So what has this got to do with Israel and Nikky Haley? well of course Israel is always about establishing Countries from pre History, it makes their quest seem more normal. Not that Israel’s early Talmudic Quest is normal or Jewish. But that is the excuse they will use. For what the Amazigh of Zuwarah have been doing is the same as the Faliyye Kurds of Iraq. Desperately seeking assistance from Israel to take back all of the lands and so much more, as can be seen by the branding used in this article. And their marauding behaviour and lack of recognition of individual property is so Zionist it’s a match made in hell.

David Gerbi is the man. The latest. He is Ex IDF and a representative of the “North African Jews” – replacing Raphael Luzon who in late 2017 was caught dealing with Gwell of the GNC Transitional Government and ensconced in Misrata. To set up an extra Iellgal Israeli State there.

The UK Govt. David Cameron was all about reintroducing Jews to Libya. Arabs would like real Jews back for sure. In almost all of their Countries. So would Pakistan. But the problem is with these ignorant leaders of Countries, is their lack of Education. And the refusal to admit that Zionists are not Jews. Something else Zionists have in common with the Amazigh. Amazigh are Judaised Christians too. Subbotnik almost. But just older. More Ancient.

And there is another problem. David Gerbi is selling the idea to Nikki Haley that Jews from the invasion of NAZIS in Mussolini’s day need their land back as he claims they were not compensated as they fled to Palestine (where they were welcomed and treated well as Refugees by the way)…….but this is simply not the Case. Under Gadaffi they were compensated magnanimously and it wasn’t requested, it was offered. So Israel, via David Gerbi and a couple of Agents in Zuwarah and Tripoli are telling lies. To spread the Zionist Imperialism to North Africa, along with IDF and US Military machine back- up.

And if the last couple of years is anything to go by, with marauding Slavery and People Trafficking, Smuggling and other Crime (they don’t believe in individual property and they don’t believe in borders)- if the Zionists get their way things are only going to get a hundred times worse. Because Mr Amazigh who resides in Naluf is allying with Al Qaeda and ISIS, Ansar Al Islam to get his way. Via Al Swehly. The favoured US and UK backed Ex ISIS and Ex-Terrorist leader in Tripoli. Who has been taking trips to make deals with David Gerbi in Rome the past few months.

And if you have a facebook account you can simply look for “David Gerbi” and find his facebook Page, and see it all going on for yourself.

Libya will not tolerate this and the surrounding Countries certainly will not. But with Western Favouritism from grants to social projects, and a blind eye turned to marauding and thieving and criminal Slaving ways…………… the “Balkanisation” of all neighbouring Countries is on the Agenda, if Zionism doesn’t get its way then the Balkanisation of the entire Region is planned. And those Tribes across the Sehal and the Mahgreb and beyond into West Africa that have been traditionally Slave Traded for Centuries by the Amazigh will be used and abused in ways that the recent revelations in Libya across the Media in all it’s true ugliness will be a mere drop in the ocean.

  The new Flag of the Amazigh in Zuwarah western Libya. Zuwarah is best known for the people trafficking, migrants dying in the sea long with other crimes that Western Media never publishes. Smuggling. Oil Smuggling, Drug smuggling, Arms smuggling. Those that don’t know Libya and the Religion that dominates it are Gaslighted by Western Mass Media emanating from culturally ignorant USA, but the many who know these days the state of the Education system in that dangerous Country still mop up the Propaganda.

The Amazigh are a minority in Libya, and like other tribes spread across the region, they are not limited to Libya. They stretch across Tunisia, Algeria and into Morocco. Like the Kurds in Syria, Turkey, Iraq and Iran, they are not a Country, never have been and this is not actually their flag or even representative of them. And they are now claiming a very large area, Zionist backed of course, and it is not inhabited either by their religion or their customs.

They refer to their co-inhabitants as “Arab Fake Brothers”. And they intend to take this entire area. And of course, the Zionists just love it. Bernard Levy is in the background as he has been since day one of the Libya Invasion. The Zionists love it because the Amazigh, instead of being a minority in Malaki Sunni dominated Libya is a remnant from the Battles of Nahrawan Khawarijj, along with Judaising. But instead of taking the Customs of ancient Pre Islamic people’s of the Region, such as the Tuareg (which Western Media claims are Amazigh but is not), this tiny minority, and indeed they are a tiny minority are misogynist and equal rights of women do not exist. Which contrasts extremely with Judaism.

Every other Tribe of the Mahgreb and Sehel are Malaki. Tuareg – who have retained that ancient custom of revering women as leaders, the men covering their faces and not the women (to hide their handsomeness from wandering female eyes)….are Malaki Sunni. And the Amazigh are laying claim to every tribe and every region, and they never owned it in the first place. Their language is different. Their customs are different. And they are not Muslim.

In the 18th Century they were the “Slave Traders”. Capturing their neighbours and selling them to the Imperialists. UK, the USA, in fact all European and Western countries that have the vile scar of Slave Trading in their history owe it to the Amazigh.

They have a lot ethically ingrained into them over thousands of years that is actually not far away from the early Talmud of the Zionists. Slavery. Is one of the ideologies of the culture.

They occupy a very small area of Western Libya. Zuwara and the Nafusa Mountains and although indigenous, they are certainly not the only people there in that region. Malaki, Sufi, in fact even in Zuwarah they are not a huge majority.

Famous characters of the Libya War who are Amazigh reputedly include Abdel Hakim Belhaj who converted to a sort of Salafism. In fact the very presence of Amazigh can create pockets of conservatism and Khawarijj. In one way it is rebellion against them, and in another way it is similarities. For according to Islam they are not Muslims. And they are not. They have a history of proselytising aggressively and are in fact a mixture of Judaised Christian and many other fragments of their surroundings. From Pre Roman and Pre Greek times. They also do not recognise “Individual Property” and there is a saying in the Mahgreb:

“Those who walk around the larder”.

They are natural thieves and it’s a culture. They believe in taking and redistributing. They have a history of pulling down Empires. From the Nabateans to many others. Marauding and invading.

And contrary to Western Mass Media they are a tiny minority in the region, across all of this region that they claim for themselves. The Tuareg, the Tebu, none of them are Amazigh as Western Zionist Mass Media claims. An Amazigh is not a Berber these days. Tuareg are Berber, so are Tebu. But they have been Malaki Sunni for up to 1000 years.

Whether it is intentional of the USA or not, it could be just sheer ignorance. They just survey the entire area of a myriad of Tribes and assume they are all the same. But the costumes they wear as their heritage are not even the same. They look, act and dress nothing like the Tuareg – there are so few similarities it is like looking for a needle in a haystack. Their horsemanship perhaps, some of their musical instruments. But that is where it begins and ends. And their fate if they are not careful, is going to be the same as the Kurds historically. Harnessed by Zionists, used and then abandoned, because this is a very Zionist idea and its stupidity and simple-mindedness are not even scratching the surface of Zionist ignorance they try to project onto the rest of the World. No wonder Nicky Haley has been employed. Only she would buy it. Talking to Fake Leaders of fake Countries is her skill set.

The Flag is relatively modern. Those who know Zionism and the Israelis will recognise the colours. for anyone who has studied “Colour and Form” they have chosen colours that are enticing. Desert, Green and Sky/Sea Blue. The red “Tuarect” in the middle of the Flag is actually from Chad. From an ancient Chadian Tribe. There is nothing Libyan about it.  And there are no similarities between them and the Chadians these days either.

So what has this got to do with Israel and Nikky Haley? well of course Israel is always about establishing Countries from pre History, it makes their quest seem more normal. Not that Israel’s early Talmudic Quest is normal or Jewish. But that is the excuse they will use. For what the Amazigh of Zuwarah have been doing is the same as the Faliyye Kurds of Iraq. Desperately seeking assistance from Israel to take back all of the lands and so much more, as can be seen by the branding used in this article. And their marauding behaviour and lack of recognition of individual property is so Zionist it’s a match made in hell.

David Gerbi is the man. The latest. He is Ex IDF and a representative of the “North African Jews” – replacing Raphael Luzon who in late 2017 was caught dealing with Gwell of the GNC Transitional Government and ensconced in Misrata. To set up an extra Iellgal Israeli State there.

The UK Govt. David Cameron was all about reintroducing Jews to Libya. Arabs would like real Jews back for sure. In almost all of their Countries. So would Pakistan. But the problem is with these ignorant leaders of Countries, is their lack of Education. And the refusal to admit that Zionists are not Jews. Something else Zionists have in common with the Amazigh. Amazigh are Judaised Christians too. Subbotnik almost. But just older. More Ancient.

And there is another problem. David Gerbi is selling the idea to Nikki Haley that Jews from the invasion of NAZIS in Mussolini’s day need their land back as he claims they were not compensated as they fled to Palestine (where they were welcomed and treated well as Refugees by the way)…….but this is simply not the Case. Under Gadaffi they were compensated magnanimously and it wasn’t requested, it was offered. So Israel, via David Gerbi and a couple of Agents in Zuwarah and Tripoli are telling lies. To spread the Zionist Imperialism to North Africa, along with IDF and US Military machine back- up.

And if the last couple of years is anything to go by, with marauding Slavery and People Trafficking, Smuggling and other Crime (they don’t believe in individual property and they don’t believe in borders)- if the Zionists get their way things are only going to get a hundred times worse. Because Mr Amazigh who resides in Naluf is allying with Al Qaeda and ISIS, Ansar Al Islam to get his way. Via Al Swehly. The favoured US and UK backed Ex ISIS and Ex-Terrorist leader in Tripoli. Who has been taking trips to make deals with David Gerbi in Rome the past few months.

And if you have a facebook account you can simply look for “David Gerbi” and find his facebook Page, and see it all going on for yourself.

Libya will not tolerate this and the surrounding Countries certainly will not. But with Western Favouritism from grants to social projects, and a blind eye turned to marauding and thieving and criminal Slaving ways…………… the “Balkanisation” of all neighbouring Countries is on the Agenda, if Zionism doesn’t get its way then the Balkanisation of the entire Region is planned. And those Tribes across the Sehal and the Mahgreb and beyond into West Africa that have been traditionally Slave Traded for Centuries by the Amazigh will be used and abused in ways that the recent revelations in Libya across the Media in all it’s true ugliness will be a mere drop in the ocean.

from There is more going on in Zuwara Libya than People Trafficking, Slavery and Crime. And it’s all revolving​ around Israel.

[keepyourgoodheart]

As one born in the Sunni tradition, I regretted not knowing much about Shi’ism. Not much, if not at all, was taught about the Shi’a tradition in my early religious instruction. This blind spot – of assuming that there is only one Islam: the Sunni version – has a consequence later on. I grew up in a period of rampant “Salafization” of Islamic discourse. Much was happening in the 1980s, brought about by the changing geopolitical landscape particularly after the Iranian Revolution and the counter-ideology led by Saudi Arabia. Given the absence of any religious instruction on Shi’ism within the Muslim tradition, it was easy for anti-Shi’a ideas to be sowed. While I was not anti-Shi’a, I had apprehensions about this branch within Islam: it can appear to be alien and even weird when compared to “mainstream” Islam.

It was not until my exposure to Islamic history and philosophy that led me to a new perspective on the evolving aspects of Islam, its deeply diverse nature, and the competing ideas of what we often essentialized as “tradition”. Shi’ism, like the emergence of other early theological movements (e.g. the Jabariyah, Qadariyah, Mu’tazila, etc) was born out of the sociopolitical context of a leadership crisis after the death of Prophet Muhammad. Knowing this aspect of history would banish any notion of “the perfect past”.

Demythologising history

It was my first lesson in the demythologising aspect of history. Two works had been deeply influential for me: Fazlur Rahman’s Methodology in Islamic History, and Majid Fakhry’s A History of Islamic Philosophy. Prior to this, and from my religious instruction, I had been taught Muslim history through an ideological and partisan lens of Sunni triumphalism that was firmed up and consolidated some three centuries after Islam’s emergence in Arabia. It was a time, as Fazlur Rahman contended when the term “Ahlus Sunnah wal Jama’ah” (People of the Prophetic Practices and of the Majority, or “Sunni” in short) became current. It was the orthodoxy that I learnt, not the formation of orthodoxy. This distinction is critical.

In much of my early religious instruction, the history of Islam was presented as a “glorious period”. The period of the Khulafa’ ar-Rasyidun (the Four Rightly Guided Caliphs – comprising, of Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman and ‘Ali – was idealised as the ���Golden Period”, otherwise known in Sunni version of history as the period of the “Salafussoleh” or the pious first three generation of the Prophet, his Companions and the companions of the Companions. Perhaps, it was the influence of Islamic modernism that emerged in the late 19th century that led to this particular worldview. There was a need then to make sense of the sorry state of the Muslim world under colonisation, hence, what the Muslims were experiencing was a degeneration of history. History was, according to this view, perfected during the time of the Prophet, and then it deteriorates. Modernists want to restore this glory.

Therefore, returning to the “Golden Period” is necessary. All solutions to the present problems lie in the past. And with the emergence of Islamism (a politicised form of Islam), the past was not just perfect; it was fossilised into forms that must be implemented in the present. The idea of “Syariah Law” (as understood by Islamists) is one example. I grew up into this worldview with the expansion of Islamism within the Malay world. It was known as the “dakwah movement”. In short, Islam became a political ideology.

As an ideology, complexities, contradictions and ambiguities were often shunned. The very idea of “Islam” must be made as a rallying call to mobilise Muslims. It also became a political identity. As an identity, there was a need to define Islam against what it is not. Just like politics, there were allies and enemies. The latter can be external or internal. While the external threat to Islam was made obvious (secularism, the Jews and Christians, and the all-encompassing “West”), the internal was amorphous, and hence, more dangerous. They were, I often heard, “bagai gunting di balik lipatan” (like scissors in the cloth’s folding), a Malay idiom to signify an unseen and dangerous threat that can stab you unknowingly – and Shi’as happened to be one of them!

Understanding divisions within Islam

Moving back to the idea of the Khulafa’ ar-Rasyidun, I came to realise later, that out of these four caliphs, three were murdered. In addition, the first major split in the early Muslim period occurred during this period when the Battle of Siffin that took place in 657 CE during the rule of Caliph ‘Ali. It gave rise to the proto-Shi’as (known as the Party of ‘Ali), as well as the first major extremist theological school within Islam known as the Khawarij or ‘those who left’. The seeds of the division had, however, occurred much earlier during the controversial rule of the third caliph, Uthman. So much for the “Golden Age”! One key text that was introduced to me, via the late Professor Syed Hussein Alatas, was Fitna al-Kubra (The Great Dissension) by the 19th-century Egyptian thinker, Taha Husayn. My overtures into early Islamic history would never be the same again.

It was my study into the divisions within early Islam that sets my appreciation for the diversity within Islam. My training in philosophy and my exposure to sociological thinking led me to identify the emergence of sects and schools of thought within Islam as located primarily in the social, economic and political context of the historical period in question. In short, I became less dogmatic about my own understanding of Islam. My own adherence to a particular form of Islam – the Sunni and Shafi’i form, as prevalent in the Malay world – was historically and sociologically conditioned, so had I been born elsewhere and in a different period of history, I might be a Muslim in a totally different way. More importantly, I do not get to choose where I would be born.

It is not unthinkable that I might be a Shi’a should I be born in Iran today, or probably a Mu’tazilite had I been born in the 9th century Baghdad at the height of the Abbasid rule. So, I questioned myself: why should I be insistent on a sectarian approach to Islam by upholding that only my Islam is correct while all other ways of knowing and relating to Islam is wrong? Am I – I asked myself one day – worshipping God or worshipping my own interpretation of God’s religion?

Slowly, I began to see Islam more as a manifestation of the divine mercy in the ebbs and flow of history, through different forms and expressions – all pointing to the One. My responsibility is to understand and make sense, to the best of my ability, of this deep diversity within Islam, and if it is a manifestation of divine mercy and wisdom, I must embrace and be at ease with it. After all, as the adage goes, differences of opinion within the community is a blessing (ikhtilaf ummati rahmah).

Shi’ism and the Malays

Apart from historical and philosophical studies, I was also a student of Malay literature. This was another window into which I began to discover Shi’i thought. In fact, I found it to be a historical betrayal to deny the role that Shi’as had played in the Southeast Asian region. One of the earliest surviving classical Malay texts was the 16th-century Hikayat Muhammad Hanafiyyah, a tale that described the murder of ‘Ali and the subsequent martyrdom of Husayn by the forces of Yazid in Karbala. Early Shi’a presence in the Malay world could also be seen through archaeological and linguistic records, some of which were discussed in two recent edited works: Chiara Formichi and Michael Feener’s Shi’ism in South East Asia, and Dicky Sofyan’s Sejarah dan Budaya Syiah di Asia Tenggara. [History and Culture of the Shi’as in Southeast Asia]

But while Shi’a presence was established in early Malay records, I had not been introduced properly to Malay Shi’as until 2009. I had, of course, interacted with scholars from Shi’a background, including the likes of Dr. Asghar Ali Engineer and Professor Abdulaziz Sachedina. I had also enjoyed readings works by Shi’a scholars and thinkers, such as Ali Shariati, Abdolkarim Soroush and Muhammad Husayn Tabataba’i. I was also exposed to the works of a progressive Indonesian Shi’a thinker, Jalaluddin Rakhmat.

In 2009, I had the opportunity to accompany Professor Sachedina (who was a guest of the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore) to the Jaafri Muslim Association (JMA), a local Shi’a organisation. While my contact then was primarily Shi’as of South Asian origin (they came to Singapore as merchants during the colonial period), it was in JMA that I encountered Malay Shi’as. These were Malays who became Shi’as after the Iranian Revolution. I had heard about their existence, but it was the first time that I met and even talked to one. Nothing extraordinary happened, of course, but my fear towards the Shi’as was reduced, and it was my first step towards encountering the Other – a Malay Shi’a. Essentially, it was a huge moment for me.

Two years later, I accepted a friend’s invitation to an Asyura (10th of Muharram) commemoration that was organised by a Malay Shi’ia organisation, Himpunan Belia Islam (Muslim Youth Assembly/HBI), which was held at the annexe building of the Sultan Mosque. The event was attended, mostly by Shi’a youths, but featured a dialogue segment between Ustaz Rosli from the Shi’a community and Professor Syed Farid Alatas from the Sunni. It was my first Sunni-Shi’a dialogue in Singapore, and I found the atmosphere respectful and the session informative.

To me, Asyura has always been about the religious ritual of fasting and partaking in a special Malay porridge known as bubur Asyura – but it dawned on me for the first time that something violent and tragic had occurred on this day of Asyura: an event that was never spoken of nor discussed by Muslims in general. It was as if the incident was too painful to be remembered; or willfully neglected to deny any form of responsibility on the part of the triumphant Umayyads (accepted as a legitimate caliphate by the Sunnis) for the killing of the Prophet’s grandson and a massacre of some 70 of his followers, including women and young children, in Karbala. My interest in this incident grew, and I would never again view Asyura in the same light. It was a period of mourning, not celebration.

Friendship with Shi’as

Ever since then, I began to meet more local Shi’as and developed friendship ties amongst a few. To me, Shi’as are no longer ‘the Other’ – objects of distant gazing and suspicion. Knowing a Shi’a at a personal level dispelled any misconception I once had. I was able to learn about Shi’ism from a first-hand source, and this is what we need in order to overcome the prejudice and misinformation that circulates among many Sunni Muslims in Singapore. Sadly, the local religious fraternity had a lot to do with this prejudice and misinformation.

It was just early this year that I overheard two members of a local Islamic institution discussing Shi’ism in a typically misinformed manner. One was making a remark about how Shi’as include the mention of ‘Ali’s name in the syahadah or declaration of faith, and another was making a statement about how the Shi’as have a different Qur’an. The latter was definitely untrue: Shi’as hold on to the same Qur’an as other Muslims. Regarding the syahadah, while it is true, the additional line is “Aliyun Waliyullah wasiyur Rasulullah” (‘Ali is the Wali/Friend of Allah and Successor to the Prophet) and reflect the oath of allegiance to ‘Ali and the Ahlul Bayt (Family of the Prophet); nothing more. Most Shi’a clerics would say that this additional line is not mandatory. If we were to understand the historical context of Shi’ism, we will understand why this additional line exists. There is nothing heretical about this.

Normalising difference

It is important to note that a meaningful encounter with a difference is, in itself, an important element in the development of an open and charitable embrace of the Other. My own experience had taught me to engage with difference, not to push it into hiding. The normalising difference is the only way that we can cultivate an embrace of diversity. Suppressing expressions of difference will only create an illusion of harmony where, in fact, we are merely imposing the dominant and majoritarian privilege while implicitly forcing the minority to conform to the dominant and the majority. This is where any expression of difference in public will be seen as destabilising.

I soon developed a realisation that it is the majority Sunnis who must extend the charitable hand to embrace the minority Shi’as amongst us. As the majority, we must ensure that the rights of our minority Shi’a brothers and sisters be protected; that they feel safe and not discriminated; and that they can be who they are without fear nor reprisals as equal citizens, and as fellow Muslims like us. But first, we must work towards building a bridge for Sunnis and Shi’as to interact within safe spaces. On this aspect, the formation of the MCollective in 2016 – a network of Singapore Muslim youths interested in bridging intra-faith relations – is a promising start. The network began by organising intrafaith iftar (breaking of fast meal) during Ramadan. It also organised forums where Muslim youths from different Muslim traditions gathered to deepen their understanding of each other’s perspectives and practices. I had my first experience of praying side-by-side a Shi’a brother, during one of the sessions. I felt at ease. We were facing the same qiblah.

Removing fear

One additional aspect is worth pointing out: the tendency to exoticise and peddle fear on what we are ignorant about. A year ago, a video was circulating, showing an Asyura commemoration in Singapore with local Shi’a youths reciting praises for ‘Ali while slapping their chest. It was deemed controversial and became an online viral, purportedly as “proof” of the Shi’as’ “deviant” practice. The reactions of the Sunnis were telling of their ignorance of why the Shi’as do this ritual and the historical amnesia of what actually happened in Karbala. It is like how some non-Muslims had developed an irrational fear of the wearing of the headscarf or the use of certain Arabic expressions in daily interactions. Such fear can be overcome if more informed voices can come out publicly to educate and counter the fearmongering by anti-Shi’a voices. But where should these informed voices come from? Why are they not forthcoming? And what can be done to cultivate and empower such voices?

I believe that there are reasonable people in the local Muslim community who need the right signals from people of authority. A few months ago, reports emerged about a Singaporean who wanted to travel to Syria to kill Shi’as who were considered as “deviants”. This is a worrying sign that anti-Shi’a rhetoric has reached a critical stage where some are driven to engage in violence. It is time that we acknowledge how dangerous sectarianism can be in the context of a deeply diverse society like Singapore. More importantly, we must recognise this diversity within the Muslim community itself and stop pretending that we are all identical, a monolithic Muslim community. If diversity is natural, we should educate people to be at ease with it; not to force everyone into a single mold and generate fear and prejudices towards those who belong to a different tradition or who subscribed to different ways of being a Muslim in today’s world.

Normalising this diversity is, therefore, crucial – along with the removal of fear and the building of bridges for deeper understanding. The more we suppress expressions of this diversity, the more we perpetuate prejudices and ignorance. We have learnt this lesson in inter-religious relations. Today, we are actively promoting interfaith work as a way to normalise differences in faith and to promote meaningful interactions and deeper understanding across the various religions. It is time we do the same for intrafaith relations, particularly within Islam.

Taking a stand for diversity

I am fortunate that I found a new way of relating to the diversity within Islam. It began with a historical consciousness that led to a shift in perspective. Through further active interactions with the Shi’as themselves and friendship ties that developed thereon, misconceptions were dispelled and my prejudices disappeared. For me, it boils down to one important lesson: we need to actively confront the problem of dehumanisation of those who are different from us. In this process, we will learn a little bit more about our own blind spots while we search for our common humanity in and through others.

Today, I will not stay silent when an untruth is spoken against Shi’ism in general. That is the very least that I can do as a fellow Muslim who acknowledges his Shi’a brothers and sisters as belonging to the same ummah. Sectarianism has no place in Singapore, nor anywhere in the world, and I hope more voices will emerge to provide guidance for a new generation of Muslim youths who are trying to make sense of diversity, while remaining vigilant of the rise of extremist discourses that are divisive and promoting a supremacist, exclusivist and monolithic version of Islam.