Freed from Gaddafi, Libyan Sufis Face Violent Islamists

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By Tom Heneghan, Religion Editor

Tripoli–(Reuters)–Freed from Muammar Gaddafi’s 42-year dictatorship, Libya’s Sufi Muslims find themselves under renewed pressure from violent Islamists who have been attacking them and their beliefs as heretical.

The desecration of graves belonging to Sufi saints and sages in recent months have put the peaceful Sufis on the defensive, prompting some to post armed guards at their mosques and lodges to ward off hardline thugs.

But the birthday of Islam’s Prophet Mohammad, one of the highpoints in the Sufi calendar, is on Saturday and Libyan Sufis are determined to take their traditional processions through the streets to show they will not be cowed.

At a meeting of Sufi scholars to plan the celebrations, Sheikh Adl Al-Aref Al-Hadad said even being driven out of his zawiyah (Islamic school) late last year by Islamists known as Salafis would not deter him from marching.

“I’m worried but I’m not afraid,” said Al-Hadad, whose Tripoli school was stormed by armed men who burned its library, destroyed office equipment and dug up graves of sages buried there. They turned the school into a Salafi mosque.

On January 13, extremists crashed a bulldozer through the walls of the old cemetery in the eastern city of Benghazi, destroyed its tombs and carried off 29 bodies of respected sages and scholars. They also demolished a nearby Sufi school.

Sheikh Khaled Mohammad Saidan, whose Dargut Pasha Mosque faces Tripoli’s port, said most Islamists in post-Gaddafi Libya disagreed with Sufis, but peacefully. “But there are no police around and you never know what some people might do,” he added.

PIETY OR IDOLATRY?

Sufi lodges from around Tripoli will march on Saturday through narrow alleys of the walled old town, waving flags and chanting poems in praise of Mohammad to the beat of cymbals, drums and tambourines.

To the puritanical Salafis, these practices amount to bida (innovation) and shirk (idolatry), both grave sins that must be stopped, by force if necessary.

Sufism, a mystical strain in both Sunni and Shi’ite Islam, dates back to the early days of the faith. Apart from their prayers, Sufi devotions include singing hymns, chanting the names of God or dancing to heighten awareness of the divine.

Revered saints, scholars and holy people are buried in shrines and some are honored with annual pilgrimages. While many Islamic scholars say this is admissible, puritanical schools of Islam such as Saudi Arabia’s Wahhabis or the Afghan Taliban consider it heretical.

As pious and peaceful believers, Sufis have been easy targets for violent Islamists seeking political power. The Pakistani Taliban have attacked Sufi shrines and mosques there in recent years and Salafi attacks on Sufis broke out last year after Egypt’s protesters toppled President Hosni Mubarak.

GADDAFI’S BIZARRE ISLAM

Gaddafi had a bizarre and fickle relationship with Islam, using it when it boosted his authority but suppressing it whenever faith seemed to be the first step towards dissent. At one point in the 1980s, anyone going to morning prayers in a mosque risked arrest as a religious extremist.

The dictator denied there was a split between Sunnis and Shi’ites. He blew hot and cold on the Prophet’s birthday event known as Mawlid, sometimes limiting it in Libya but leading mass celebrations in African cities in his self-appointed role as a pan-African and pan-Islamic leader.

Traditional religious schools were shut and religious education was reduced to a few basics about Islam and heavy emphasis on memorizing the Koran.

Gaddafi even abolished the Dar al Ifta, the central authority for issuing religious rulings or fatwas, and Libya offered no such advice to its Muslims from 1978 until the office was restored after rebels chased him from power last August.

“He did everything but give people carpets and say pray to him rather than Allah,” one imam remarked.

All this undermined Libya’s traditional Islam, a balanced Sunni version with Sufi influences. Some Muslims began looking abroad for inspiration, especially to Saudi Arabia, and brought back a more austere Islam that mixed up the religious landscape.

“Nobody knows anymore what they are,” said Sufi theologian Aref Ali Nayed when asked what the majority was in Libyan Islam. “We have 42 years of Gaddafi to thank for that.”

OUTFLANKED POLITICALLY

Libya’s Sufis also worry they are being outflanked politically. Many new religious officials have Salafi leanings, they say, and are appointing Salafi imams to mosques vacated by pro-Gaddafi preachers. Salafi preaching is now widespread on Libyan television and radio, they say.

Salafis have also begun denouncing traditional imams to the authorities, prompting them to be replaced by hardliners. “About half the imams here have been replaced by Salafis,” said one imam at a large Tripoli mosque where Salafis in the congregation are campaigning against celebrating Mawlid.

Political parties are starting to form, including the Muslim Brotherhood. Libyan Salafis have not yet announced if they plan to launch a party and contest elections, as in Egypt.

Sheikh Mohammad Jafari, whose mosque is pockmarked from the fighting over Gaddafi’s Bab Al-Azizaya compound just across the street, said Sufis had to stand up for their beliefs.

“Sufis uphold the values of love and brotherhood,” he said. “We believe in dialogue and difference of opinions. We want to build a Libya of diversity.”

(Editing by Janet Lawrence)

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Huda’s Dream

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By Susan Schwartz, TMO

The Palestine Children’s Relief Fund (PCRF) is one of the world’s largest children’s charity and will be familiar to readers of The Muslim Observer for the humanitarian work it performs with children in the Middle East. A little over a year ago the PCRF entered into a new field – the field of pediatric oncology. As with many projects there are complexities to be solved and hard work to be done, but it usually begins with a dream.

The announcement of the new venture took place at the organization’s annual banquet/fundraiser with the keynote speaker, Dr. Mohammed Rahdi, as the man chosen to spearhead this move. Dr. Rahdi is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City. He is also a bone marrow transplant specialist. Dr. Rahdi and four others he selected went as a team on an exploratory visit to Palestine.

The project was the hope and dream of the late Huda Al Masri Sosebee, the lead social worker for the PCRF and the wife of PCRF CEO, Steve Sosebee. Huda, a victim of Leukemia, was the heart of the organization, and it is in her name that the project was conceived and is now virtually at fruition. The choice of location for this pediatric oncology unit is Hussein Hospital in Beit Jala. The unit will be known as the Huda Al-Masri Pediatric Oncology Department. It will serve children of the West Bank and Gaza.

PCRF is working with the aforementioned Children’s Mercy Hospital to train local doctors and nurses.

Due to the occupation of the West Bank and the siege of Gaza, many Palestinian children do not have direct access to pediatric oncology/hematology care with the subsequent burden these circumstances place on the patients and their families.

The project had a number of components. This included constructing a physical department; equipping this department with the high level of care specific to pediatric cancer; facilitating and supporting international partners to train local medical personnel to standards that would serve the needs of the Palestinian people; providing pain management and palliative care in terminal cases; establishing a social support network – when a child has cancer the entire family is involved, and creating a National Committee of Healthcare providers in the field of Pediatric Oncology in Palestine. As of this writing approximately 60% of the physical equipment needed is in place.

In March of last year PCRF signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) Ministry of Health (MOH) to build the only public department servicing pediatric oncology in the government sector of Palestine.

During the same month PCRF with the Ministry of Health hosted a conference to explore the field of pediatric cancer . Dr. Rahdi and his team from Children’s Mercy Hospital also attended and gave lectures. This was their second trip to Palestine.

The Hadassah Hospital in Israel has offered the PCRF two Pediatric Oncology internships and will assume a portion of the costs.

The PCRF is also involved in providing recreational activities for young cancer patients, realizing that such entertainment will mitigate suffering or at least provide a diversion.

In May pediatric cancer patients who were currently undergoing treatment were given a day at Dar Salah Village Amusement Park in Bethlehem.

During the summer months the PCRF planned many pleasant surprises for children suffering from cancer. In June and August the organization planned birthday party celebrations and presented the children with boxes of food and clothing through the Basma Cancer Society.

During a recent trip to the United States, Steve Sosebee addressed a dinner meeting of the Southern California chapter of the PCRF and spoke of the pediatric oncology project as very near its completion.

As of this writing, the completion date is expected to be March 2012. The unit will have 14 beds, 2 isolation beds, and a day care area.

Contributors to the PCRF may specify that their donation is to apply to the Pediatric Oncology unit. These donations may also be sent to the PCRF’s Ohio office. No amount is to small. However should the donor wish to be a sponsor the following requirements apply. There is a required amount of $50 per month; sponsorship is on a yearly basis and can be renewed at the end of the year, the money can be paid by credit card, online, or as a bank transfer, for the full year or on a monthly basis.

The PCRF is organizing medical sponsorships for poor children with cancer. In addition, the PCRF will work with all the hospitals in the West Bank and Gaza to see whether pediatric oncology patients there can benefit from a transfer to Hussein Hospital. In the case of radiation therapy, it is only available at Augusta Victoria Hospital in East Jerusalem, and patients will have to go there for treatment.
Children from Deir El Balah Refugee Camp have already been sponsored on line. Monies will be used to provide transportation and travel related costs for the local PCRF social worker and the child. Sponsors will receive monthly updates regarding the child from the relevant social worker and also from the child’s family. In the event sponsorship is no longer required for a child, the donor will be contacted and an inquiry will be made as to whether he or she wishes to transfer sponsorship to another child.

The child to be treated must have (non compulsory) PA health insurance {about $200 per year for non government employees} if the child is over three years of age. Under three years of age, the child will be treated at no charge.

Doctors on site will make the final decision as to which child is admitted to Hussein Hospital.

The CEO of the PCRF, Steve Sosebee, has agreed to answer questions posed by The Muslim Observer.

TMO: How did this dream {of a pediatric oncology unit} begin – what was the seed?

MR. SOSEBEE: I saw how much my beloved wife Huda suffered getting the best care available to her in the world.  If she was in Palestine she would have suffered much worse. I investigated how children were treated in Palestine and found most were not getting adequate care and wanted to build something to help them in honor and memory of my wife, who have so much of her heart for Palestine.

TMO: Would you describe this project as a cooperative effort?

MR. SOSEBEE: We are welcome in all hospitals where we wish to work. In private hospitals we are not interested in doing missions because they make the families pay. We treat our children for free.

TMO: You must have had a close look at the effects of the Israeli siege and the Israeli occupation. Can you cite any examples of the deleterious effects on children’s health?

MR. SOSEBEE: We have hundreds of sick and injured children in the Gaza Strip in need of specialized surgery not available locally. We have volunteer doctors willing to go and treat them for free but they cannot enter due to the siege by the Israeli occupation authorities. These children go untreated as a result.

TMO: You have come so far. Do you have plans for expansion in the future?

MR. SOSEBEE:  Yes, our goal is always to try to grow and do more to provide humanitarian aid and medical care for children, as well as to address weaknesses in the local health care system.

TMO: Lets look at the PA in the West Bank, HAMAS in Gaza, and the Israeli authorities. Can you tell us the degree to which each entity has been cooperative?

MR. SOSEBEE:  It is a complicated subject because the issue of political policies and decisions by powers far larger a small relief group like the Pcrf.  Each has played a different role in helping and hindering our ability to reach those in need. Most of work is with in the west bank because of the siege in Gaza as far as sending teams there. Most of the kids we send out for treatment are from Gaza. We manage to run most of our own projects ourselves and that minimalists our interaction with local authorities. We like to deal with the people directly, not politicians.

TMO: Is there anything else you may wish to add?

MR. SOSEBEE: No, just to ask people for help.

The Palestine Children’s Relief Fund has recently celebrated its 20th anniversary.  To review some of its activities: the PCRF sends teams of medical personnel to the Middle East to treat children on site and to teach local doctors new skills. If local treatment is not a viable option, the child is sent to a hospital in the West, in Saudi Arabia or Dubai.

PCRF has a team of social workers on site to identify children who would benefit from their program. If the child can be helped locally, then that is done. If not, the PCRF works to provide free medical care for the child abroad.

The medical care imposes no cost on the sick child’s family. PCRF pays for airline tickets for the patient and, if necessary, an accompanying adult. In the target country doctors and other medical personnel donate their services, and the hospital that treats the child also provides a free venue. The sick child and an accompanying adult, if any, are sent to live with a host family during the patient’s term of treatment. The PCRF also pays for the airline fare which brings medical teams to Palestine.

The PCRF has provided infant formulae, specially fitted mechanized wheel chairs, eye exams and eye glasses, and summer camps for disabled children. The foregoing is far from a complete list. To access their web site, please go to:  www.pcrf.net.

Readers of The Muslim Observer will be kept abreast of this newest venture. Huda Al-Masri Sosebees’s dream is about to come true.

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