The question of whether Moammar Gaddafi deserved to die following his Oct. 20 capture and the startling revelations that he may have been sodomized raises troubling issues for Muslims. Do we celebrate the death of a despot or should we set aside our joy to consider that Gaddafi's enemies violated the basic tenets of Islam to kill him?
By focusing on what kind of government Libyans will form ignores the big picture that the manner of Gaddafi's death will likely bring an intense period of tribal warfare.
There is no question that Gaddafi's end was inevitable. He wreaked terror on his people for 42 years. He was responsible for the Lockerbie bombing, supported the Irish Republican Army and he engaged in assassination plots. Even Gaddafi's closest neighbors were not safe. He conspired in 2003 to assassinate Saudi King Abdullah while the crown prince of Saudi Arabia. Gaddafi was responsible for killing thousands of Libyans. Vengeance, more than justice, was on the minds of most Libyans.
Yet his death could very well derail Libya's pursuit of a new government that embraces the democratic ideals the international community wants so badly. At the end of the day, tribal politics and vengeance for the flagrant disregard of Islamic principles may dictate the course Libyans take.
Gaddafi belonged to the small, but influential Gadhadhfa tribe. Gaddafi's minister of information, Moussa Ibrahim, who is believed to still be alive, also belongs to Gadhadhfa, which had dominated the Libya's security groups and militias.
Tribal law, more or less, ruled Libya. It matters little whether Gaddafi's tribe condoned or opposed the dictator's treatment of his people. Tribal leaders will use a mix of tribal law, pride and the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) as very potent reasons to avenge Gaddafi's death. The man responsible for killing Gaddafi was videotaped and his image played worldwide. It is beside the point whether the allegations are true that some individuals sodomized Gaddafi. The hint alone further humiliates a captive at the mercy of his enemies.
Under tribal law, Gadhadhfa leaders will target the people responsible for Gaddafi's rape and death as a matter of honor. Retaliation will follow from other tribes and Libya could fall into chaos.
From a religious standpoint, Islam is specific in its instructions that the elderly and children should not be killed in warfare. Gaddafi was 69 years old. The Holy Qur'an also stipulates:
• Wounded soldiers unfit to fight or not fighting should not be attacked.
• Prisoners of war should not be killed.
• Any person tied up or in captivity should not be killed.
• Corpses of the enemy must not be disgraced or mutilated.
• Corpses of the enemy must be returned.
These aspects in Islam are not lost on the Libyan population, which is 99 percent Muslim, and it furthers the justification in the minds of some Libyans to seek vengeance.
Gaddafi was cunning in his treatment of Libya's tribes. He played on intra-tribal rivalries and often bribed tribal leaders to secure their loyalty. Major tribes such as Zawiya, Zentan, Bani Walid and Obeidat backed the rebels. The Maqarha tribe, with its estimated 1 million members, was pro-Gaddafi. Libya's largest tribe, Warfalla, was a pillar in Gaddafi's regime, but in the waning months of the war waffled over its allegiances between the pro- and anti-Gaddafi forces.
The Gadhadhfa and Maqarha tribes are centered in Gaddafi's hometown of Sirte, while Warfalla stretches from Bani Walid to Sirte and on to Tripoli and Benghazi. The three tribes are a powerful combination that before engaging in rebuilding Libya likely will seek out and punish individuals responsible for Gaddafi's humiliating end. Millions of Gaddafi sympathizers, or perhaps more accurately people once sympathetic to Gaddafi but consider themselves pious Muslims, will not sit idle until they deliver justice.
Tribal conflicts at the height of the civil war foreshadowed the climate in a post-Gaddafi Libya.
In Yafran, for example, Mashasshia tribe members who supported the Gaddafi government fled to the mountains after anti-Gaddafi forces burned their homes to the ground. The Amazigh, the Berbers who long suffered under the Gaddafi regime, say they do not want the Mashaashia tribe back. And last month, rebels looted and the destroyed the homes of the pro-Gaddafi Hasoun tribe.
Given these early signs that the civil war threatens to fall into insurgency and tribal warfare, Gaddafi's death all but seals the bloody path these tribes are likely to take before Libya's Transitional National Council can form a lasting government. The transitional government's failure to protect Gaddafi from the very public tribal revenge does not bode well for the immediate future of Libya.
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This does not suggest that the Ghaddafi loyalists have the power to get their revenge (presumably the thinking of the guy who chose to put his face on Youtube as the killer of Ghaddafi.
Libya was tribal when Ghaddafi was keeping the tribal warfare in check. So I certainly don't deny that the bad ending described above is possible. But only time will tell if it is actually certain.
The young Muslim community cannot survive worrying about tribes, and no one should go about killing tribal leaders, or associations. Maybe the Libyans should re-think why they revolted in the first place, and move on from there. It may be painful, but surely necessary.
I am not an enemy for goodness sake. That statement implies failure for your (assumption here) country, Muslim, Jew or Christian.
Tribal mentality does not have to die with Ghaddafi given that it probably won't. To demand that it does is likely not dealing with reality. It would be better if such thinking died, but I don't get the point of making statements that do not deal with reality. If the tribal mentality does not die with Ghaddafi, as it won't, then what? Would it follow that the rebels were wrong to revolt or that we were wrong to help them?
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The problem with NATO's NTC setup is that NTC is made up of defectors from abroad disconnected from society and millionaire businessmen that represent only their city or state... and small tribes that have recently risen in influence due to NATO arms and Qatari special high-tech weapons and tanks... this has created problems where the majority are being disarmed and killed in huge numbers by NATO jets and rebels exacting hate crimes against large tribes in critical locations for the NTC's future especially in Tripoli which is a bastion for pro-Gaddafi loyalists.
NOTE: Zintan is a Berber city near the border of Tunisia and a name used to Libyanize neighboring Tunisian and Algerian berbers that have come over in the thousands to fight for the NTC with a promise to get a passport and live in welfare rich Libya (no one knows if it will still be like that...)
Powerful groups in the NTC:
Misurata most powerful but selfish brigades they want president and PM posts as well as a specially large share of the oil... Tripoli Brigade of Alqaida&Taliban commander Abdul Hakim Balhajj due to strategic location and Qatari mass media and special forces backing... and Benghazi the defacto capital of libya where the money comes in and seems to stay....
Now I have little problem with Kingdoms etc. when the scope is limited, and power is unable to impose that on me or a vast majority of people the world over, but it does just seem self evident that for a "kingdom" to speak of a "dictator" is more than a little strange.
http://explainlikeakid.blogspot.com/2011/10/why-gaddafi-was-killed.html