- Title: LIBYA: Fighters bulldoze Sufi sites in Libya.
- Date: 25th August 2012
- Summary: ZLITAN, LIBYA (AUGUST 25, 2012) (REUTERS) ARMED VEHICLES DRIVING PAST MOSQUE VARIOUS OF DAMAGED MOSQUE MEN WALKING IN THROUGH DESTROYED MOSQUE (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) EYE-WITNESS, MOHAMED AL-TEER, SAYING: "A group of remnants and criminals who have committed crimes against people inside and outside Zlitan, entered and took cover in Abdul-Salam al-Asmar mosque and fired at
- Embargoed: 9th September 2012 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Libya
- Country: Libya
- Topics: Politics,Religion
- Reuters ID: LVACK2ST8VYJEQNFAW7B1ESDE4Z4
- Story Text: Sufi Muslim shrines destroyed by bombs, bulldozers in Libyan cities of Zlitan and Tripoli.
Ultra-conservative Islamists used bombs and a bulldozer to destroy the tomb of a 15th century Sufi scholar in the Libyan city of Zlitan, witnesses said on Saturday (August 25).
The attackers reduced the revered last resting place of Abdel Salam al-Asmar to rubble on Friday (August 24) and also set fire to a historic library in a nearby mosque, ruining thousands of books, witnesses and a military official added.
Friday's attacks followed two days of clashes between tribal factions in Zlitan which killed two people and injured 18, according to military council counts.
"A group of remnants and criminals who have committed crimes against people inside and outside Zlitan, entered and took cover in Abdul-Salam al-Asmar mosque and fired at the revolutionaries. So the revolutionaries fired back. They killed and captured some of them and the others escaped," said Mohamed Al-Teer, who witnessed the incident in Zlitan.
Mohamed Al-Teer said in the midst of the clashes, a group of Salafis took the chance to bomb a tomb inside the mosque which housed Al-Asmar's grave.
"Between all of this, a security gap developed. A group of Salafists managed to get in and destroy Abdul-Salam Al-Asmar's grave," witness Al-Teer said.
Abdul-Samad Shmela lives next door to the Mosque and said he also witnessed the incident. Like many Zlitan residents, he questioned the Government's absence after the attacks.
"The library has been burned, along with class rooms and offices. Even with all of this destruction, we still have not seen either the Interior Minister or the Defence Minister visiting this place," Shmela said.
In the second razing of a Sufi site in two days, attackers bulldozed a mosque containing Sufi Muslim graves in the centre of Tripoli in broad daylight on Saturday, in what appeared to be Libya's most blatant sectarian attack since the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi.
Government officials condemned the demolition of the large Sha'ab mosque and blamed an armed group, who they said considered its graves and shrines to Sufi figures un-Islamic.
The Sha'ab mosque contained close to 50 Sufi graves, as well as the tombs of Libyan Sufi scholar Abdullah al-Sha'ab and a martyr who fought Spanish colonialists.
The past year has seen hard-liners, many of them emboldened by the Arab Spring revolts, targeting a number of sites belonging to Islam's mystical Sufi tradition in Libya, Egypt and Mali. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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