Who Manoeuvres the “Islamic Modernists”? A Focus on Libya

by Enrico Galoppini

“Timbuktu is in the hands of Islamic fundamentalists”. This is what newspaper headlines and agencies wrote in early July 2012, reporting the destruction of mosques and shrines by militants of Ansar ed-Din, who had taken control of the holy city of Mali.

Here we are not interested in entering into the merits of the clash between the militants and the government, or between the militants and the “secular” Tuareg, who were their allies just a short time ago. But one thing must be said: without the elimination of Gaddafi, who was not an “atheist” at all, that pandemonium in Mali – which follows the “masterpiece” in Libya operated by individuals of the same mindset – would not have been possible…

Not to mention the fact that Timbuktu is considered a “World Heritage Site” by UNESCO. We all know that the importance and value of a city and of a site, as well as of a sacred place, is not certainly given by the “certification” of an agency of the United Nations, contrary to what they make us think. We know agencies were established just to pave the way to the “new world order” (NWO) “without God”, and all its effects.

That being said, let us look at the reasons why these “fundamentalists” rage with particular vehemence and fury against those Islamic places of worship (and we stress the word “Islamic”), which house the remains of people considered “saints” by the local population (and not only), models of piety and virtue, who – after they followed them until they were in this world – go to “visit” them (ziyâra)[1] to benefit from the baraka that flows out from their “spiritual influences”, and get an “intercession” from the Lord, and not to worship them as “gods”!

First, as for the “cult of the saints”, the awliyâ’[2], in Islam, we must say that it is completely “Islamic”, while all these “modernists”, “Salafis”, “Wahhabis” and so on, consider it to be “blasphemous”, for “idolaters”. Their main point is that in order to safeguard the principle of tawhîd (Divine Unity and Oneness: the Principle can only be one and only one) everything that leads the Muslim to errors, such as “association” (shirk), should be absolutely avoided: that is to say attributing an “equal” to God.

Now, so far (the “non-dual” concept) we all agree. However, because of excess of zeal, what happens is that these ‘Calvinists of Arabia’, to remove legitimacy to everything that can be of help, of support, a ‘launching pad’ to facilitate the elevation of the believer towards the highest rank, that of spiritual realization prerogative of the “elects”, ends up in driving everybody away, isolating people, even if well-intentioned, at the mercy of the most dangerous thing existing: their own criteria and judgement[3].

The “modernists”, in fact, from whom wahhabis, salafis, takfiris etc., come from, believe that everyone, in their own “journey of knowledge” (the deep awareness, the “absolute certainty” –‘ilm al-yaqîn-, that everything is God and that God is everywhere), must rely only on their own efforts, that, in the end, every human being is “the master of himself”. At the most, they accept the authority of some “men of wisdom” who studied in schools with their same ideology. But they do not want to hear about “masters”, they think masters do not exist, except for those from newspapers, television, or even worse from the internet.

So we understand the role of all those satellite channels that make you believe that it is good sitting in an armchair at home and listening to somebody’s sermon on television, someone who looks good on camera seems to be enough to think you have a strong leadership and, above all, a leadership in contact with the “good entities” in the “invisible world” (‘âlam al-ghayb).

Now anyone can understand that if you deny that there may be men able to establish in life, here on earth, a “connection” of this type, you implicitly deny the existence of the “invisible world”, mentioned in black and white in the Quran[4].

For these ‘Puritans of Islam’, from complete doctrine – and therefore true to the extent that it becomes intelligible language for the men of an era (that of Kali Yuga)[5] data of metaphysics (which by its nature is one) -, Islam turns into “Islamism”[6], into a “religious ideology”. Like Zionism, that far from representing Judaism is nothing but an ideological interpretation that, thanks to the combination of several factors, has completely taken the scene to the point that both its proponents and his detractors identify it tout court with Jewish tradition. With the modern “Islamic fundamentalism” the problem is very similar: it is just an ideological interpretation of Islam, which ipso facto produces a basic misunderstanding of what Islam really is, which becomes, in the eyes of those who knows nothing about it (the “western people”), understandably hateful and “barbaric”[7].

We are therefore before an example of “reductionism”, a simplification resulting from a fundamental misunderstanding that, as this is typical of those who have very little understanding, they want to impose on everyone. Basically, it is recognized that there is a mountain peak that must be reached, but how to reach it and, above all, that there are “expert guides”, is not to be mentioned. Let’s think about the end waiting for the inexpert and improvised climber if he decided to climb the summit of Mount Everest armed only with maps, diaries of famous climbers and all the best equipment available! For sure, in the end, everybody make ‘their own’ experiences, and their journey is ‘unique’, different from the others’. But the effort is not made in vain (different would be going there by helicopter!), and the goal is the same for everyone; and there we all see the same view: it dominates the world, and we finally understand what the meaning of “Real” is. These “modernists”, however, believe that it is not possible to reach the mountain peak, they prefer eating whole libraries of essays and encyclopedias about mountains and climbing, trying to see who knows more. But let’s be careful when choosing our “guides”; at the first crevasse, with no experience, they could fall down together with their unwary climbing companions.

Then you must love the ‘mountain’! It is not only a matter of “records”, as Reinhold Messner, famous Italian climber, said many times. The analogy also works here: you cannot expect to get “virtue and knowledge” only through your “head”…

What remains, therefore, to those who make the “knowledge” just a matter of learning? To those who brandish this idea like an axe against “apostates” (kuffâr) whom they need to be convinced they’re always right? Their rationality.

We have a plastic representation of this in the destruction of a door of a famous mausoleum in Timbuktu, held closed for decades, or perhaps even more. Local tradition reports that the opening of the door would occur only “at the end of the times” … So, the members of the “fundamentalist movement” called Ansâr ad-Dîn, in defiance of the local “gullibility”, have broken down the door, and of course “nothing” happened… they were certainly happy of this victory against “superstition”.

What really is surprising is the coincidence between the positions of the skeptics, atheists and rationalists with those of the ‘Protestants of Islam’, for whom everything must be understood and refuted in a rational-materialist way.

They, ‘poor souls’, do not realize that the important point is not that “nothing happened”. The important thing is that they broke through that door; they passed the “limit”. So, without realizing it, they “made ​​real the prophecy”. But relying on mere rational faculties of man – which makes them helpless in front of the lower psychism – they act believing that they are going in a specific direction when they are actually working for the forces intent on achieving the exact opposite of what they believe. Basically, they believe they act to “dispel the prophecy”, while they are those who “made it real”! Everything is perfect and terribly inescapable.

Besides, the destruction of “the port of Timbuktu” and other shrines in the entire Islamic world, from Lybia to Iraq – significant because they root Islam locally, just as the catholic shrines (and coincidentally the Protestants do not have…) – is similar to the demolition of the “Buddha of Bamyan” in Afghanistan by the Taliban. Like on that occasion, we – the so-called “western people” – feel sorry for the “destruction of culture”, the “religious intolerance” and so on, without being able to understand the essential point, which is much easier to identify when to fall under the fury of these ‘Islamic puritans’ are shrines and places of worship pertaining to Islam itself.

They are perhaps ‘seals’, or ‘works of protection’ that as long as there exist, they prevent infiltration (or leakage) of dissolving forces? The future events in the whole Islamic world will soon show us if we are wrong or not…

But this is not it. Another important question we must ask is: Who manoeuvres the “Islamic modernists”?

This is curious: since the beginning of the so-called “Arabian Spring”[8], the “Islamic militants” turned again into “nice people”[9], whereas until a couple of years ago – when Obama, ‘new Kennedy’, “held out his hand to Islam” with his speech in Cairo in June 2009 – they were depicted as real monsters that threatened the so-called “moderate Arabian countries” (Tunisia, Egypt and sometimes also Syria!).

In the first part of this article we explained the mindset of these “modernists” and from what ‘pulpit’ – perhaps it would be better to say the ‘abyss’ – comes their ‘preaching’. We also indicated in all forms of “modernism” a phenomenon of reductionism, therefore of fundamental misunderstanding of what spiritual realities are, because they actually are “reality” made of a different substance from that of ordinary things, but they are neither “nice speeches” nor overestimated “erudition” of which many Muslims today are proud of.

On the other hand, if you can tell how something will go by how it begins, we must expect these and other ‘edifying’ deeds: when the Wahhabis (who are not Sunni!)[10] conquered for the first time the Holy city of Medina, in the XVIII century, they did not hesitate to destroy even the tomb of the Prophet of Islam, and still today they hinder the regular running of the acts of devotion, in His presence, that millions of faithful people yearn to do when they go to Arabia for the Hajj (or the ‘umra) at the “House of Allah”.

The ‘iconoclastic’ fury of these ‘Puritans of Islam’ (which is why they get on so well with Anglo-America) shows no sign of decreasing, from Egypt to Tunisia, Syria, and now in Iraq after the birth of a pseudo caliphate whose leader calls himself significantly “Abû Bakr”: in Egypt, even in a delirium which is not afraid to become buffoonery, there are those who proposed to demolish the pyramids, symbols of “paganism”![11]

And how can we forget Libya[12], intended victim after the destabilization of the two neighboring states, always in the name of “anti-superstition” and a rationalistic “true Islam” that, unfortunately, is spreading like wildfire in Europe thanks to the actions of some organizations that – committing an inexcusable mess – try, a little because they believe in it, and a little because they are like old foxies, to appear in abetting “institutions” as the standard-bearers of an absurd and impossible union between “Islam and Democracy”, discussed at the academic level by many “sociologists of Islam” one worse and incapable than the other.

They are all together passionately – some protagonists of the so-called “Arab Spring”, some others channeling the university knowledge in a reassuring riverbed – at the service of their true ideal ‘homeland’: the “modern world”, in which they all live comfortable, with its “democracy” that is like an indisputable totem. So that – without explaining how and where it would take doctrinal legitimacy – just a “revolt” achieves success, the successors of the Afghan “Freedom Fighters” bury the hatchet and inaugurate the season of the ‘electoral games’, showing happily, in front of the media of the same gangs who financed the “rebellion”, their thumb dirty with ink of those who finally put their neck in the yoke of political factions and the government of the worst.

In Libya, those that ‘someone’ called “drug addicts” and “rats of NATO”, after they had served as camel troops for the “liberators”, are soon devoting to their favorite activity[13], which is to desecrate what is completely out from their intellectual and spiritual understanding[14]. They dedicate themselves to the curse and destruction of what they do not understand, because like all ignorant people, who usually simplify, they freak out at the thought that there is something able ‘to escape’ from them, from which they are completely excluded. And, this beats everything, they show their vile deeds, doing a competition to see who cries more at breakneck speed “Allâhu akbar!” (“God is [the] greatest!”), as if to show that as the wrath of the pious man, of the ‘intimate of God’ (walî), has not discharged against the authors of the act, that would mean that all the devotion towards him was definitely misplaced because the Lord has done nothing to defend the mausoleum, nor has ‘struck’ the authors of the destruction. It seems to see the work of nineteenth-century positivists, since these ‘demonstrations’ are childish and stupid[15]. This point will not be stressed enough to understand the “Islamic decadence” represented by these “modern” trends, that only someone who totally ignores the meaning of Tradition can exchange for “renaissance” or “awakening”[16].

One of the last demonstration of this kind in “free Libya” (the one – to be clear – plunged back under the heel of usury and its “loans”; the one of new underdevelopment disguised as “tradition”; the one of the sale of all strategic sectors that configure the sovereignty of a nation; the one of an inconclusive tribalism) was the destruction, by a mass of lemmings stirred up by the worst kind of ignorant clergy[17], the mosque-mausoleum of ‘abd as-Salâm al-Asmar[18], of which there is also a disturbing filmed proof[19].

This place of worship and devotion, which contained about 5,000 volumes finished in ash (they have checked that there were no works of Ibn Taymiyya, their favorite!) is not the only one which fell into the clutches of fanaticism. In Tripoli, like trained monkeys, they demolished with bulldozers another important place of Islamic worship (we underline “Islamic” for those who had begun to think that these “Muslims” have a gripe only with non-Muslims)[20]. But at the shrine of Sîdî Ahmed az-Zarrûq[21], the same crazy people have escaped with the body of the pious man buried there[22].

The so-called “authorities”, arrived in Tripoli on the ‘magic carpet’ of British Airways and kept officially their distance. But this is not anything new, because they did the same in Italy in the early post-“liberation” times, with license to kill and destroy, several gangs of “partisans”, surely sent by the actual ruler, who was certainly not the pseudo-government of those who collaborated with the enemy, but the one who had established the sudden physical elimination of the head of the legitimate Italian Government and the disappearance of his famous folder with “compromising” documents.

As for bulldozers, it is interesting to notice that when Israel destroys Palestinian property with the same hasty ways, unanimous curse is unleashed on the Islamic side, but in this case, especially on the part of the supporters of the “Arabian Spring”, happy with their ‘Ikea mosques’[23], no criticism is raised.

The religious leaders of these “rebels” are perpetually angry, they anathematize and point finger at everybody. But when they get the money from some “emir”, as if by magic, they become meek ​​and mild and willing to tolerate any mischief: pecunia non olet, especially if it smells of oil.

I wonder how a Muslim can adopt as a “spiritual guide” individuals who do not have any sense of peace, brotherhood and love in the true sense of the word[24]; despite the necessary intransigence and adherence to the life-giving spirit of the letter of the Message (the Risâla), otherwise it is assured the decline in “spiritualism” and the irrational, the other pole of the disintegration of authentic spirituality (and with it, the man to whom it is addressed), together with the rationalist literalism with which these ‘hard-core Muslims’ are the most recent expression.

I also wonder where they want to end up when they will have handed over all the southern and eastern shores of the Mediterranean to these unilateral fanatics. Media will bombard us with “Islamic terrorism”[25] so to start a new season of the “Clash of cultures” to the benefit of divide and impera in the Mediterranean Sea and Eurasia?[26] NATO will help them to colonize and attack us if we try to get rid of our occupants? The answer is yes, because these guys – apart from the famous 9/11 attack attributed to ‘Osama bin Mossad’ – do not seem interested in damaging America and England, which indeed admire in their heart, and then hate because the admiration is not reciprocated, but are constantly willing to search for death and destruction in all those countries that periodically the West identifies as “the enemy” to be destroyed: before Afghanistan with the excuse of “godless communism” (the West is not “atheist”?); then Yugoslavia under the guise of (one-way) “ethnic cleansing”; then Algeria with the excuse of the “fundamentalist threat” (empowered by them!); then Chechnya with the excuse that in any case the Russians are always “communists” and “drunk”[27]; then the “Arabian Spring” with the excuse of (variable geometry) “tyrannies”… Who will be the next target? India because they “worship cows”? China because they eat pork with mushrooms and bamboo? The Catholic Church because the Trinity is “idolatrous”? Now, in Iraq and in Syria, they attack the Shiites because they consider them “heretics”, but – as I said – not even the Sunni faithful to their tradition are protected from their violence. In short, the list of “bad people” delivered by some James Bond along with the briefcase with the banknotes is still long, and not even at the end you can read the name of Anglo America. No, for them, at the proof of facts, and not for some blatant bragging that does not cost anything, the problem does not exist…

Someone very famous among the Muslims, Imam Khomeyni, certainly aware that the adversary is much more than an ‘accident’ of the world, once described America as “the Great Satan” and a certain idea of his own religion “American Islam”. They also say that the devil’s greatest skill is pretending that he does not exist. So, these “Islamic modernists” may not have come to that point, but certainly they often mistake him for someone else!

FOOTNOTES:

[1] On this important practice, present in many traditions: N. AMRI, Le corps du saint dans l’hagiographie du Maghreb médiéval, “al-Simsimah”, 5th Sept. 2012 (http://alsimsimah.blogspot.be/2012/09/le-corps-du-saint-dans-lhagiographie-du.html).

[2] Sing. walî, from a root word that conveys the meaning of “proximity”, “friendship”, then “government on behalf of” (in this specific case, “on behalf of the Lord”).

[3] On the issue of “legitimacy”, from the sunni islamic point of view, of the practice of “visits” to the tombs of saints and of all that concerns it, a reference text is Rudûd wa munâqashât ‘alà mâ warada fî kutayyibât “ash-shirk wa wasâ’ilu-hu ‘inda fuqahâ’ al-madhâhib al-arba‘a” [Responses and discussions about the pamphlets on “The association and its instruments at the jurists of the four Schools of Law”], published by Idârat al-iftâ’ wa al-buhûth/Qism al-buhûth (without reference to the place and date). Here, the term shirk (“associationism”) refers to what is sometimes badly translated with “polytheism”: technically, shirk is to associate, in practice and in thought, other “gods” to the One God; it is, in other words, the sanction of the error that falls on those who profess in any way a dualistic conception.

[4] Starting from The Holy Quran II, 3.

[5] On the doctrine of “cosmic cycles”, one of the best works available is G. GEORGEL, Les quatre âges de l’humanité, Archè, Milano 1975.

[6] L’Islamismo contro l’Islam? [The Islamism against Islam?], special issue of “Eurasia – Review of Geopolitics”, 4/2012.

[7] Here for “western” we do not mean those who live in a specific area of the planet, but all those who share, adapting their way of life, the “modern” world view, essentially characterized by atheism (which can disguise itself in various ways, among which there is the so called “secularism”). “Western”, therefore, is synonymous with “modern”.

[8] We refer to our “Primavera araba” o “fine dei tempi”? [“Arab spring” of “End of times”?], “Europeanphoenix.it”, 6th Apr. 2011 (http://europeanphoenix.it/component/content/article/4-politica/40-libia-egitto-tahrir-tunisia-arab-guerra-unione-europea-america-obama-africa-mubarak-ben-ali-kosovo-). See also E. GALOPPINI, Guida alla stesura di una tesi di laurea sulla “Primavera Araba” [Guide to writing a thesis on the “Arab Spring”], published on the website of the “CeSE-M – Centro Studi Eurasia-Mediterraneo”, 21th Jan. 2014 (http://www.cese-m.eu/cesem/2014/01/guida-alla-scrittura-di-una-tesi-di-laurea-sulla-primavera-araba/), in which are cited numerous reference works on the issue.

[9] They have already been “nice people” so many times: during the war against the USSR in Afghanistan, the breakup of the former Yugoslavia, again in theaters such as Chechnya, Ossetia, Dagestan etc. And now in the entire Middle East when they attack fundamental geopolitical and strategic objectives such as the Syrian State.

[10] M. OMAR, I sunniti sono oppressi in Arabia saudita, non in Siria [The Sunnis are oppressed in Saudi Arabia, not in Syria], “Eurasia-rivista.org”, 13th Aug. 2012 (http://www.eurasia-rivista.org/i-sunniti-sono-oppressi-in-arabia-saudita-non-in-siria/16750/).

[11] I salafiti: “Le piramidi vanno distrutte. Sono simboli pagani” [The Salafists: “The pyramids must be destroyed. They are pagan symbols”], “Il Messaggero”, 13th Jul. 2012 (http://www.ilmessaggero.it/primopiano/esteri/i_salafiti_le_piramidi_vanno_distrutte_sono_simboli_pagani/notizie/208009.shtml).

[12] A. LATTANZIO, Libia: campo di battaglia tra Occidente e Eurasia [Libya: battlefield between the West and Eurasia], Anteo Edizioni, Cavriago (RE) 2012.

[13] Libia: attacchi ai mausolei [Libya: attacks on mausoleums], “Euronews”, 26th Aug. 2012 (http://it.euronews.com/2012/08/26/libia-attacchi-ai-mausolei/).

[14] Here we adopt the definition of “intellect” according to which it is the intuitive knowledge of the heart, not of the mind.

[15] We could propose a bold approach, according to Christian tradition. Those who gather under the cross and ask the Christ, to tempt him, because if he is “truly the Son of God” does not call a legion of angels to save him, it is as if suggested: “Since there was no one coming to save you, you’re a charlatan! Are not you the one who claims to be”.

[16] E. GALOPPINI, Il “Risveglio islamico”: il senso di una definizione [“Islamic Awakening”: the sense of a definition], “Eurasia – Review of Geopolitics”, 4/2012, pp. 185-192 (this is my report prepared for the 1st International Conference on “Islamic Awakening” – Teheran, 17th-18th Sept. 2011).

[17] That “clergy” typically based in London – just to cite one example of his monstrosity – who incites the murder of other Muslims (“deviant”, of course) for the mere fact that not bleat in unison according to the dictates of their “Islamic ideology” that pretend to be Islam. Listen what he says the Lebanese “shaykh” Omar Bakri, stationed for a long time just in London: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIgnUuOC4RE&feature=youtu.be.

[18] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abd_As-Salam_Al-Asmar.

[19] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnlRVKVuo7M&feature=youtu.be.

[20] G. HESS SKANDRANI, La nouvelle Libye démocratique, tribaliste, takfiriste, otanesque, oscurantiste…, “La voix de la Libye”, 26th Aug. 2012 (http://lavoixdelalibye.com/?p=5574).

[21] Here a biography: http://alsimsimah.blogspot.it/search/label/Biographie%20de%20Sidi%20Ahmed%20Zarrouqq.

[22] Shaykh Ahmad Zarroq’s grave has been desecrated in Libya, http://seekerofthesacredknowledge.wordpress.com/2012/08/26/shaykh-ahmad-zarruqs-grave-has-been-desecrated-in-libya/ (Article of 26th Aug. 2012, which also signals a video in which a Muslim resident in Canada complaint very clearly the action of the Salafis: http://www.youtube.com/user/ShaykhFaisalVideoBlo?feature=watch). To judge the “intellectual” level of these ‘islamic pickhammers’, see this interview, in which the caretaker of the mosque-mausoleum of ‘Uthmân Bâshâ, in Libya, tells some anecdotes about the destructive raid of which was the object: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzwskvKyWqY.

[23] The reference is to standardized places of worship, constructed in accordance with an unmistakable style, alien to the history and traditions of the place from which all elements of so-called “superstition” are banned of course. The Balkans – and Kosovo in particular – have been filled, for about ten years now, with mosques of this type.

[24] I have dealt with this problem in this article: Solo un santo ci può salvare dalla “crisi” [Only a saint can save us from the “crisis”], “Europeanphoenix.it”, 22th Dec. 2011 (http://europeanphoenix.it/component/content/article/3-societa/206-solo-un-santo-ci-puo-salvare-dalla-crisi). See also al-Hubb fî al-Qur’ân [Love in the Holy Quran], by H.R.H. Prince Ghazi of Jordan (downloading english version: http://main.altafsir.com/LoveInQuranIntroEn.asp#.U-soh-N_t_A).

[25] C. CORBUCCI, Il terrorismo islamico. Falsità e mistificazione [Islamic terrorism. Falsehood and reception], Editrice Agorà, Roma 2011. It is a fundamental work, in which 1,741 pages debunks any kind of misunderstanding about it. The Author – who has a deep knowledge of the “traditional” view of the world – is a lawyer who has dealt with the most sensational cases of so-called “Islamic terrorism”. Read also E.GALOPPINI, Islamofobia. Attori, tattiche, finalità [Islamophobia. Actors, tactics, goals], Edizioni all’Insegna del Veltro, Parma 2008 (for further informations: http://www.insegnadelveltro.it/catalogo/metropoli/galoppini_islamofobia.htm) .

[26] La seconda guerra fredda [The Second Cold War], is the title of the dossier of “Eurasia – Review of Geopolitics”, 2/2014.

[27] E. GALOPPINI, Al-Qaradawi: “La Russia è il nemico numero uno dell’Islam e dei musulmani”. Ma chi sono i loro… amici? [Al-Qaradawi: “Russia is the number one enemy of Islam and Muslims”. But who are their… friends?], “Eurasia-rivista.org”, 22th Oct. 2012 (http://www.eurasia-rivista.org/al-qaradawi-la-russia-e-il-nemico-numero-uno-dellislam-e-dei-musulmani-ma-chi-sono-i-loro-amici/17383).