The blind spot of the US war on terror
Surrounded by Algeria, Chad, Egypt, Niger, Sudan, Tunisia and a large expanse of Mediterranean where it faces Greece, Italy, and Malta across the maritime boundary, after four years of western misadventure, Libya is virtually sitting on a tinderbox of terror that can engulf the most part of the world far and near.
The country is tearing at the seams and centrifugal forces are so strong that its central government had to run away from Tripoli to find some safe haven. Now, it is ruling the country from Tobruk, almost in absentia.
Tobruk is a small, historical but almost nondescript city of the Qaddafi era with a population of 120 thousand. It is more than 1500 kilometres away from Tripoli and is located at the western border of Egypt.
You travel from the east to the west and from Mediterranean in the north to the deep recesses of desert until Chad in the south, you will not see any significant display of governmental authority to reassure the wearisome public of their personal security.
Tobruk is a small, historical but almost nondescript city of the Qaddafi era with a population of 120 thousand. It is more than 1500 kilometres away from Tripoli and is located at the western border of Egypt
People travel only if they have to. Their movement within the country is highly restricted. They are virtual prisoners to their cities and even within the city their movement, whether it is smooth or bumpy, depends on which part of the city they are passing through under which authority.
If you are lucky your ride back home is hassle free since you have not been stopped at many a checkpoint to show your papers, tell the purpose of your journey, tell your faith and nationality and recite some sūrahs from the Quran for the quick oral exam to verify your credentials.
Considering Qaddafi’s clamp down on the nation and his law enforcing agencies’ at time high-handed tactics, we expats used to cut jokes with each other on our lives under Qaddafi and called Libya as the biggest jail on earth.
Now, all the fun is gone.
Checkpoints can mushroom anywhere anytime. People get pounded, as in the past, untraceable with the only difference that their frequency has increased tremendously. The only departure from the past is that now there are numerous authorities to point the finger at. But you don’t dare do that publicly.
If you are a man with wrong political affiliations, a Christian from anywhere, especially, Coptic Christian from Egypt or unlucky Shi’a from anywhere, you are doomed.
This is the norm. The exception is that despite being Coptic Christian you have remembered some verses from the Quran and if you are Shi’a you have remembered Attahiyat and some other Sunni rituals so that you are able to cheat through your inspection.
If you are a man with wrong political affiliations, a Christian from anywhere, especially, Coptic Christian from Egypt or unlucky Shi’a from anywhere, you are doomed
Six months ago an Indian, Mr Kumar, a resident of Sirte for 30 years, suddenly disappeared. Concern and panic of friends and acquaintances could not be measured. Everyone felt threatened.
He is, however, among the lucky ones. Four months later he was found reciting Kalma-e Shahadat on a Friday in the central Imami mosque in front of hundreds of vociferously cheering devotees.
Does Islam need this service is beside the point? Such addition of devotees in the folds of Islam, howsoever in bad taste, goes on and al Qaida, Ansar Al-Sharia, ISIL, and other splinter Takfiri groups, in their own right, want to increase the number of Muslims either by addition or elimination.
This is the blind spot of the US war on terror.
The world has gone mad. This is the place where the most attention and energies of the world should have been focussed to win the war against terror and extremism.
One wonder at the scale of ineptness, delinquency and distraction of the US State Department on Libya that it can ignore Libya to the extent of living with the sad memory of its ambassador’s tragic death in Benghazi at the hands of these terrorists in 2012.