20 July 2017By Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi
Ansar al-Shari'a ("Supporters of Shari'a") was once Libya's most familiar
jihadi organization in the post-Gaddafi environment, widely suspected of
involvement in the attack on the U.S. government presence in Benghazi in 2012.
It was closely linked to the Ansar al-Shari'a of Tunisia, many of whose
members took refuge in Libya following a crackdown by the Tunisian government,
which declared Ansar al-Shari'a of Tunisia a terrorist organization in August
2013.
Since 2014, Ansar al-Shari'a in Libya went into significant decline. A
thorough overview of the group's rise and beginning of its loss of influence
in the period c.2011-2015 can be found in a lengthy paper for the Hudson
Institute by my friend Aaron Zelin. In brief, the two main reasons for the
group's decline were the military campaign launched against it by Libyan
general Khalifa Heftar, which shifted much focus away from da'wa [Islamic
proselytization] activity and social outreach across Libya, and the rise of
the Islamic State in Libya, which absorbed many of Ansar al-Shari'a's
networks. However, it must be stressed that contrary to common perception, the
organization as a whole never pledged allegiance to the Islamic State, but
rather remained ideologically aligned with al-Qa'ida.
Sample Ansar al-Shari'a social outreach in Sirte, western Libya, September
2013. The city would later become known as the Islamic State's main stronghold
in Libya, as it absorbed the Ansar al-Shari'a network there.
The newly released statement announcing the group's dissolution does not come
as much of a surprise considering that the group's output on social media had
almost completely disappeared, with the last item before this statement put
out several months ago. The statement alludes to some of the points made
above: for instance, the loss of key leaders and cadres and the emphasis the
group had on da'wa and social outreach.
Like Ansar al-Shari'a, the Islamic State in Libya has also experienced a
significant decline, lacking real control of territory. Its main governance
projects in Derna and Sirte have both collapsed. However, it should not be
thought that the wane in fortunes for Ansar al-Shari'a and the Islamic State
means the end of jihadism in Libya. There are still other active jihadist
groups in Libya like the Derna Mujahideen Shura Council, in which Ansar al-Shari'a
had participated as a junior actor. In addition, the country's vast expanse
and continuing civil war chaos provide ample training ground space for
jihadists and potential bases for remote direction of operations abroad or to
dispatch operatives from Libya into neighbouring countries (e.g. Tunisia and
Egypt) and beyond. How exactly the Libya connection may have played out in the
recent Manchester attack- claimed by the Islamic State and carried out by a
British citizen of Libyan descent who travelled to Libya- remains to be seen.
Below is the full text of the Ansar al-Shari'a statement translated, with
explanatory notes in square brackets where necessary.
Ansar al-Shari'a
The foundation of this
religion is a book guides and a sword gives victory.
1 Ramadan 1438 AH
27 May 2017 CE
The message has arrived and the masses of the people will bear it.
Praise be to God and prayers and peace be upon our Prophet Muhammad and all
his family and companions. As for what follows:
A path rich in da'wa, jihad and patience over the hardship of the path that
the successors inherited from the best predecessors from their fathers in the
battalions of the martyrs during the 80s and 90s of the past century, and from
their ancestors the sheikh of the martyrs Omar al-Mukhtar and his good
companions, a path bearing the banner of his slogan:
May the religion's might return to it, may its glory return to it, may blood
pour from us.
A path taken from the Almighty's words: "We have sent Our Messengers with
proofs and We sent down with them the book and the balance so that people may
live in justice, and We have sent down the iron in which there is strong might
and benefits for the people so that God may make evident who supports Him and
His Messengers unseen. Indeed God is powerful and mighty"- doctrine and
direction.
A doctrine and direction whose banner the Ummah will bear generation after
generation as the sheikh of the martyrs Omar al-Mukhtar [Libyan revolutionary
who fought the Italian colonial presence]- may God accept him- expressed in
his words: "It will be upon you to fight the next generation and the
generations that follow it."
Indeed they are the path of the book that guides and the sword that gives
victory, a book that was the guiding light for the path of those men whose
slogan was always 'Your sons in your service', who offered what they offered
from goodness and exertion to serve the people and attend to their needs from
securing areas and facilities, and from campaigns of da'wa, charity and
conscious-raising, their caravans reached the east, west and south of the
land, a path that the highwaymen, agents of the West, and patrons of
corruption only wished to cut off, so there was the disaster of the so-called
Dignity [referring to Khalifa Heftar's operation Dignity], and behold the
sword that gives victory unsheathed from its scabbard to push back the
aggression of the taghut [idolatrous tyrant] Heftar and his soldiers.
A sharpened sword that pushes back the aggressor, offering forth blood and the
lives of its bearers as cheap expenditure in the path of God and to support
the oppressed, adhering to the command of God Almighty in His words: "And what
is the matter with you that you do not fight in God's path and for the
oppressed from the men, woman and children?"
After this rich path and sacrifices in which Ansar al-Shari'a offered
the best of its leaders and cadres, we send the following messages:
1. To the lions of the den and the knights of the tumult, the revolutionaries
of Benghazi on ribat on their frontlines: be patient, endure and be firm, for
you are on the pinnacle of Islam, pushing back the aggressor and defending the
religion, honour and land, so may God strengthen you and protect you, oh
crowns of the heads. And we also say to you: just as we know that you are a
people for praise and commendation, so by the capacity of your chests and the
soundness of your modesty, you are also a people for censure and advice.
Though you have done well in one of the greatest obligations- few are those
who undertake it- and that is pushing back the aggressive enemy, some of you
have also delayed in undertaking another obligation- and it is among the
greatest obligations and a great condition to bring about victory: and that is
that you must unite ranks so as to make them one rank. This is just as God-
Exalted and Almighty is He- loves, when he said, "God loves those who fight in
His path as one rank as though they were a structured edifice."
The Messenger of God (SAWS) said: "You must gather and beware of division, for
Satan is with the one and more distant from two, and whosoever desires the
midst of Paradise, let him embrace the gathering. Whoever rejoices in his good
deeds and grieves over his evil deeds, then that is the believer.."- so close
your ranks, gather your force, and beware of division and dispersal, for
indeed they are a cause for every woe.
And to the honest, firm revolutionaries of Libya striving to establish the law
of the Lord of the Worlds and rejecting the control of the criminal agents of
the West, continue on your path and let your slogan be: 'Establish the
religion and do not separate in it.' Be wary of the material world and coming
to rely on it, for the Messenger of God (SAWS) said: "It is not poverty I fear
for you, but rather this world will be opened up for you as it was opened up
for those before you, and thus you will compete with each other for it just as
they did, and it will destroy you as it destroyed them."
And we warn you as the warning of one giving advice to his brother: never
place your hands in the hands of the West, and do not expect behind their
friendliness or companionship conquest, victory or any good. These people only
want to realize their interests, so do you want to leave the rule of an Arab
taghut for a Western occupation? So you must rely entirely on God (Almighty
and Exalted is He), for victory is near and will appear near to you if you
know from where it comes: 'And there is no victory except with God.' So if you
knock on the door of God- Almighty and Exalted is He- and go on the path of
the predecessors in relying on God, know that God will open the path to
victory for you if God wills: 'Say, perhaps it will be near.' And know that
God- Almighty and Exalted is He- does not give victory to this religion except
by its noble people, authentic creed, correct worship, and clear direction
towards Him, Almighty and Exalted is He. As for those who innovate, those who
replace, those who alter and those who abandon, these people do not support
the religion of God, Almighty and Exalted is He. So rejoice in goodness from
your Lord and continue in your revolution, and declare your direction clearly:
we have not arisen except for God, Almighty and Exalted is He, defending the
sacred rights of the religion, so we ask God to bring down His mercies and
blessings on you, and that He should enable you to establish the Exalted's
religion.
2. To our displaced people: Oh beloved people of our hearts, you who bore the
cause with your sons and bore its costs, your reliance is the Almighty's
words: "So those who migrated and were driven from their abodes, were harmed
in My path and fought and were killed, I will surely remove their misdeeds,
and I will surely enter them into the gardens of paradise, beneath which
rivers flow, as reward from God. And with God is the goodness of reward." So
do not worry or despair, as Satan has conjured up for the people's eyes false
victory and partial tamkin [establishment of rule], for the dawn of the clear
victory follows the night of the oppressors, so purify your intentions and
place them before God, Almighty and Exalted is He.
3. To our people in the western region, you were truly our people and more. We
will not forget your deeds from goodness of reception and provision of refuge.
May God reward you best.
4. To our beloved people we say: you are today at a dangerous crossroads in
which the agents of the West have entangled you, and there is no way for you
to get out of it except by clinging to God the Exalted. The Almighty has said:
"And hold fast to God's rope entirely and do not separate." And you must
return to the closing of ranks on which you were on the 17th February, that
day on which deeds fulfilled words when you came out to overthrow the taghut
Gaddafi. So, our people, there is nothing before you except to fear God,
Almighty and Exalted is He.
And strive to implement the ruling of His law that God Almighty commanded you
to establish, fulfilling the pact, realizing the faith and leaving the
stranglehold of life and humiliation that has engulfed our land. Your reliance
is the Almighty's words: "And had the people of the villages believed and been
pious, We would have opened up for them blessings from the sky and earth, but
they deemed it false, so we took from them what they earned." We also call on
you to assist your mujahideen sons striving to establish the Shari'a, and
support them as you can for they are your lifeline. And do not go behind the
people of transgression and corruption calling for laxity and liberation from
the religion under whatever name, for they are the basis of woe and its head.
5. To the enemies of the Ummah and those lying in wait for it: know that jihad
continues till the Day of Judgement, and the wars may bleed the generation of
sacrifice only so that the generation of tamkin [establishing the rule of the
religion] might live, so delight in a coming generation that will overcome
you, while you will not be able to overcome them: a generation nurtured amid
the clanging of the swords and clash of the spearheads, a generation that has
seen its father killed, its brother taken prisoner, its mother bereaved, and
its house burnt, so the meanings of sacrifice have taken root in its origin
and heart, a generation that will by God's permission tear you out from your
roots and alight the ground from underneath your feet.
Following on from the reasons mentioned above, the testaments offered to you
by your sons in Ansar al-Shari'a, and the concluding messages that we ask God-
Almighty and Exalted is He- to grant a place in your hearts, we announce to
the Ummah and the mujahideen generally and to our people in Libya especially
the official dissolution of the Ansar al-Shari'a group in Libya, so that its
history may be written in golden liquid on the pages of pride and glory in the
history of our Ummah after a path rich in da'wa and jihad, a path in which
Ansar al-Shari'a offered its leaders and fighters emulating the people of the
ditch in their steadfastness on God's religion, the tongue of their state and
their article of saying: Either we live in the shade of glory, or we die as
martyrs.
Thus we will have opened the path for those besides us from the true sons of
this Ummah to bear the trust after us. Thus we ask God to grant success to
everyone working to support this religion, and God is the one behind the
intention. And our last call is praise be to God the Lord of the Worlds.
Ansar al-Shari'a in Libya.
©
EsinIslam.Com
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