History of Derna

         

      For sixty three years since Libya’s first independence and until now, the city of Derna has been marginalized. This is so unfortunate since the city  had given a lot of sacrifices for the sake of Libya. No matter how much I write to express my admiration for the city and praise it, I won’t be able to do it justice. But I am sure that no matter how long it takes, one day it will take its rightful place and Derna will emerge on top and its shimmering jewel will shine on everyone. 

     Derna is the city of peace and tranquility, the city of knowledge, the city of unity and cooperation. It’s the land that has brought together all kinds of people from the homeland including foreigners, all in one spot. They lived together like one happy family. Those who were born in Derna or lived in it for a while and breathed its air will always have beautiful memories that cannot be forgotten for a lifetime. No matter how many setbacks and obstacles the city had endured, it has always remained patiently in silence like a loving mother who cared for her children. But, when provoked, it becomes a fierce tiger ready to pounce and destroy its aggressor. All the uprisings against the rule of the colonial and foreign military are clear evidence. 

      Many great leaders have passed through this city, beginning with the Turkish leader, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. He worked and resided in Derna during the second Ottoman Sultanate era. At that time, a coup was being planned to overcome the Ottoman rule. 

  The great battle of "Gargaf"  under the banner of Sidi Ahmed Al-Shariff against the Italians on the mountain of the first area of Al_fataeh on the outskirts of Derna, was a disgrace to the Italian colonial.  More than three thousand, one hundred and eighty soldiers were killed and wounded among Ethiopian mercenaries, of whom thirty-eight Italian officers were killed in the field as reported by the Italian ministry of war at that time.

It was a battle for honor for the Libyan revolutionary troops, who lost eight hundred and forty martyrs, as well as several other hundreds of wounded men! The wounded were murdered by the Italians out of vengeance for their loss at the battle which is obviously considered as a war crime. Those brave men died defending the honor of the homeland! My father, Mabruk, and my uncle Abdeljalil were among the volunteers who fought in that battle but they came out safe and they lived  long years after years, until they passed away from natural causes! May Allah bless their souls! Derna was visited by the Italian Fascist leader, Benito Mussolini, during his tour around Libya, to check on his troops and brag about his army. 

     Also, the famous German commander, The field Marshal Erwin Rommel (A.K.A “The desert fox”) passed by the city, in the forties, many times in complete secrecy and stayed for a short time each time. It was during the fierce battles of the World War II. 

     Also, in the war for Palestine in 1948, the courageous young men of Derna were among the first volunteers from North Africa. They fiercely defended the Arab lands and they offered their blood for that. The first martyr from Derna was called Ali, the son of Al-Omda (the mayor) Jibril, who was in the first line of fire, next to my older brother, Haj Saleh, as he told us the story! I can add many names to the freedom fighters list: The mujahid Abdurrahim Benkhayal, who told us many heroic stories about the acts of the war. He also told us about the contributions of his fellow warriors, like Haj Driss Bouchiha, Haj Abdelmonem Kaddour, Haj Ali Mwela Sultan, as well as many other names from the city, that I cannot recall at the moment whom I have personally known but one day their families will  honor them and their memory will be always remembered! 

      Derna was visited, in the late 50’s by the Turkish Prime minister Adnan Menderes and I was, at that time, one of the boy scouts standing in line to greet him. We were chanting the national anthem and greeting the king Idris and his honorable guest, in front of the royal palace. 

      The former President and founder of the Republic of Tunisia, Habib Bourguiba, have resided in Derna for a certain period of time, when he was chased by the French occupiers. When he succeeded to obtain the independence and became the first Tunisian President, he did not forget the city that offered the refuge for him, neither the camarades who helped him when he was in need, fighting the French occupiers. President Bourguiba never forgot friends like Idris Al-Hneid and he visited Derna, at the edge of his glory, as President of the Republic of Tunisia, in a memorable act of gratitude for the city! 

      The hero, Fathallah Lashgar Al-Dernawi, who was a brother and a friend and with whom we used to spend long summer evenings on the beach, among our other friends (currently where the electric plant is located). We used to organize weekend excursions and Eid feasts, in the area of Ras Al-Hilal, in the green mountain, with a group of good friends. He was twenty years older than me. He had a tremendous logistic contribution in the war of Algeria, against the French occupation, as a guide for the convoy of heavy (Mercedes) trucks, through the desert. 

     The convoy was, at that time, a gift from the Prince Abdullah Abed Al-Sanoussi ( whom I’ve met and became friends in Egypt, in 1980, where he was a refugee). Tens of times, Fathallah used to serve as a night time guide for the convoy while they were crossing the desert without lights! At that time, they had neither GPS systems, nor maps and they were guided by the stars in the silent Libyan desert nights! They used to stop, during the daytime and use a camouflage desert cover to avoid being discovered by the airplanes, until they reached their destination, the Algerian rebels headquarters, in the Aures mountains! They were loaded with the weapons and ammunition, sent as a gift from President Nasser of Egypt, as well as food and medicine, donations from their brothers in Libya. All this was done in secrecy and  without alerting the French occupiers and their agents, while the Libyan heroes were taking a tremendous risk, for the liberation of Algeria, the Arab muslim neighbor, and its full independence and dignity!

 God bless! 
 Ragab Mabrouk Zatout

The City of Derna

My city Derna is located on the mediterranean sea, on the eastern shore of Libya, about two hundred miles from the Egyptian border and 900 miles from the capital, Tripoli! The city of the prophet Muhammad's companions (Sahaba) is famous for its waterfall, generosity and jihad!

For many centuries now, It is also known as “the city of curiosity” as a result of its people’s innate intelligence and their thirst for knowledge!  

Derna became, lately, famous as the capital of terror and assassinations! This is truly unfortunate and it is the result of the Islamist groups, who made from Derna their north African capital, to export the young Jihadists...They fought “their holy war” all over countries like Iraq, Afghanistan and lately in Syria. It is no surprise that Newsweek Magazine named the city of Derna as “ The Martyrdom factory”!

The origins of the people of Derna are from the west of Libya. They came, as fighters, from Tajura, Zliten, Misrata, Warfalla and other western tribes, many centuries ago. They came to support their brothers, the "Obeidat” and the “Murabitins” who asked for help in their war against the tribes of “Awlad Ali”. After fierce battles, they prevailed and the enemy (Awlad Ali)  had no other choice than to retreat to the northern Egyptian shores, which were Libyan lands at that time but they were lately changed by the British and Italian occupiers, who transformed the borderline to the separating line between the city of Emsaed, Libya and Al-Salloum, in Egypt, to the south until the Sudanese territories.

During the Qaramanli era, Derna was the second main city in Libya, after the capital Tripoli. However, it became third during the second Turkish era, after Benghazi. It kept that rank  during the Italian occupation, the days of the independence and the era of king Idris. However, under Gaddafi’s rule, because of the repetitive revolts and riots,the city was intentionally marginalized, to force its people to abdicate (surrender), therefore, it became the eighth city in Libya! 

No matter how much I write, I will not give my city, Derna, justice! Yes, It is a small city; the number of its inhabitants is currently less than a hundred and fifty thousand people. However, if we take into consideration the “Drawnas” (That’s how Libyans refer to the people who are originally from Derna) all over Libya and outside the country, the number would be half a million people, which represents 10% of the whole population of Libya!

Unfortunately, since the era of the kingdom, there are no viable (trustworthy, reliable) statistics in Libya! The city is still put on the side and marginalized, even after the 17th of February 2011 revolution, as if there’s an evil curse on the city, to stop it from thriving!

There are many reasons that led Derna and its people to this situation. The main one is that its people are naturally rebels and would oppose any ruler who would rule unfairly.

The people of Derna are not opportunists or power-hungry! At the opposite of that, they are very generous and think very highly of themselves. Instead of monopolizing the wealth, they prefer to see it spread all over the homeland, Libya!, and this can be easily demonstrated!  Many people, who are originally from Derna, reached the highest ranks and decision making positions  and they could use their positions to the benefit of the city...But they have never done that! Others have taken advantage of their positions for the benefit of their cities or tribes, either to build or construct their cities or to send their young people to study abroad, depriving other young people, especially those from Derna, from taking advantage of those opportunities! That was done upon recommendations and orders from the tyrant Gaddafi or his criminal agents. Wasn’t that a horrible crime???

People of Derna are civilized and they inherited the knowledge and the education from their fathers and ancestors, which made them always distinguished, either in the field of knowledge and culture/education or in bravery and the defense of the homeland!  Since many decades, Its brave young men have participated in many battles. The first one was in Egypt, when a group of around 500 men, led by an officer named Al-Kilani, volunteered to join the Army of Ahmad Urabi Pasha in its ultimate/ final decisive battle against the British occupiers. They bravely fought and only few of them made it back home and very unfortunately their memory was not celebrated, until now!

The Darawna are known as wonderful warriors for their homeland. In 1805, a small group of Darnawi sailors succeeded to detain the U.S Marines Ship “Philadelphia” with its crew, which was the pride of the U.S Naval forces, at that time. The Americans were unable to recuperate it and they had no choice other than destroying the ship, by a special deployed force, so that the Pasha would not be able, within his fleet, against them!

This is a long story but nothing was written about it, to tell the world about the Darawna heroes, who succeeded to take over the ship and detain it The American commander had no choice other than surrendering, instead of going to a fierce battle that would have killed all his soldiers and sailors. Unfortunately, nothing was written in the history about this memorable event or to commemorate Derna and this was done by the former regime in Libya, on purpose, to erase any honorable contribution of the city in the national libyan history! which is, obviously, very ungrateful and truly sad. Something has to be done, definitely, by the Libyan post-revolution authorities, such as building a monument, to keep the memory of Philadelphia episode alive!

We can certainly add to these honorable stories tens or hundreds of other stories that happened during the sinister occupation of Libya by the Italians, which started, obviously without any legitimate reason, in October 1911.Hundreds of martyrs have fallen for no reason and hundreds of others were sentenced to spend jail time in the Italian islands. Most of the detainees did not make it back to the homeland, obviously because of the inhuman conditions of the detention: No medication for the sick, not enough food or covers during the winter cold days, as well as inhuman and degrading detention conditions where they were treated worse than the savage beasts!

Many of Darna’s young men have joined the Senussi Army, in Egypt, during the 40’s of the last century. They played a major role in the incursions behind the enemy lines (The German and Italian troops). They destroyed, thanks to the explosives, many jet fuel tankers and storage facilities, as well as the enemy jets on the tarmac. They also saved the lives of many of the allies’ pilots, ejected from their cockpits after being hit by the enemy and they use their parachutes to land in the green mountain or in the desert. Thanks to the valuable and fast help from the locals, they could easily disappear, which made the axis soldiers lose a valuable time searching for them, in vain!

The young people of Derna, who were classmates, in the Turkish military academies with the Turkish leader Mustafa Kemal,  also fought for Turkey when it was invaded by the allies and many of them made the ultimate sacrifice defending the Turkish lands. The ones who stayed alive were promoted in the ranks! Some of them even reached the top ranks of the Turkish army, like the General Omran Al-Jathra, the General Hassan Kassar (My father’s uncle) as well as many others from Derna and its region who were, unfortunately, forgotten!

Many other heroes from Derna made the ultimate sacrifice fighting the Gaddafi regime. While he was in power, thousands have died in Libya and outside of it! Among these martyrs, more than three hundred have passed, in Abu Slim jail massacre, in Tripoli, during the nineties of the last century, which demonstrates the brutality and the cruelty of the blood-thirsty regime of the dictator Muammar Gaddafi!

That is Derna, the city where I was born, grew-up and then left for many years, before coming back to it! I will, definitely never forget it because Libya is the mother land and the city of Derna is like the pearl ornamenting its crown!

No matter how my city has been marginalized and forgotten, it will come back!

Derna, God willing, will retrieve, one day, its prestige and it will, definitely, shine all over again!

God bless!

Ragab Zatout

The Adventure 2

    Ranked third among the major cities in Libya (after Tripoli and Benghazi), the city of Derna, due to the deliberate marginalization planned by many forces at the time, who  managed to deceive  its  clever but naive people, who were always accustomed to dealing according to honor and tradition and within inherent morality, was demoted during Gaddafi’s era to the eighth place. The city was supposed to maintain its upper position for it was always the forerunner in political affairs, in the past until the present, with its enthusiastic men and youth, always ready to scarify their life for their cause. They were always considered as role models for others in that field throughout history. They proved their patriotism and courage a long time ago, when they were able to dissuade the French fleet led by the famous emperor Napoleon Bonaparte. This happened when the French fleet arrived at the shores of Derna to obtain food and water supply for its sailors. The people of Derna showed solidarity by gathering on the beach causing a commotion which made Napoleon rethink taking over the city and decided to continue on his way to Alexandria, Egypt.

There were, also, many other heroes who have fallen in Palestine, in 1948, when they tried to help their Palestinian brothers. Many families from Libyan origin, especially from the city of Derna, are living in the occupied territories, as well as in many cities of the West bank and Gaza. Also, there were other young men and heroes who have fallen martyrs in the Algerian national liberation war, who offered their lives, out of conviction, to help their Algerian brothers in their legitimate fight for freedom and dignity, from the French occupiers. Unfortunately, their memory was almost hidden from the Algerian national history, to the exception of some families, like ours The Zatouts, who lost many of its members!

I still remember that in the beginning of the sixties, during the royal era, the Algerian ambassador, upon instruction from his government, presented to my cousin, Haj Mohamed Zatout (who was at that time a representative of the city of Derna in the Libyan parliament) the official condolences, of the Algerian government, for the martyrdom of two heroes from the Zatout family, who have fallen in the battles of the mountains against the French occupiers! Isn’t this a great pride for the Zatouts?

The Zatout family, nowadays all over North Africa and most of the Arab  countries, is originally descendant from the Balawi tribe, from Medina, the city of the prophet, Muhammad (sala Allah alahi wa salem). Some of them have resided in Spain, for many centuries, before being forced to leave it under the threat of the investigation courts, trying to force them to convert to catholicism, after the fall of Granada. They settled all over north Africa and a part of them chose Derna, the city where I was born and raised.

Bravery  and martyrdom are not unknown concepts to the men of Derna. Many of its young men have   made the ultimate sacrifice, supporting the right causes all over the world and currently in Libya, in the different fronts. They are contributing with their fellow freedom fighters, to defeat the regime of ignorance, with his Gaddafi brigades and the fifth column, well infiltrated within the Libyan people. They want to cleanse the homeland, whatever the sacrifice could be and defend their principles. They have a deep conviction and a strong will that they will at the end prevail and victory, God willing, will be theirs!

Whatever I say won’t be enough to talk about Derna, the city where I was born and grew up. I know it like the palm of my hand and I have lived in it the most beautiful days of my life. Then, came the pressure of the Gaddafi regime and the nationalization ( confiscation) of my assets, which started the bad days in my life.

I was forced to live through years of psychological and financial pressures and being forced to live away from the city where I was born, in the United States. Whatever I say about Americans won’t be enough to describe how much I owe them and how grateful I am toward them. The Americans did their best with me and my family. Not only they accepted my petition, with my loved ones, as political refugees but they also provided us with all the facilities for the legal residence. The United States government provided me, and my loved ones, the political refugee status, which protected us from any extradition procedure, unlawfully intended by the Libyan authorities through the Interpol. The Americans also protected me and my loved ones from the evil revolutionary committees, who were snatching the free honorable Libyans all over Europe. Comparing to that firm American attitude, the European authorities were quite tolerant with the assassination of many Libyan opponents residing on their territories. Many investigations about those murders came to a dead-end, in exchange of financial interests and big bribes for the European decision makers, who did not really care as long as the victims were not their own citizens, because the media and the public opinion would not tolerate such abuse.

The European governments tolerated the crimes targetting the honorable free Libyan refugees, who were fleeing the injustice and let them being assassinated, as if they were rats and not human beings. Isn’t this a horrible tragedy?

At the opposite of that, the attitude of the American authorities was very clear and firm, against any attempt coming from the Libyan authorities to threaten the safety of the Libyan opponents residing on the U.S soil.

For example, during the President Reagan era, in the eighties, Gadhafi agents cowardly tried to assassinate our friend Faisal Zaglai, in Colorado. Faisal fiercely defended himself, catching the pistol aimed at him and he miraculously saved his life, losing one eye though! The criminal was arrested and was sent to jail. As soon as I heard about it, I flew from the city of Corpus Christi, Texas, on the gulf of Mexico, where I was living at that time, to Boulder, Colorado, to visit him in the hospital where he was going under surgery. He was under heavy security measures and I tried to see him but I couldn’t. Finally, he made it and I was very happy to see his wife, Dr Farida Allagui, and congratulate her for the survival of her husband from the coward attempt on his life.

The second time the Ghaddafi agents were trying to assassinate me was is Virginia Beach, VA in 1985. I was informed about it by the FBI agents, while I was totally unaware of it! I fully cooperated with the federal agents, who made a trap for the assassins and caught them red handed! They went to trial and they were sentenced to jail and I got my life safe!

I deliberately chose the migration to avoid any submission to the Ghaddafi regime. I opposed him with all what I could afford: money, time and efforts and I made a tremendous sacrifice, while my kids needed me the most! My children were young and needed my presence, while I was all the time traveling for the sake of the national politics and the opposition and challenging the Ghaddafi regime face to face and not behind curtains! My wife, Hajja Sophia, the noble woman and militant, became the mother and the father for our kids and she took good care f them!

In 1991, I challenged the regime and took a tremendous risk by coming back to Libya! It was during the worst era of the abusive regime in the country, under the authority of the revolutionary committees! The almighty made it easy on me, despite many events during 19 long years of my life. During those years, I was under a heavy load of pressure from accusations to investigations, with a lot of stress and even imprisonment from time to time and interdiction from traveling abroad, as well as the withdrawal of my Libyan passport for seven years!

During all that time I was suffering but I have never lost hope! I firmly believe that life is a fight and it shall be always about defending our noble goals and principles. We shall be always ready to defend those goals and ready to sacrifice for them because life is short and we cannot postpone death. Believing in the justice of our cause in very, very important and we shall always submit to the will of the Almighty and his justice.

The city of Derna was unfairly marginalized throughout all its modern history because of the dishonest, wrongful and unjustified accusations. It was a beacon of culture during the independence, as everyone can attest, and its people are famous for their intelligence and knowledge, to a point that it was nicknamed as “The City of curiosity” because everyone knew each other closely!

During the era of the kingdom, upon the assignment of the ministerial departments, while the ministers were chosen with consideration of the tribal and regional balance, there was a respected tradition of appointing a Dernawi (someone who’s originally from Derna) as the under-secretary of State, or the second decision maker in the department! This was due to the fact that the people of Derna were famous for being highly educated, especially when you compare them to the Bedouins, who did not have the opportunity to have a decent education under the Italian occupation. The people of Derna were the ones capable of organizing and managing the different administrative departments and they had the knowledge of putting things in order for the member of the cabinet, whose only responsibility was to sign. Things were going fairly and automatically, until came the black coup d’etat, when everything was changed to the worst, with the black Al-Fateh revolution, who changed all the known concepts and generalized the disorder under the rule of the stoned Satan (Al-Shaytan Arrajim) on our beloved and peaceful homeland.  

Any stranger who would come to the city would be warmly and generously welcomed. Meanwhile, the people of the city would try to know everything about the stranger, like any intelligence service! Something that might offend the stranger and consider it as unsolicited curiosity. Meanwhile, it is simply their way to know the stranger and his intentions, through the observation of his acts and most of the time they have an accurate judgement of the people.

Unfortunately, the west misjudged Derna, considering it as the home of the terrorism and the radical religious movements, because of the big number of mujahideen in Iraq and Afghanistan, who volunteered for Jihad and asking for martyrdom. These analysts and advisers forget to take many things in consideration. First, why these young men  made this difficult choice of being radical religious? The answer for this question shall be easily found: Emptiness and lack of economic opportunities, which could have generated a decent income. The second factor would be their marginalization ordered by the decision makers, who opted for the radical security policies based on the oppression, imprisonment and  torture, using barbaric technics. We shall add to that among the young men, there was a strong conviction of the absence of equality and justice between the people and the regions. All this was happening in the absence of free forums, where people could freely express themselves or hold a dialog, instead of the work behind curtains!

The young men did not even have access to decent sports club, where they could consume their energy in athletic activities and competitions. Therefore, they were brainwashed and used  by foreign fanatic leaders, who were promising them to win in both this world and in the after world. They were using scare tactics that we will explain in details in another blog, so that we can provide a deep analysis as well as a thorough explanation of this phenomenon. We will introduce these innocent victims and give further details about them, as well as the right ways to help them overcome their fear of the dictators and live happily, with honor and dignity within the happy religious society that they have been dreaming about, within decent programs.

Finally, I would like to say from the bottom of my heart and from my deep conscience that I am truly honored to be the son of Derna, the patient, rebel and fighting city! Libya is my mother homeland and I am  her loving son, whatever happens!

I will never forget, neither, America and its unforgettable favors in protecting my life and the lives of the innocent honorable men, like myself, as well as my loved ones. For many years, the United States protected us from the criminal death squads of the revolutionary committees, who were executing men of honor, without any conscience. They were brainwashed, thinking they were defending the justice and the right side. They were just ruthless mercenaries targeting brave men, who refused tyranny and injustice and who preferred expatriation rather than staying in a homeland commanded by some sick bastards like the psychotic colonel Gaddafi.

I am truly happy that I was guided by God’s will to choose the United States as a new home, for myself and my loved ones. Since day one, we felt how important it is to be living in a free society , which respects the human dignity. In America I learned to respect the humans from all ethnic background and whatever their religious convictions are. I learned to accept the different points of view and to maintain the dialog, no matter what our differences are. Over here, my children grew up and had the right education. They learned the right ways to success, based on the research, the hard work and the good faith, far away from stealing and perjury, as it happens it the third world countries. Overthere, still many pseudo-man are bragging that they have obtained their degrees as a result of their cheating in the exams. America protected us when we needed it most and provided us safety. We learned our lesson in the land of the Free. God bless!

                                                Ragab Mabrouk Zatout   

The Adventure

The city of Derna underwent a terrible recession in 1958, essentially due to the evil plots, staged by the British and the palace,  mainly to keep the city economically behind. This was planned especially after the 1956 Suez war, when Great Britain, France and Israel attacked Egypt  which was under the command of President Gamal Abdulnasser. The war was named after the city of Suez, whose men confronted the triple aggression (Al-Udwan Al-Thulathi) with bravery and sacrifice, to counter the enemy, who tried to occupy the canal of Suez , the precious naval access and  main  artery to the Persian gulf and the far east. Britain, France and Israel intended to strongly react to the slap of the nationalization. It was one of the worst crisis in the history of the East-West struggle. The Soviet threat of intervention in the conflict (whether it was true or just an intrigue) and the rationality of the United States to ask its allies to withdraw their forces and end the conflict, have hindered the situation from escalating in a nuclear holocaust between the East and the West, where no one can be a winner. The Egyptian Media propaganda exploited this situation in the worst of ways and started talking about an alleged victory. Unfortunately, all the Arabs, from the Persian gulf to the Atlantic ocean, believed these allegations!

It was, obviously, a bulk of lies and a huge loss of thousands of the brave Egyptian soldiers in a war, lost in advance, because of the weak and unqualified Arab leadership.

The outcome was more tangible and obvious in the terrible setback and shocking surprise of the war of 1967, when the Israeli Army by itself and without any assistance defeated the Arab armies on three fronts and annexed lands on three fronts: Sinai in Egypt, the Golan heights in Syria and east Jerusalem and the West bank under Jordanian administration.

All the Arab prestige was lost because of the dictatorship, the deceptive media and the lack of awareness of the Arab people of what was going on behind the curtains and the hidden forces, working night and day for its destruction.

We were cursed by authoritarian military rulers, who appear as patriots loyal to the cause but in actuality they were stupid ignorants. They, knowingly or unknowingly, defied plans and strategies that were previously laid out. They firmly believed they were right  and no one from the large enthusiastic  masses could tell the truth, which is a real tragedy!

At that time, the people of Derna were patriotic, highly educated and very smart. They could read between the lines and decipher, before the others, about any conspiracy! The occupier was an occupier, no matter what the cover he uses, pretending to be peaceful and looking out for the interest of the occupied people; when in fact all their actions were like needles of anesthetic intended to numb the people so they would not rise and ask for their rights and acquire their freedom and democracy.

The nationalist and patriotic people of Derna, driven by enthusiasm, asked the British troops, who had their camp in the city, to leave, even though the city was thriving essentially on the presence of those British camps! They were brainwashed by the Arab nationalist propaganda and the dogmatic speeches of Egyptian president, Nasser; so they did not really calculate the impact of their action on the future of their city!  The British occupiers were shrewd, they may smile at you but they stab you in the back, as soon as they have the opportunity to do that!

Finally, the British conspired with their men in the palace, who hated the city and wanted it always to remain backwards. The British withdrew their troops, once and for all, toward Benghazi and Tobruk. Since that time Derna became besieged and jobless! It no longer had attractive business opportunities for the people from neighboring areas who used to visit the city to wheel and deal their agricultural products and livestock. The city started progressively to lose its importance and luster. Its inhabitants started to leave for better economic opportunities. With time, it retracted backwards as a result of its lack of vision, its fake radicalism and its defiance to the hidden giants, unable to coexist with them, respecting them or even taking as much possible advantage of them to get rid of  their difficult reality. Despite their intelligence and smartness, they finished by becoming miserable and marginalized and this is the fair price for their ignorance. They forgot that the general interest requires the intelligent use of the brains and the sages, in order to reach the higher goals.

With time (progressively) and as result of the deprivation, refusal, instability and lack of vision of the authorities and the decision makers and the frustration as well as the withdrawal of the strong men, the city started to go backward. As a result of the wrong policies and the corrupt revolutionary  committees, ignorants and criminals took the command of the city. They were unscrupulously stealing the city’s budget  which they were unlawfully and secretly dividing among themselves. These people had neither consciousness to dissuade them nor legal authority  to prosecute them for their abuses.

This filthy environment facilitated the germination of radical groups, under the cover of religion, who were asking for reforms and jihad against the injustice and corruption. These groups were taking the religion as a cover and a mask, which made them very convincing for the simple citizens.

We Libyans are all muslims, who believe in Allah and the Islamic faith, including its tolerant rule, out of strong conviction and a deep spiritual belief. Islam is well rooted in our hearts, without violence. There is no one and no authority, no matter how radical or fanatic it can be, that can deviate us from our faith or direct us toward its ideology or  take it from our hearts and souls, except the almighty Allah!

 

Meanwhile, these people are stuck with the fundamentals and forgot very  important aspects of our religion. For example, they forgot that the Islam orders us, muslims, to seek the knowledge wherever it is, in accordance with the prophet Muhammad Hadith “Seek the knowledge even in China”  which was considered, at that time, the end of the world! This Hadith did not come out of nowhere but it is inspired to the prophet by the almighty Allah. God instructed us the right path and the peace, a noble feeling coming from the bottom of the heart and the consciousness . Allah specifically ordered us to abstain from violence, terror, murder and blood and to  continuously build good rapports , in good faith and between all humans, since confidence is the basis of the comfortable and happy life. The violence can only provoke violence and revenge and consequently there is no winner in this situation, since who ever is the winner will live in fear and terror, all the time, expecting the revenge that can occur anytime!

         

Humans have to cooperate and help each other, within the rules of good ethics, following the clear commandment of Allah: “ No violence in religion”

We are living today in the beginning of the 21st century and the world  has changed from the ignorance and the backwardness of the past to the era of globalization, built on progress and science. We are nowadays far away from the intrigues and the revenge. We’re living the era of Human Rights and the protection of minorities, whatever is their religion or orientation. Earth is not the property of any specific group of humans but it belongs to all the humanity. The faith shall always remain as an individual freedom and a personal choice. For example, if someone is not a believer or defies God willingly or unwillingly, are we, as humans, allowed to make pressure on him and force (through the use of violence or coercion) him to follow our faith, while many of us are radicals , who ignore  the true commandments of the religion?

Who gave us the right to be the unfair judges and the executioners at the same time? At that time, the sinner, instead of accepting the punishment  out of conviction, would certainly protest! These are questions that belong to God that we cannot understand the true motivation, whatever we do, because it is the will of God. Allah, the Almighty is, undoubtedly, able, in seconds, to lead us all to the same religion, prevent evil from existing inside us and in our lives, in this world and in the afterlife and make all humans tolerant. However, this is the basic essence of life; as much as there is goodness, security, safety and peace, there is evil and satan, who has been trying, since the first existence of humans on earth during the days of Adam and Eve, to deviate them from the right path.  Only the weak, the fool who pretends to be knowledgeable, would commit mortal mistakes, follow evil and defy the almighty. Therefore, he will be losing in our world and in the after-world!

What I want to underline in the respect for the human being as a human, whatever is his religion or color. We are all humans created from the same origin and earth can contain all of us. We can all get together  and live with love and real peace, instead of violence and fake challenges. We can all live in harmony and happiness because because we all need each other,no matter what can be the difference of our views . We can achieve that only through the honest dialog, confidence and paying respect to the others, especially the hidden powers and lobbies who are in control of this world, within sophisticated organigrams that we’re not able to understand. We have to use our brains in all consciousness and follow the modern science and latest technologies. We cannot defy with ignorance and arrogance or explain the sophisticated problematics as we want. We shall learn and train ourselves, whether we like it or not, for the cohabitation with the others, with all the due respect, within our religion and ethics. This is much better for us, instead of trying to obstruct their plans, or play with the fire pretending not to be aware that , one day, it will burn us. We have to train ourselves to move on and make abstraction of the futilities and the fake dilemmas. We shall avoid all confrontations or opposition to it so that they leave us to live in peace because as individuals, whatever our force can be, we will always be like an ant facing a high speed train who would smash us without even being aware of it!  

   

Well, our Tunisian brother said, spontaneously, during the revolution of January 14, 2011, in Tunisia: “We got old”! I, the Libyan revolutionary and long time militant within the Libyan opposition to Gaddafi, say: “We have learned a lot!”

I really don’t want to see the homeland, who’s going through a terrible 'giving-birth' period, facing a tremendous failure and falling in the trap, after the fall of Ghaddafi regime, as a result of lies and fake allegiances! Libya has to be very patient and learn! As I previously said, we have to avoid defying the hidden powers, who have a capital interest in our homeland! We have no choice other than to respect them and to cohabitate with them, as much as possible, so that we can be useful and take advantage, in the same time. We have to avoid radicalism and not to pretend to be strong, because WE ARE NOT! We have to be moderate and avoid to require too much or pretend the strength and the knowledge while we’re wea! We have to avoid demanding too much so that we don’t get confused and lose everything!

Meanwhile, we also have to avoid becoming weak followers, stupidly following their orders, or also being extremists, so that we don’t lose the sympathy of the world and the coming battles!

We simply have to accept our reality, without fake pride and use our wisdom. We have to always keep in mind our supreme goal! We have to avoid pushing the pretext of the dignity and patriotism or ask the super powers to treat us as equal to them because they’re running at the speed of sound while we’re still crawling! We also have to support each other and avoid competition, in the sense that we have to be aware of what’s going on around us, because it is a fierce competition and a real fight! We are obviously capable of winning the game and easily keep our dignity and pride, at the sine qua non condition of following the rules of the game and to cohabitate respectfully with the hidden powers, until we got the due respect among the civilized nations.

At the end, I can only reiterate and say again: “We’ve learned our lesson”!

God bless

Ragab Mabruk Zatout

The Independence

 
The 24th of December 1951 was a memorable day in the history of the Libyan modern state who rose from the ashes of the previous eras. Libya was part of the ancient  Greeks and Romans before  the Islamic conquests. Then, it became part of the  Ottoman era and Karamanli dynasty. Libya enjoyed the  advantages but also  endured  the tragedies of those eras. Later came the American invasion and the occupation of the city of Derna where the American Flag was raised for the first time outside  of  US territory for a short time before their subsequent withdrawal. Afterwards, it became part of the second Turkish era before the Italian invasion and the two world wars, the consequences of which were catastrophic on the innocent Libyan people who had nothing to do with the war. Finally came the independence for the first time in the history of Libya.

First, it was the result of the Jihad and the merciless fight and sacrifice for the homeland. This, was started in the east, under the leadership of the Sanussi family who had a great (tremendous) contribution in the direction of the battle. As well as the hero, Omar Al-Mukhtar who was a sheikh of one of its Zawiyas (Sanussias) who fought fiercely until he fell wounded  in a battle. He was identified and faced a quick trial and later hanged by the Italians, under the command of the General Grazziani. He was hanged without mercy or consideration for his old age (he was 80 years old).

In the west and south, there were many leaders and heroes as well as unknown soldiers whose stories are still untold, but their memory will remain with the Creator forever because they didn't give up and they scarified their lives for the sake of the freedom of the homeland and to get rid of the Italian occupier.

Second, as a result of the cold war, Libya became an independent state, a poor country with a small population, as a result of poverty, wars, starvation and ethnic cleansing. In the past, hidden forces  and the super powers ignored and marginalized Libya. It was not until the era of King Idris (may Allah rest his soul), the first and last monarch, when there was an explosion of wealth with the beginning of the oil production. This was a great reward and a gift from Allah to the poor Libya, who suffered tremendously all along its history and paid the high price, in blood and tears throughout all the empires and kingdoms of the preceding eras.

Libya had been a land of transit for the civilizations and the different conquering armies, who had forgotten, or made forgotten the previous civilizations who dominated its lands. Libya was the cradle of  ancient civilizations, like the advanced Garamantes civilization in the south west. They are credited for using underground irrigation systems. There are many rock art remaining in the Fezzan area of Libya, as well as a huge area that has not been excavated. One day, all this will be discovered and when that will happen, it will change the history of the world and prove to everyone that Libya had a great contribution to the human civilization and its progress.

The new kingdom came out of the blue and crossed its way through the darkness to the daylight.

At the opposite of what the old regime media was pretending, out of ignorance, so that the era of the kingdom wouldn’t have the due respect, even though it lasted for eighteen years. The independence of Libya was not an easy accomplishment, as described by the Gaddafi regime media. The honorable man of Libya made a huge sacrifice. Pushed by their strong faith, will, and determination to end the aggression, whatever the cost would be and the price to pay. Barefoot and hungry toward an independent state of Libya, for Libyans, who does not follow or receive instructions from anyone. They would not stop their dream until they reached their goal and accomplished the independence of the homeland.

After the end of World War II, the allies divided the cake among them. Libya was temporarily part of the British empire. There was a non binding agreement between the prince Idris Alsanussi (head of the Sanussi Rite, after his uncle, Sid Ahmed Alsanussi who abdicated the throne, before leaving to Istanbul) and the British forces, stipulating that the Eastern province would support the allies in their war against the Axis. In counterpart the allies would recognize Barga and its right for auto-determination. A pro Allies battalion was founded to support the Allies efforts in the War. The Sanussis played an important role in the War, through its leaders and supporters, providing the Allies with valuable intelligence about the Axis forces. As a result of that intelligence, many temporary airfields, as well as, several weapon storage rooms, belonging to the Axis forces, were destroyed by the Allies air forces (no satellites at that time) which made it very difficult for the Axis forces to make any advance in the war.

The Sanussi Army made many heroic acts (unfortunately only few of them were ever mentioned) that tremendously benefited the Allied forces, such as saving the life of the ejected pilots from crash jets (during the air battles from the Axis air force or shot down from the land). As well as providing, guides for the explosive teams to destroy the weapon storage facilities and ammunition, fuel and landed aircrafts and much other logistic help. After the victory of the allies, the Sanussis requested the British to fulfill their promise. The political movement continued all over Libya through strikes and demonstrations during the time of the British administration from 1944 to 1951. After many meetings, challenges, differences and competition, they reached an agreement to nominate the prince Idris Al-Sanussi as the leader and the first king of the country. They were honest men of honor and incorruptible. They only cared about the interest of Libya and the unity of the homeland. They set aside all their internal quarrels and made the liberation of Libya their ultimate goal, as well as, the creation of a new state.

        Great Britain opposed the union and independence of Libya, behind the curtains, with all the intrigues and political shrewdness, fruit of its global expertise in keeping peoples under control, in many corners of the globe. The British were accustomed to create problems between leaders and abolish their creation of political parties and groups of interest. They utilized many pretexts to stop the people from learning political games and how to make their point. They neglected the fact that Libyans were born naturally intelligent, very patient and extremely brave, which makes them resilient and ready to easily make sacrifices when needed.  The last thing they needed was to witness the giant coming out of the bottle.

        A great fortunate event that played a major role in the independence of Libya occurred when Russia requested the use of one of the Libyan seaports as a naval base. The West was obviously horrified over the Russian/Communist presence in the Mediterranean basin. After many rounds of deliberation, they reached an agreement to submit the case to the United Nations council to decide. Obviously, it was a well-planned strategy, organized by the West to keep Libya under their control. The plan was to keep Tripoli under Italian control, even though Italy lost the war, Barga under British control and Fezzan under French control. The Allies who won the war were dividing our homeland without any consultation with us. They did not even inform us. How tragic is that?

        The homeland is valuable and has its honest and great men who are incorruptible. The Libyan delegation members, Mr. Omar Faiq Shenib, Mr. Abdulraziq Shagloof and other good and patriotic men have succeeded to establish strong ties with other states’ representatives, which had a tremendous effect on the outcome of the vote. On the day of the vote at the council, it was a tied game, half of the members for the independence of Libya and the other half against Libyan autonomy. The remaining vote was the representative of Haiti, who was a friend of the Libyans and instead of following the instructions of his government (who ordered him to vote for the west), he gave his vote for Libya. That was a big slap on the face of Great Britian and a great victory for the Libyan delegation in New York.

        The Libyan people were excited with jubilation upon hearing the good news and happiness spread throughout the country. Unfortunately, there was no mention of the real hero, Emile San Lao. Great Britain was very upset and out of anger and grudge it refused to pay the Libyan delegation expenses (hotel accommodation, food and travel expenses). The delegation members had no other choice than to borrow an amount of money to pay their bills and travel tickets back to Libya.

Moreover, under Western pressures,  the Haitian government terminated  Mr. Emile San Lao from his position which pushed him to poverty at an old age. He even visited the Libyan consulate in New York City to ask  for help. Unfortunately, his request was denied from Tripoli which reflected the ingratitude of the Libyan government under Gaddafi's rule.  How tragic was that?!

To summarize the situation, we can say that Britain intended to rule Libya through deception, using the Sanussi family as  a cover while the real rulers were the Shalhis. It also revived the tribal and regional sensitivities, until they gained influence, especially in the Western province of Libya. There was a competition between the Sharif family and the Shali family. Each side was demanding British support, assistance and patronage, especially, when oil was discovered in large quantities with great quality.  The situation got worse because of the unwillingness of King Idris to continue to rule the country as he got older and wanted to retire and seek refuge in the oases of Jaghbub.

Meanwhile, the opportunists, hypocrites and social climbers succeeded to manipulate the masses to come together,  from all over Libya, and march toward the royal palace in Tobruk, to request the king to revoke his resignation. The pressure escalated upon King Idris when he went out to the balcony and saw the thousands of Libyans  chanting and demanding him to stay in power. The King was not aware of what was happening behind the scenes and the lobbies taking advantage of maintaining him on the throne. All what those greedy lobbies wanted was to remain in the effective power and fatten their accounts with the stolen wealth from the oil commissions.

They certainly forgot that the people would one day wake up and demand their right to freedom and independence. No matter how long it takes, individuals would die and vanish one day; but peoples remain alive until the end of days. The competition and challenges between the two families escalated to murder and assassinations of one another. This situation resulted in the hidden forces and international lobbies strongly supporting the ‘black coup’ (Fateh Revolution) of the 1st of September 1969, when a monster reached power and destroyed Libya with terror and oppression for more than 42 years. God Almighty finally granted us the glorified revolution and the monster tyrant  was destroyed forever.

May Allah rest the soul of King Idris, the descendent of the noble family, who tremendously suffered from the intrigues and conspiracies of some of the men of his era. One of the most important statements that I have heard in his speech on the radio in the first celebration of the independence was: ‘keeping the independence is harder  than obtaining it.’

Now that we are freed  twice; the first one was from the Italian colonization and the second was from the dictatorship, I ask everyone to strongly keep the king legacy and not to forget it with time so that we enjoy our independence and stay forever free.

This is a memorable legacy that can not  be forgotten, because it is the first time for Libya to become an independant state. This was the fruit of a fierce fight and sturple against oppression under all its forms and names.

We ask the Almighty Allah to keep our wealth and that the good men among the revolutionaries, keep their eyes open so that our revolution won’t be stolen by other adventurers and that we keep our independence, the backbone of our union, cohesion and strength.  Only then we would  go together forwards.

God bless.

Ragab M. Zatout