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
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