ISLAMIST INTRIGUE

PLAYING IMAM: ’s former leader leads mass prayers in Agadez, 2007.REUTERS/Sam uel De Jaegere The new Libya struggles with a twisted legacy: a Muslim humanitarian network that ran covert operations Gaddafi’s secret missionaries

By tom heneghan, religion editor

TRIPOLI, March 28, 2012

n a tidy campus in his capital of Tripoli, dictator Muammar Gaddafi sponsored one of the world’s leading Muslim missionary networks. It Owas the smiling face of his Libyan regime, and the world smiled back. The World Islamic Call Society (WICS) sent staffers out to build mosques and provide humanitarian relief. It gave poor students a free university educa- tion, in religion, finance and computer science. Its missionaries traversed Africa preaching a moderate, Sufi-tinged version of Islam as an alternative to the strict

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Wahhabism that Saudi Arabia was spread- Global reach “Huge amounts of money are involved. I ing. The World Islamic Society operates think we’re talking about one to two billion The Society won approval in high places. in 36 countries: dollars.” The Vatican counted it among its partners BACK CHANNEL in Christian-Muslim dialogue and both AFRICA Pope John Paul and Pope Benedict received , Gambia, , In a new book, Gaddafi’s former foreign its secretary general. Archbishop of Can- Kenya, Libya, Madagascar, minister alleges that the dictator used the terbury Rowan Williams, spiritual head of , Nigeria, , Tunisia Society as a back channel to secretly agitate the world’s Anglicans, visited the campus against Christian heads of state in Africa in 2009 to deliver a lecture. The follow- AMERICAS and support Muslim groups seeking power. ing year, the U.S. State Department noted Brazil, Canada, He accuses the Society’s former secretary approvingly how the Society had helped Guyana, U.S. general, Mohammad Ahmed Al Sharif, of Filipino Christian migrant workers start a personally delivering cash to African lead- church in Libya. ASIA-PACIFIC ers to finance election campaigns. But the Society had a darker side that Australia, India, Japan, “From the start, Gaddafi wanted the occasionally flashed into view. In Africa, Kuwait, Malaysia, Maldives, WICS to be one of the foreign arms af- rumours abounded for years of Society , Philippines, filiated to him personally,” Abdel Rahman staffers paying off local politicians or sup- South Korea, , Yemen Shalgam writes in the -language porting insurgent groups. In 2004, an book, “Men Around Gaddafi.” “Among American Muslim leader was convicted of EUROPE the locals, the World Islamic Call Society a plot to assassinate the Saudi crown prince, Austria, Cyprus, Germany, was known as the World Security Call So- financed in part by the Society. In 2011, Greece, Italy, Malta, ciety,” says Shalgam, now Libya’s ambassa- Canada stripped the local Society office of Netherlands, Serbia, dor at the in New York. its charity status after it found the direc- Switzerland, Turkey, U.K. The facade of semi-independence from tor had diverted Society money to a radical Source: WICS the regime collapsed completely when group that had attempted a coup in Trini- Libya’s revolution broke out early last year. dad and Tobago in 1990 and was linked to Sharif turned to Russia and Sri Lanka in a plot to bomb New York’s Kennedy Air- failed bids to get them to mediate with the port in 2007. A committee led by a leading anti-Gad- rebels. Now, with the Gaddafi regime gone, it is dafi Islamic scholar, Sheikh Al Dokali Mo- Shalgam accuses Sharif of using WICS possible to piece together a fuller picture of hammed Al Alem, is now investigating the money to rush African mercenaries to Lib- this two-faced group. Interviews with three Society’s activities. Their report may take ya to fight for Gaddafi. Defence Minister dozen current and former Society staff and months to appear, but a Reuters investiga- Osama Al Juweli has alleged that the tele- Libyan officials, religious leaders and exiles, tion has found Libyan officials in Tripoli vision studio on the Society campus was as well as analysis of its relations with the now say openly what under Gaddafi was used to edit video to make it appear that West, show how this arm of the Gaddafi taboo - that the religious Society was al- NATO bombing had hit civilian areas of regime was able to sustain a decades-long lied to a huge shadow network, especially Tripoli. double game. in Africa. Sharif told Reuters he can refute the Yet Libya’s new leaders, the same ones “There are still some loose ends in the charges against him, but will not speak who fought bitterly to overthrow Gaddafi Islamic Call Society in Africa,” said Noman publicly until an official inquiry is finished. and dismantle his 42-year dictatorship, Benotman, a former member of an al-Qa- The intriguing question is how the So- are unanimous in wanting to preserve the eda-linked Libyan Islamist group who now ciety escaped Western scrutiny for so long. WICS. They say they can disentangle its re- works on deradicalisation of jihadists at the One likely reason is that it seemed like ligious work from the dirty tricks it played Quilliam Foundation in London. small fish by Libyan standards. Gaddafi was and retain the Society as a legitimate reli- “They still have a lot of money going himself bizarre – President Ronald Reagan gious charity – and an instrument of soft around through these channels that used to called him “the mad dog of the Middle power for oil-rich Libya. belong to the Islamic Call Society,” he said. East.” And his role in backing Palestinian

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fighters, African insurgents, the Irish Re- people knew the Society’s real size and in- publican Army and the Lockerbie bombers fluence. It answered only to Gaddafi, and was provocative enough to overshadow an its financial transactions were exempt from NGO of preachers. all taxes and duties. Massoud Al Wazni, a Its active interest in interfaith dialogue member of the committee now oversee- also helped burnish its image. More than ing it, said the annual budget was about that, the moderate version of Islam that $45 million and the central staff numbered WICS preachers spread looked increasing- about 900, with about 2,000 Arabic teach- ly attractive after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks ers and as many Muslim preachers around on the United States carried out by mostly the world. Wazni gave no other details of Saudi hijackers. the budget figure. Saudi Arabia has exported its strict That figure could not account for the Wahhabi Islam through its own missionary large amounts of cash that Shalgam alleges society, the Muslim World League, since Sharif regularly had delivered to African 1962. Gaddafi’s bitter rivalry with Riyadh leaders. Asked about these payments, one extended to Islam as well, and the Society Society official said he himself was once competed with the League to build free ordered to deliver briefcases with $25,000 SPEAKER: Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, pictured here mosques and schools around the world. each to two cabinet ministers while on giving a book to Pope Benedict XVI, delivered This became a strategic asset when Gad- routine Society work in an African coun- a lecture at the Society on behalf of the World dafi patched up relations with the West in try. When he refused, he was called back to Council of Churches in January 2011 REUTERS/ 2003 by taking responsibility for the 1998 Tripoli and jailed for a short time. Osservatore Romano Lockerbie bombings and abandoning his LIBYA TOO SMALL FOR GADDAFI pursuit of weapons of mass destruction. Rev Dr. Olav Fykse Tveit, General Sec- When he seized power in 1969 as a 27-year- retary of the Geneva-based World Council old army captain, Gaddafi dreamed of suc- leadership. of Churches, delivered a lecture at the So- ceeding Egypt’s Gamal Abdul Nasser as The Society was described as indepen- ciety in January 2011. He says dealing with the new champion of and dent of the government, but financed from Gaddafi’s Libya required a delicate balance. Third World revolution. the same Jihad Fund as the Palestinians: a “Our faith calls us to speak with everyone,” The Palestinian cause was central to his tax of three percent on all individuals and he said, stressing the WCC did not know plans. He created a “Jihad Fund” to help four percent on all companies working in any specific allegations against the Society finance Palestinian guerrillas and had the Libya. when he visited. “We understand the risk Palestinian militants who had been killed Benotman, who has studied the Soci- involved and the complexity of situations at the 1972 Munich Olympics buried as ety in detail, said an NGO like that was a such as this.” heroes in Tripoli. Gaddafi also created an classic fig leaf for undercover work. “At the Today, the transitional Libyan govern- “Islamic Legion” that fought in the , hard core of the structure of the Call Soci- ment is grappling with what to do about and . He supported liber- ety, there were officers from the intelligence the Society. Its former leader, Sharif, has ation movements across Africa and shipped service,” he said. “You can’t give this work to been sacked and a long official investiga- huge supplies of arms and money to the the preachers. You have to trust your intel- tion is underway. But most of its staff is still Irish Republican Army. ligence members within the Call Society to in place. Rather than scrap the Society as Launched in 1972, the Society was pre- carry on this work as field officers.” a Gaddafi-tainted institution, the govern- sented as the human face of his revolution, The WICS’s focus was Africa, especially ment is pursuing a modest purge. building mosques, schools and clinics for the large Muslim communities in West “The Society was misused by the Gad- needy Muslims around the globe. After Africa and the Sahel region that Gaddafi dafi regime. It was part of his intelligence the ’ defeat by Israel in the 1967 war, considered Libya’s back yard. But it also (network),” said Deputy Prime Minister calls for some kind of Islamic government built mosques and Islamic centres in Bel- Mustafa Abushagur. “Clearly, the Society were growing in the Middle East. Creat- gium, Denmark, France, Germany, Malta itself has a good mission if it is done right.” ing the Society was a nod in that direction and the Netherlands. It contributed along During the Libyan dictatorship, few and proved popular with Libya’s religious with other Arab states to the construction

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of the huge mosque in Rome and the Cen- weren’t sure why Tripoli wanted to restart tral Mosque in London. It was also active talks, but agreed to two colloquia in 1990 in the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia. and two more meetings in 1993 and 1997. “Libya was too small for him,” said for- According to a religious source in Tripoli, mer ambassador Saad El Shlmani, now Gaddafi used the Society’s links to the Vat- Foreign Ministry spokesman. “He wanted ican in a last-ditch effort to avoid the U.N. to be the leader of all the Africans, of all the sanctions. Muslims, of the whole world.” Just before the U.N. embargo, then-for- eign minister Shalgam visited the Vatican SHOWDOWN WITH THE WEST looking for help. The Catholic bishop in Insiders say the Society’s back-channel op- Tripoli, Giovanni Martinelli, appealed to erations developed during the 1980s. “You Western states not to humiliate Gaddafi have to link this with the international po- but seek dialogue with him. After this ef- litical atmosphere,” said Nagi El Hadi El fort failed, Gaddafi continued to woo the Haraam, a WICS auditor now helping in- ALLY: Muslim preacher Louis Farrakhan, pictured Vatican with promises of better conditions vestigate the group’s inner workings. here in 1997, said in March 2011 Libya had lent for the tiny Catholic community in Libya. By the 1980s, Gaddafi’s firebrand for- the Nation of Islam $8 million over the years and In a propaganda coup for Gaddafi, eign policy had made him enemies across defended ‘Brother Gaddafi’. A memo that month Vatican Foreign Minister Jean-Louis Tau- the West and the Middle East. The United suggested the WIPL helped REUTERS/Faleh ran visited Libya in 1994. He made the last States had listed Libya as a state supporter Kheiber leg of the journey from southern Tunisia to of terrorism in 1979, closed its embassy the Tripoli by car because of the embargo on air next year and imposed ever tighter embar- traffic. Washington watched with concern goes on American trade with Libya. Brit- The WIPL was “a foreign body embed- as the Church’s relations with Tripoli im- ain broke off diplomatic relations in 1984 ded into the Call Society,” said Haraam, the proved, and tried to persuade it not to es- after a London policewoman was killed by Society auditor. tablish diplomatic relations, but Pope John gunfire from the Libyan embassy during a With its international network, the So- Paul went ahead and recognised Libya in protest there. ciety offered a handy cover to evade bans 1997. The United States finally lost patience on financial transactions. As an indepen- Asked why it marched out of step with and bombed Libya in 1986, hitting sus- dent NGO, it was not subject to the U.N. Western countries, a Vatican spokesman pected terrorist training centres in Tripoli embargo or unilateral bans imposed by said the Holy See maintained diplomatic and Benghazi, including Gaddafi’s com- the United States. A 1990 American dip- relations with states, not governments. pound in the capital. When Pan Am Flight lomatic cable from Khartoum, revealed by “Such relations have the primary aim of 103 exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland, in WikiLeaks, describes the WICS as a Lib- favouring the good of the local Church,” 1988, killing 270, Gaddafi was suspected yan “front group” active in propaganda but he said. The Vatican also felt that ties with of ordering the attack to avenge the U.S. has no other details about it. Tripoli opened an avenue for a dialogue. bombing. The WIPL office at WICS headquar- FOCUS ON AFRICA Shortly after Lockerbie, Gaddafi cre- ters began to buzz with activity three years ated the World Islamic Popular Leadership later, around the time the United Nations In the 1990s, the Society expanded its work (WIPL) as a separate department within imposed a tight embargo on Libya for in Africa, stepping up its “Islamic convoys” the Society, answerable to General Secre- not handing over the suspected Lockerbie of medicines, clothes and food as far down tary Sharif. The WIPL was to mobilise Is- bombers. Gaddafi “started funnelling cash as southern Africa. It held conferences on lamic leaders around the world to support into this office so he would support African education, culture and the links between Muslim militants in Chechnya, Kosovo and countries and ... have some sort of room to African and Arab societies on the conti- Somalia, defend Muslim women wearing move,” auditor Haraam said.”He would not nent. It also funded Islamic radio stations headscarves in Europe and encourage black be totally cornered.” in Togo, Benin, , Cameroon, Mali and Muslims in the United States. Among the It was also in 1989 that the Society re- South Africa. allies Gaddafi won was black nationalist vived a dialogue with the Vatican begun in African leaders spoke out increasingly Muslim preacher Louis Farrakhan. 1976 but lapsed since then. The Catholics loudly against the U.N. embargo. South

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African President Nelson Mandela vis- When Gaddafi went to ing up its programme of weapons of mass ited Tripoli in 1997 to thank Gaddafi for an African country, of course he destruction signalled Libya’s willingness to supporting the African National Congress would use our infrastructure there end its pariah period and build better rela- during the apartheid years and to condemn – if you opposed his will, you knew tions with the West. the embargo. He also had to make the final what would happen. It was around this time that the Society’s leg of the trip by car. mask slipped to reveal what became the The highlight of Gaddafi’s charm of- Nagi El Hadi El Haraam best-documented case of its intelligence fensive came with a series of so-called WICS auditor work. “defiance tours” in convoys through West Abdurahman Muhammad Alamoudi, Africa. On the first of these road shows in ety preachers in the country to mobilise the a Yemeni-born U.S. Muslim leader who 1997, the man who billed himself as “the crowds, and contacting local officials to ar- sometimes advised the State Department Revolutionary Muslim” led huge prayer range meetings between Gaddafi and the on interfaith relations, was arrested in sessions in Niami, the capital of , and influential tribal and religious leaders in the Washington in September 2003 on return in Kano in northern Nigeria. On his third region. from a long trip to Britain, Syria, Egypt swing through the region in 2000, he took and Libya. THE MASK SLIPS in Niger, , Ghana and Togo, As his grand jury indictment a month “crossing more than 4,000 km through The United Nations partially suspended later alleged, Alamoudi had met a Libyan cities, villages, deserts, jungles, plains and its sanctions, allowing air travel and indus- at a London hotel in August who gave modern towns,” as one Society report put it. trial equipment sales to resume, after Libya him “$340,000 in cash from the Islamic WICS staff were drafted in to help or- handed over the two Libyan suspects in Call Society, a branch of the Government ganise and support the visits. “When he the Lockerbie bombing to a court at The of Libya.” That sum was part of at least went to an African country, of course he Hague in 1999. $910,000 he had received over eight years would use our infrastructure there – if you The sanctions were fully lifted in Sep- from Libya, depositing it in foreign banks opposed his will, you knew what would tember 2003 when Tripoli agreed to pay and withdrawing small sums to avoid alert- happen,” said Haraam, referring to the lo- $2.7 billion in compensation to the 270 ing U.S. authorities. cal Society offices and the contacts the staff families of the Lockerbie victims. Its an- In plea negotiations, Alamoudi re- had. Among their tasks was helping Soci- nouncement in December that it was giv- vealed he had used some of the money to pay two Saudi dissidents to assassinate the then Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah, Gad- dafi’s rival, who is now the Saudi king. He pleaded guilty in 2004 and was sentenced to 23 years in prison, although his expected release date is now 2018. Even after the embargos were lifted, Gaddafi continued showering attention on Africa, partly for propaganda at home. “The WICS people on the ground would organise marches and receptions and take his picture everywhere,” said Shlmani, the former diplomat in Africa. “Back here in Libya, we’d see him on TV presented as a popular man. He was unpopular here and he wanted to show he was popular abroad.” How much these visits cost is not clear. A U.S. diplomatic cable from Mali, revealed by WikiLeaks, quoted an embassy source AFRICAN BROTHER: Gaddafi was presented on Libyan TV as a popular man in Africa. Here he close to Gaddafi as saying Libya had paid examines the flag at a summit in 2009. REUTERS/Ca rlos Garcia Rawlins up to $10 million for festivities during the

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dictator’s visit to Timbuktu in April 2006. The WICS mask slipped again in 2010 From “Islamic convoys” to education when the Canada Revenue Agency audited the Society’s office in London, Ontario, If outsiders didn’t notice the dark side of and Asia. “I could not have had a university and concluded it got all its funds from Lib- WICS, it’s probably because the Society has education without this scholarship,” said ya and distributed them mostly to Muslim done so much legitimate work as a religious Salman Balamaze, an Arabic language recipients outside Canada. In 1998, it said, and humanitarian NGO. It has built scores major from Uganda, on the campus. the office transferred $216,735.41 to recipi- of mosques and Islamic centres for Muslim The ICC has opened branch colleges in ents in the United States and Trinidad. The communities around the world and set up Damascus, Ndjamena and Dakar as well as a next year, it sent $350,135.60 to the United hospitals and clinics, especially in many department of Arabic Language and Islamic States, Egypt and Trinidad. The agency African countries. Culture at Benin’s National University. It has found that the Alamoudi plea deal proved The Society’s offices in 36 countries also financed the Muslim College in London. the Society and its network were “used as a employ about 2,000 teachers – many of The WICS claims to have won over front to disguise the true origin and desti- them Arabic language instructors – and as 300,000 converts to Islam, 5,545 inspired nation of funds in an effort to circumvent many preachers, or “doats,” to spread the by Gaddafi himself. It espouses Libya’s sanctions against Libya.” Canada revoked Muslim faith. traditional, Sufi-inspired Islam. This has put the office’s charitable status in March 2011. Since the early 1980s, WICS has sent it in competition with Saudi Arabia’s Muslim The transfers to Trinidad, which add- “Islamic convoys” to needy African countries World League, which has been spreading ed up to over $180,000, pointed to an- with trucks full of medicines, food, clothing the kingdom’s strict Wahhabi doctrines since other piece in the Society’s double game. and other relief aid. During Ramadan, it 1962. They were made to Jamaat al-Muslimeen sends Libyan preachers and Koran reciters to The WICS also actively preached interfaith (“Muslim Community”), whose leader had Muslim communities and distributes food for understanding. It launched a dialogue with tried to overthrow the Trinidad and Tobago celebrations of iftar, the evening break in the the Vatican as far back as 1976 and later government in 1990 with Libyan money day-long fast. It has also provided free Haj expanded to meet with Anglicans, mainline and arms. trips to Mecca for hundreds of Muslims from and evangelical Protestants. 60 different countries. Pope Benedict met a WICS delegation UNDER THE WESTERN RADAR The Islamic Call College (ICC) at the in Rome in 2008 and Archbishop of If Western religious and political officials Tripoli campus has graduated about 7,000 Canterbury Rowan Williams, spiritual leader suspected anything untoward about the students from 92 countries since opening in of the world’s Anglicans, gave a lecture at Society, its religious work and its leader’s 1974. The 80 faculty members focus mainly the Tripoli campus the following year. Rev. personal diplomacy apparently dampened on Islamic studies, but students can also Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, secretary general of the their doubts. Vatican officials met their So- major in secular studies such as finance or World Council of Churches (WCC), spoke at ciety counterparts in Rome in 2004, and computer science. WICS in January 2011. Pope Benedict received a Society delega- The education is completely free, a key tion at the Vatican in 2008. attraction for many students from Africa By Tom Heneghan A Catholic priest who took part in sev- eral dialogue sessions with the Society said the Vatican had heard rumours about its activities in Africa, but was more concerned that it was trying to bribe Africans into converting to Islam than about purported BRANCH COLLEGES: political high jinks. “There were suspicions The Society employs (of bribery for conversions) but we didn’t around 2,000 teachers. find any proof,” he said. Pictured here, the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Wil- Muslim College in liams delivered a lecture on divine revela- London, which it has tion to the Islamic Call College during a financed REUTERS/ visit to Tripoli in 2009. His website de- Toby Melville

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Libya had lent the Nation of Islam $8 mil- lion over the years. At his news conference, Farrakhan, a deputy chairman of the WIPL, said Gad- dafi had also helped him take three tours to visit Muslim leaders in over 40 countries. “I’ve been all over the world because of that man,” he said. The WIPL apparently lent a helping hand for Farrakhan’s pro-Gaddafi me- dia blitz. Officials reviewing Society files showed Reuters a recently found confiden- tial memo dated March 15, 2011, indicat- ing the WIPL would pay for U.S. news- paper ads that Farrakhan placed to defend him. The Nation of Islam did not respond to requests for comment. Sharif dropped all pretence of indepen- ISLAMIC STUDIES: The Islamic Call College in Tripoli, pictured here in February, has graduated about dence once the uprising started. He met 7,000 students from 92 countries since opening in 1974. REUTERS/Ismail Zetouny Bishop Martinelli in mid-March, urging him to help provide “accurate information” about the situation in Libya. In the months scribes the Society as “the world’s fore- uprising against Gaddafi broke out in Feb- that followed, the Tripoli-based bishop most Islamic benevolent organisation with ruary 2011. He said his organisation would gained notoriety in the West for sharply members from every corner of the globe.” not have dealt with the WICS if it had condemning the NATO bombings. Mar- Aides to the Anglican leader said they had known its dark side. tinelli declined a request for an interview. no indications then or since that WICS “In this particular situation, the WCC The WICS head had less success in May was anything but a religious NGO inter- decided to work with the WICS because of when he tried to convince Russian Foreign ested in interfaith dialogue. its commitment to inter-religious dialogue Minister Sergei Lavrov to help mediate be- A WikiLeaks-revealed cable from the and willingness to work with the WCC tween Tripoli and the Benghazi-based reb- U.S. embassy in Tripoli in 2009 said the and its partners,” he said. els. Lavrov told him Libya must obey the Society spread moderate interpretations of The firebrand U.S. black Muslim U.N. resolution urging it not to attack civil- Islam in Africa and Asia, countering “the preacher Louis Farrakhan never hid his ties ians. Soon after that, the Society office in dangers of Islamic fundamentalism (invari- with Libya, but the uprising prompted even Colombo asked for help from Sri Lankan ably described as ‘Wahhabism’).” more disclosure than before. On March 31, Justice Minister Rauff Hakeem, who repre- The U.S. State Department’s 2010 In- 2011, Farrakhan defended “Brother Gad- sented the island’s Muslims during discus- ternational Religious Freedom Report not- dafi” at a rare news conference and said sions between the government and Tamil ed approvingly the emphasis on religious rebels to end the civil war. He also turned moderation and interfaith cooperation in them down. the Society, which it described as “the offi- WHAT TO DO WITH WICS cial conduit for the state-approved form of Islam” and “the religious arm of the govern- Libya’s new leadership says the challenge ment’s foreign policy.” now is to purge the Society of its dark side. Among those who broke bread with the Officials interviewed in Tripoli blamed the Society was World Council of Churches secretive WIPL for the undercover work. Secretary General Tveit, who lectured on Sheikh Dokali, head of the five-man com- the shared values of Christians and Mus- ny Is mail Z etou REUTERS/ mittee now running the Society, singled out lims in Tripoli just one month before the Sheikh Al Dokali Mohammed Al Alem WIPL as the main focus of the purge.

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SECRET BUDGET: Expenses for Gaddafi’s WICS trips to Africa were paid from a secret WIPL budget. Here, he is welcomed by ’s former president Laurent Gbagbo on a June, 2007 visit REUTERS/ Thierry Gouegnon

“Only a very limited number of persons both sides. More information about who serve as one of the new Libya’s open win- were aware of the activities of the WIPL. It did what might be found in files at the dow on the outside world. was a total misuse of our office without our Society’s headquarters. But they are now El Hadi El Ghariani, an adviser to the knowledge,” he said. “The WIPL is closed under control of Defence Minister Juweli, interim prime minister, suggested the So- now and has been crossed out of our organ- who seized the headquarters in January to ciety could take on promoting dialogue isational structure completely.” use as his new ministry’s offices, and has among Islam’s competing sects. Aref Ali As committee members present it, only been holding them pending a resolution of Nayed, a Sufi theologian who is now Trip- Society head Sharif and two WIPL offi- his dispute with the government over pos- oli’s ambassador in the United Arab Emir- cials – administrator Mahmoud Hussain session of the property. ates, said it should be turned into a uni- Reeh and the recently deceased accountant The Society appears to have the money versity modelled on Al Azhar, the revered Ahmed Maidan – had an overview of the needed to carry on. Falah, the head of the seat of Sunni learning in Cairo. He sees it WIPL’s covert activities. Reeh is believed missionary department, says it hasn’t re- countering the Saudi brand of Islam – the to be hiding in Tunisia and Sharif is being ceived any financing in two years from the role it was supposed to play under Gaddafi. questioned in Tripoli. government, since its share of the Jihad Tax “It could be a kind of anti-radicalisation Sheikh Saad Falah, head of the mission- was “taken over by one of Gaddafi’s sons.” think tank,” he said. ary department at the Society, said expenses It does have revenues from some far- for Gaddafi’s Africa trips organised by the sighted investments made decades ago. Additional reporting by Hisham El Dani in WICS were paid from the secret WIPL Two real estate ventures – a five-tower Tripoli; Editing by Mike Williams and Sara budget. “We don’t have any details about complex on the Tripoli seafront, and an of- Ledwith how much he spent and where,” Falah said. fice building in Benghazi – are preferred The fact that many senior WICS offi- addresses for oil companies, airlines and FOR MORE INFORMATION: cials are still with the Society raises ques- other foreign firms. Tom Heneghan, Religion Editor tions about how thorough the purge has The investigation into the WICS will [email protected] been. Benotman doubts the Society could probably take many months before final Sara Ledwith, Assistant Enterprise Editor: be neatly divided into a good WICS and decisions are taken. The new WICS may [email protected] a bad WIPL; he says his understanding is look much like the official part of the old Michael Williams, Global Enterprise Editor: that intelligence agents were working on Society, possibly with a new name, and [email protected]

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