tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post7630802355041792738..comments2024-03-06T06:34:42.881-05:00Comments on EconoSpeak: Why Libyan Partition Will Not Happen: Oil And GeographyUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-20518341173610416912011-03-29T14:19:00.889-04:002011-03-29T14:19:00.889-04:00So, the rebels have bogged down unsurprisingly out...So, the rebels have bogged down unsurprisingly outside of Sirte, Qaddafi's strongest stronghold. Maybe that will become a line that lasts for a long time.<br /><br />As it is, I shall not be commenting here for most of the next week as I am about to go out the door to give a plenary address in China, and my second daughter is in labor with her second child, 7 cm dilated at latest word.Barkley Rosserhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13114257724762074636noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-55239159728633733512011-03-28T11:51:17.646-04:002011-03-28T11:51:17.646-04:00The message of this post seems to be manifesting i...The message of this post seems to be manifesting itself in the news. The rebels have now retaken all of the four oil terminals near each other at the east end of the Gulf of Sidra, the two in Ras Lanuf along with the ones in Brega and Adibjaya (sp?). That gives them a 5-1 edge in oil terminals over Qaddafi. <br /><br />Furthermore, Juan Cole reports rumors that, with the aid of British tornado jets, the rebels have reached the edge of Qaddafi's hometown of Sirte, which has not so far been contested, and where he remains genuinely popular by all accounts. If they take Sirte, which will not be so easy, I think that Qaddafi will fall soon. He has strong military in Tripoli, but if he cannot hold his hometown, that military will abandon him.<br /><br />As it is, the politicial leaders of the rebels appear to have surface respectability, whatever the past of the royal Senussi family (who will probably not be restored anyway). As far as I am concerned, the sooner this is over, the better.Barkley Rosserhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13114257724762074636noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-6253291170856567432011-03-27T14:47:18.527-04:002011-03-27T14:47:18.527-04:00John,
I just did some checking on this, and the m...John,<br /><br />I just did some checking on this, and the matter is complicated. I suggest you look at the Wikipedia entries on "Senussi" and "Salafi." In any case, the one on Senussi claims that he was influenced by both Salafi and Sufi ideas, but was not fully of either, and he definitely opposed the practices of the Sufis, striving for a middle way between mysticism and orthodox rationalism.<br /><br />Part of the problem here is that there are branches of Salafism, and I probably should not have used the term "radical Islamist" in connection with as-Senussi or the movement taking his name. They were influenced by a branch that resisted European and Ottoman influence and rule. All Salafis look back to the original sources of Islam, with a major item of discussion being the relation with "Wah'habism," which is viewed by Salafis as an insulting term, even as many see Muhammed ibn Wah'hab as a major founder of Salafism. <br /><br />In any case, Idriss's grandfather was of the more moderate faction of Salafis and accepted the idea of ijtihad, or reasoning, which is not something most Salafis would approve of. He was also quite ascetic, which fit in with the views and practices of the Bedouins of Cyrenaica, where he ended up, with his descendants becoming their political leaders.Barkley Rosserhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13114257724762074636noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-28615551851301130142011-03-26T17:58:43.014-04:002011-03-26T17:58:43.014-04:00"the former king Idris was the grandson of on..."the former king Idris was the grandson of one of the founders of the radical Islamist Salafi movement"<br /><br />I don't think so. It was a Sufi movement, not Salafi.<br /><br /><br />"King Idris, was the grandson of Sayyid ibn ‘Ali as-Sanusi, founder of the eponymous religious order who had clashed with both authorities at Cairo's Al-Azhar University and those in Mecca precisely because he had criticized their conservatism and argued that Muslims should not blindly follow established jurisprudence, but rather engage in independent interpretation (ijtihad) for themselves."<br /><br />http://worlddefensereview.com/strategicinterests.shtmljohn c. halaszhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06674692969448923049noreply@blogger.com