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By Libya Herald reporters.
Tripoli, 7 June 2015:
Sheikh Sadek Al-Ghariani has said that the image of IS-controlled Derna is being distorted and . . .[restrict]exaggerated by foreign intelligence and supporters of the Qaddafi regime.
In a video clip carried on the Libya Dawn social media page, Ghariani said that it was not true that “the Thuwar in Derna were extremists”. He continued “ I have met with the leaders of the Thuwar in Derna and I found that they maintained security and they have a popular leadership”.
Ghariani’s comments would seem to have been prompted by the posting on an IS web site, of video of a postal worker having his head hacked off outside a mosque while young children looked on.
Ghariani insisted that IS in Derna, whom he referred to only as ‘Thuwar’ were working for the stability of the country. He also said that they were all under “the leadership of the state” by which he would have meant Libya Dawn.
He added that Derna was the Libyan “city” most “under command and control. They [the Thuwar] are very concerned about upholding the truth and a Muslim state”.
Ghariani is still recognised by Libya Dawn as the Grand Mufti but was fired from the job by the House of Representatives last year. He has rarely been far from controversy. Last month he warned that anyone who quit Libya Dawn would be un-Islamic – Haram.
That statement was issued when it first appeared that Misrata was looking to strike a divergent course from the rest of the Tripoli-based antigovernment and the rump of the old General National Congress.
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