Libya: Incitement Against Religious Minority

press release

Beirut — The Supreme Fatwa Committee linked to one of Libya's competing governments should repeal a discriminatory legal edict accusing 'Ibadi faith followers in Libya of "deviance" and adherence to an "infidel" doctrine, Human Rights Watch said today. The government linked to the committee, the Interim Government based in Al-Bayda, and parliament have yet to respond publicly to this edict.

In July 2017, the Supreme Fatwa Committee under the General Authority for Endowments and Islamic Affairs, the religious authority of the Interim Government, issued a religious edict or fatwa on the suitability of an 'Ibadi preacher leading prayers in a mosque in the Nafussa Mountains, in western Libya. In the edict, the committee said that the minority sect of Islam was "a misguided and aberrant group. They are Kharijites with secret beliefs and infidels without dignity." Kharijites is used to describe Muslims who rebelled against the Caliphate in the early ages of Islam.

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