{"id":35222,"date":"2017-06-19T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-06-19T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/forces-loyal-to-libya-s-haftar-burn-6-000-books\/"},"modified":"2017-06-19T10:53:09","modified_gmt":"2017-06-19T10:53:09","slug":"forces-loyal-to-libya-s-haftar-burn-6-000-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/forces-loyal-to-libya-s-haftar-burn-6-000-books\/","title":{"rendered":"Forces loyal to Libya’s Haftar ‘burn 6,000 books’"},"content":{"rendered":"

{Benghazi police destroy literature they say “promotes violence” and ideas linked to the Muslim brotherhood and ISIL.}<\/p>\n

Forces loyal to renegade Libyan general Khalifa Haftar have been accused of burning more than 6,000 books, including works on religion, politics, poetry and philosophy.<\/p>\n

According to a video posted on Facebook by Al Manara, a Libyan media platform, more than 6,000 books – including reported biographies of the Prophet Muhammad – were destroyed by a police force in the eastern city of Benghazi on Saturday.<\/p>\n

The video showed a police officer claiming that the seized literature was promoting the ideas of “Daesh” (the Arabic term for Islamic State of Iraq and Levant or ISIL), as he sat behind a desk covered with books, including classical Islamic works.<\/p>\n

The officer said the books “promoted violence” and the “ideas of the Muslim Brotherhood”, which has been banned by UAE and Egypt.<\/p>\n

In January, more than 100 Libyan writers and intellectuals, including renowned Brazilian novelist Paulo Coelho, condemned a seizure of books deemed “erotic” or anti-Islamic by authorities in eastern Libya.<\/p>\n

Books by Egyptian Nobel Prize-winning novelist Naguib Mahfouz and Arabic translations of books by German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche were allegedly among dozens seized from a truck heading from Tobruk to Benghazi.<\/p>\n

A video of the book seizure was posted online where security officials denounced the “cultural invasion,” claiming the works promoted sorcery, as well as erotic materials.<\/p>\n

In an open letter, more than 100 novelists denounced the confiscation, calling it “intellectual terrorism”.<\/p>\n

Libya descended into a civil war after a popular uprising toppled long-time leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.<\/p>\n

The country has splintered into rival political and armed groups, with the factions backing opposing governments and parliaments in the east and the west.<\/p>\n

Haftar, who has the backing of Egypt and the UAE, controls large parts of eastern Libya and is aligned with the Tokruk-based government. He has staged several bloody attacks against other Libyan militias and designated the Muslim Brotherhood as a “terrorist group”.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/figure>\n

Source:Al Jazeera<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{Benghazi police destroy literature they say “promotes violence” and ideas linked to the Muslim brotherhood and ISIL.} Forces loyal to renegade Libyan general Khalifa Haftar have been accused of burning more than 6,000 books, including works on religion, politics, poetry and philosophy. According to a video posted on Facebook by Al Manara, a Libyan media […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[100],"byline":[2474],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-35222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-africa","byline-al-jazeera"],"bylines":[{"id":2474,"name":"AL JAZEERA","slug":"al-jazeera","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":2474,"name":"AL JAZEERA","slug":"al-jazeera","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35222"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35222\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35222"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=35222"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=35222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}