Aref Ali Nayed
Encyclopedia
Dr Aref Ali Nayed (born in 1962) is a Libyan Islamic scholar, and Libyan Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates
. He is also the founder and director of Kalam Research & Media (KRM), based in Tripoli
, Libya
and Dubai
. Until the outbreak of the revolution in Libya he lectured on Islamic theology, logic, and spirituality at the restored Uthman Pasha Madrassa in Tripoli, and supervises graduate students at the Islamic Call College there.
Before the liberation of Tripoli in 2011 he was appointed by the National Transitional Council
as the coordinator of the Tripoli Taskforce. When Tripoli was liberated in late August 2011 the remit was broadened and he was made the lead coordinator of the Libya Stabilization Team. Earlier in the year he was the coordinator for the Support Offices of the Executive Team
of the National Transitional Council
(NTC) of Libya. He is also the secretary of the Network of Free Ulema – Libya
.
. His doctoral work on operational hermeneutics was published in 2011 by Kalam Research and Media. Pursuing further his academic interests he studied Islamic philosophy
and theology
at the University of Toronto
and then specialised in Christian theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University
in Rome.
He went on to take up several academic positions and was Professor at the Pontifical Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies (Rome), and the International Institute for Islamic Thought and Civilization (Malaysia).
In the 1990s he returned to Libya and headed an IT Company with offices in Tripoli, Benghazi, Sharjah and Hyderabad.
As the former Libyan government began lifting restrictions on religious teaching, Aref Nayed helped restore and reopen the famous Othman Pasha Madrasa in the Old Madina of Tripoli. This madrasa was a renowned centre for theological and spiritual instructions and many leading Tripolitanian scholars of the past were associated with it. Aref Nayed taught theology, logic and spirituality at the Othman Pasha Madrasa until February 2011 when the political unrest in Tripoli escalated and the former regime's forces committed widespread violence, killings and summary arrests of those supporting the Free Libyan movement.
Aref Nayed is also Senior Advisor to the Cambridge Inter-Faith Programme; Fellow of the Royal Aal Al-Bayt Institute in Jordan; and was appointed to the Board of Advisors of the prestigious Templeton Foundation.
from Tripoli and Western region of Libya, Nayed established the Network of Free Ulema. The network comprised traditional religious scholars and they called for an immediate end to the killings by the regime.
On 20 February, Nayed left Tripoli for Istanbul
in order to help the campaign against Gaddafi. In Istanbul and Ankara he talked to the Chief Advisor to the Turkish Prime Minister Ibrahim Kalin and described the situation in Libya and requested that Turkey help the Free Libya movement and condemn Gaddafi. He also requested that the Turkish government send immediate medical supplies to hospitals in Benghazi
through the Turkish ships that were evacuating their nationals. The day after, Nayed gave an interview to BBC Radio 4, in which he decried Saif al-Islam Gaddafi and the Gaddafi government, and called on them to stop attacks on innocent people and on the international community to help the innocent people.
As the situation in Libya escalated, Nayed, along with the Network of Free Ulema, issued a fatwa
calling for open rebellion. The statement read:
On 22 February, the Network of Free Ulema called for urgent medical supplies and for the international community to help the Free Libya cause and condemn Gaddafi. Then on 23 February, the Network of Free Ulema issued an endorsement of the Declaration of the 17 February Revolution stating: “Today, we thank God for giving us the honor of endorsing and fully supporting the Declarations of the Revolution of February 17th, 2011, announced by our brother Dr. Al-Tarhuni and broadcast locally over the past few days, and on Al-Jazeera (Arabic) this morning.”
In the following days, Nayed contacted and briefed a number of key international leaders and institutions in order to galvanize international support for the revolution: Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan of the UAE, Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad of Jordan; Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair
, Archbishop Desmond Tutu
, and World Council of Churches
(which led to it issuing a statement on 22 February).
Since the statements issued by the Network of Free Ulema on 19 February, Dr Nayed’s Kalam Research and Media office in Dubai became a centre for media activity supporting the Free Libya efforts. The KRM office, through its massive media network around the world, ensured that all statements of the Network of Free Ulema would be circulated as widely as possible to all media. The office also liaised with international journalists and governments to ensure they had up to date information on the Libyan crisis. The KRM office worked 24 hours daily to maintain media pressure and then very quickly expanded its team of Libyan experts, and with the blessing of the UAE government, and began engaging in diplomatic work with NATO to support the efforts of the Executive Team.
The KRM office also relayed to the media agencies (Al Jazeera, BBC, CNN, Sky News, and other international networks) video and audio footage from Tripoli and other parts of Libya about the situation there. There footage was received through direct contacts in the capital. On 23 February, Nayed maked a second visit to Istanbul to seek medical aid for Libyan hospitals and met with the Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu
to update him and to thank him for their efforts. Meanwhile, the situation in Tripoli worsened and due to his exposure to the media, threats to his family members in Tripoli also increased. On 24 February, the KRM media team joined with a team of young Libyans in Dubai to coordinate a strategic media campaign for New Libya. All efforts to place speakers, feature articles, and information packs were increased across all international media. Teams were working from multiple locations in the Middle East
and Europe
and the US. Then on 26 February the Network of Free Ulema issued a statement calling for more humanitarian help for the Libyan people and calling for arrest warrants to be issued by the International Criminal Court
: “Please urgently send into Libya as much medical and humanitarian aid as possible. The Egyptian-Libyan border, Benghazi Port, and Misrata Port are now open, and we urge Libyans inside and outside the country to help in every way they can with logistics and distribution. We very much appreciate the early response from Turkey and from the International Red Cross/Red Crescent in this regard.” The Network of Free Ulema also issued a statement supporting and endorsing the National Transitional Council.
In March the Network of Free Ulema also issued a statement supporting the efforts of Libyan women in the Free Libya movement.
On 15 March, after the constant targeting, killing and harassment of journalists by the Gaddafi government, the Network of Free Ulema issued a new statement:
, Ali Issawi, and Ali Tarhouni
. At the Dubai Operations Room, the Support Office continued working vigorously on humanitarian needs of the Libyan people and diplomatic efforts and media outreach to support the call for the UN Security Council to impose a No-Fly Zone. Nayed rallied a number of leading government leaders internationally and political and religious personalities over the coming days to put pressure on the UN. Dr Nayed’s team in Dubai assisted the Centre for Islam and Democracy in Washington, D.C. to substantially increase the number of signatories calling for U.S. President Barack Obama
to support the No-Fly Zone. As a result a large number of leading academic and politicians in the US supported the petition which was given to the White House
.
On 17 March, the UN Security Council passed the No-Fly Zone. On 4 April, two Support Office members from Dubai accompanied Ali Isawi, then the Foreign Secretary of the NTC Executive Team to his meeting in Rome
with Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini. The Support Team provided him with media and press and administrative support throughout the visit. At the press conference after the bilaterial meeting, Frattini, on behalf of the Italian Government, officially recognized the NTC as the sole and legitimate representative of the Libyan people.
From the beginning of April, Nayed, along with two other assistants, Qatar provided assistance to Jibril. They assisted Jibril with the preparations for the Doha Contact Group Meeting on 11 April, and the EU Foreign Ministers Meeting on 12 April in Luxembourg
.
On 12 April, the head of the NTC Executive Team, Mahmoud Jibril
was accompanied by Nayed to the EU Foreign Ministers Council in Luxembourg
. The meeting was chaired by Catherine Ashton, the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy.
Nayed was part of the NTC Delegation to the Contact Group meeting in Doha on 13 April. The Contact Group countries agreed to establish a Temporary Financial Mechanism to assist Libya. Doha was the first time that the NTC was able to attend the Contact Group meeting as an entity in and of itself and brief the Foreign Ministers on the current situation and the needs of the Libyan people and to request the international community to maintain the No-Fly Zone.The Support Offices worked closely with Executive Team and the Libya Contact Group representatives on the Temporary Financial Mechanism (TFM). The TFM was then agreed upon by the Contact Group and it became the mechanism through which the Contact Group donors would provide financial assistance. Detailed work on the construction of the framework of the TFM took place at the Support Offices in Dubai. The work was done in close coordination with the Economics and Oil Portfolio of the NTC Executive Team and with Abdullah Shamia, Omar Shakmak and Idris Al-Sharif. A draft was already ready by 18 April and the final version was completed by 28 April.
On 14 April, the Support Office team drafted a letter to ICC Prosecutor Ocampo, which were officially signed by Mustafa Abdul Jalil
and also letters for Denmark
, the Maldives
and Jordan
.
The Support Offices also helped draft a Weapons Control Mechanism for the NTC at the request of the Contact Group nations, particularly the UAE and Qatar. The first draft was submitted to Mahmoud Jibril
on 20 April and then submitted to the Contact Group.
For three weeks in April the Support Offices under the direction of Nayed provided intense and around the clock help to the Financial, Security, Oil and Telecommunications portfolios of the NTC Executive Team and contributed directly to its initial successes for the Free Libya cause. On the Telecommunications front, the Support Office team members in Doha were working closely with the teams in Benghazi to restore the mobile phone lines with Libyana and were also working closely with Qtel for other telecommunication repair and reconstruction.
Nayed, Muneim Boud and the Support Offices, with the financial assistance from the Qatari authorities, purchased a field hospital
with 50 beds for Misrata. Misrata was under intense shelling by the Gaddafi government and there was no working hospital. Nayed liaised with the Qatari authorities to finalise the financing, and Boud travelled to Norway
to oversee the order and to learn the installation procedures. The field hospital reached Misrata by the end of April and it was soon operational with the help of Italian medical staff.
Further work was carried out during April on humanitarian, financial, diplomatic, and security sectors, and support teams actively worked in Dubai, Doha, Amman, and Bahrain. On 2-3 May Nayed met with 12 lawyers from five countries at Doha to discuss various issues ahead of the Contact Group meeting in Rome on 5 May.
The 3rd Libya Contact Group Meeting took place in Rome on 5 May and the Temporary Financial Mechanism was fully approved by the Contact Group Members.
. Together with the offices in Dubai, Doha, Amman, and Bahrain, Nayed was able to tap into a wide network of expertise and assistance across all required sectors.
On 22 May, Nayed was appointed as the Coordinator of the Tripoli Taskforce by Jalil. Nayed began forming the Tripoli Stabilisation Team, at that point named the Tripoli Taskforce. Nayed formed a new team in Benghazi to work on the Tripoli Taskforce; working from the Tibesti offices and also established an Operations Room. A further site was allocated as a storage site for humanitarian aid and other preparations for Tripoli. At the Operations Room, the Tripoli Taskforce regularly briefed and worked closely focusing on stabilization planning and strategy with experts from the UK, French, Italian, Qatari and US teams in Benghazi. On 22 May, Nayed organized a meeting with Abdulmajeed Saif Nasr, a Council member, and with other members a meeting of the Tobu and Tuareg and others to enlist their help in the various security and humanitarian sectors. There was a turnout of almost 800 people.
In late May the Contact Group sent an International Stabilization Response Team (ISRT) to Benghazi. These were experts from Contact Group countries led by the British Department for International Development and they were set the task of conducting preliminary assessments and issuing a report for consideration by the Contact Group. Nayed’s team, together with Foreign Minister Jehani of the NTC, were tasked with engaging with the ISRT team. The Tripoli Taskforce subsequently presented high-level and initial plans for the stabilization of vital sectors such as security, telecommunications, health, water, food, electricity, education, media and messaging, infrastructure, municipal services, and other vital sectors. The initial plans were praised by the ISRT team and other international partners and also by some NTC ministers. The Tripoli Taskforce organized two workshops in Benghazi, with the final one prior to the end of ISRT’s visit to Benghazi to assess and engage with their initial report. Dr Nayed had particularly pressed the ISRT to provide an update on the NTC request for De la Rue to release Libyan dinars. A report was delivered by the ISRT on 30 May and its was forwarded to the NTC. This document was foundational for the legal pursuit of the bank notes.
On 8 June, Nayed received a further decree from Jibril confirming and supporting the earlier decree by Jalil that appointed Nayed as coordinator of the Tripoli Taskforce. During June, Nayed returned to Dubai to add additional technical experts and project managers to the Tripoli Taskforce. In the weeks that followed, robust and sector-specific teams were formed with Libyan experts from the US, Europe, Middle East, together with those in Libya. Each sector had a detailed first phase plan prepared and that formed the basis for the presentations that were made to Contact Group partners in July. On 9 June, Nayed accompanied Jibril to a meeting with Abdallah Nahyan, Foreign Minister of the United Arab Emirates.
In late June, Jibril formed a steering committee to oversee the stabilisation of the whole of Libya. The Tripoli Taskforce was therefore subsumed under the larger stabilization plan for the country. The first meeting of the Organizing Committee was held in Abu Dhabi and organized by Nayed on 4-5 July. The meeting was chaired by Jibril and included Foreign Minister Mahmoud Shammam and several key Libyan leaders and individuals. Nayed presented the Stabilization Team’s plans as did others.
On 15 July, Nayed and his colleagues in the Tripoli Taskforce attended the 4th Contact Group Meeting in Istanbul and presented the stabilisation plans there. The stabilisation presentation was a key highlight of the Contact Group meeting and was cited positively by Hillary Clinton, Frattini, William Hague and other leaders. Requests were made by all main Contact Group countries for workshops to study the details of the stabilisation plan produced by Nayed and his team.
Nayed convened an Internal Stabilisation Workshop in 22-23 July, with his team coordinators and with Eng. Khaled El-Ghuel. The two-day workshop discussed the plans in detail with Eng. Khaled, who was formerly the head of the public works authority in Tripoli. On 28 and 29 July, Nayed hosted the Stabilising Libya Workshop with the Contact Group experts. The workshop was held at Dubai Knowledge Village
. All key stabilisation experts from the UN, EU, US, UK and other countries attended to study in detail the stabilisation plans developed by the team. The NTC’s Minister for Infrastructure and Reconstruction, Jehani joined the workshop via a skype link-up from Benghazi.
Once the Stabilising Libya Workshop ended, key team members from the stabilisation team left for Tunisa and then for the Western Mountain where they spent the coming weeks meeting and discussing the stabilisation plans with Libyan professionals and local councils. They held meetings over this period with over 600 key Libyan personalities and officials and incorporate their efforts to the wider stabilisation plans. The Libya Stabilisation Team was thus developed to encapsulate a wider remit for all parts of the country. All of the Nafusa Mountain councils were firmly behind the stabilisation efforts.
On 2 September, Nayed held a meeting in Paris with senior decision makers from international organizations that included the United Nations
, International Monetary Fund
, European Union
, World Bank
and USAID. The purpose of the workshop was to release details on Stabilisation Team Priority Sectors to improve communications and aid flow from these organizations, through the Stabilisation Team, to Libyans. Focus was on Tripoli and the provision of prioritized assistance - especially water and fuel.
Throughout September the Stabilisation Team continued to work on the ground in Libya, liaising with the NTC at the strategic level and with town councils, militia and various other groups at the operational level. Town hall meetings, deployments of assessment and repair teams, retrieval of telephone records, logistical assistance in the distribution of humanitarian aid were all examples of the wide range of activities under the Team's remit. As the situation improved, the Team increasingly withdrew from working in sectors to ensure that NTC Ministries could fully take over.
(UAE) and he was given possession of the Libyan Consulate buildings in Dubai. He was the first ambassador to be officially appointed under the NTC. The Libya Stabilisation Team moved its operations HQ to the Libyan Consulate in Dubai with a full team working around the clock on all vital sectors and continued its diplomatic work with NATO. On 11 August, a Libyan cargo plane took off safely to Benghazi.
A public gathering was held on 19 August to mark the opening of the Libyan Consulate in Dubai. Over 500 Libyans residing in the UAE came to mark this key occasion. The famous Libyan Qur’an reciter, Sheikh Dukali, attended the ceremony and held the tarawih
prayer at the Consulate. The new Libyan flag was raised at the consulate.
On 21 August, Day 1 of the Stabilisation Plan was announced by Jehani and Nayed at a press conference. Both Jehani and Nayed held key interviews for television and newspapers with all main media outlets, and daily press releases and regular press conferences were held at the Libyan Consulate in Dubai. On 22-23 August, the Libya Stabilisation team held a Security Workshop with the Contact Group members. Attending the meeting included specialist heads the UN, EU, US, UK, Italy, Canada, and the UAE. The two-day workshop, chaired by Jehani, discussed the immediate security and humanitarian needs for Tripoli and the rest of the country. Nayed presented a detailed report of the security situation in the country and an update on immediate developments. In Dubai on 23-24 August, Nayed held the initial meetings between the UN and NTC. Ian Martin
(the Secretary General’s Special Representative to Libya) and Hansjeorg Strommeyer (Chief of Policy at the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs) attended.
In Doha on 24 August, Nayed led the Libyan delegation at a mini Contact Group meeting of specialists on Unfreezing Assets and deciding humanitarian assistance for the Libyan People. Before the meeting in Doha, Nayed held interviews with CNN and with the Wall Street Journal. In Istanbul on 25 August, Nayed attended the Fifth Contact Group Meeting as part of the Libyan delegation. Nayed held detailed meetings with UN Special Representative Ian Martin, and UNDP Resident Representative in Libya, Constanza Farina. The Stabilization Team gave a copy of the stabilization plan presentation to all participants. Nayed left meeting early to send teams to work on the water crisis in Tripoli.
On 26 August, Nayed was invited by the UN went to Tunisia
to meet with UN agencies in their operational centre in Zarzis
. Nayed held the first operational meetings between the NTC and the UN. Meetings were convened on water, medicine and food, and Nayed briefed UN on the current situation and the crisis regarding water. On 27 August, during the ongoing water crisis in Tripoli, Nayed and members of the LST held key operational meetings on water with the UN. These meetings ensured that the UN and the NTC were coordinated in terms of water delivery and established method of delivery. They worked on implementation plan for water. From Tunisia, Nayed left for Tripoli and set up the Stabilization Team’s operations rooms at the Corinthia Hotel with his Libya Stabilization Team. Nayed and the LST team liaised with UN from 30 August to arrange UN Security Team to assess the level of security in Tripoli. Tripoli was decided to be safe enough for initial mission by Special Representative of the UN Secretary General, Ian Martin, and subsequently allowed UN operational teams to work in Tripoli. On 30-31 August, Nayed and the LST liaised with UN and NTC to get a formal request for water from Libya to the UN, to formalise the bilateral relationship between the UN and Libya. On 1 September, the stabilization team arrived early and worked with French and UN security and protocol teams to organise arrangements, security and logistics for meeting between UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, Jalil and Jehani.
Nayed flew to Paris for a major donor’s meeting on 2 September. The high-level donors meeting in Paris was chaired by Jehani and the UN’s Ian Martin, and was attended by all major donor organizations. Nayed presented the NTC’s stabilization plan to all agencies, who subsequently agreed to work with NTC. From this meeting a special framework for engagement was established between NTC and these organizations.
After the liberation of Tripoli, the Libya Stabilization Team and its members worked intensively and restored electricity, telecommunications, and water supply and fuel. They worked closely and held regular press briefings with Ali Tarhouni, Faituri, Shammam, Najib Bakarat and other ministers. Nayed helped the UAE reopen its embassy in Tripoli and received the UAE diplomatic delegation in Libya. He also arranged for UAE support for the Interior Ministry, including delivery of 100 police cars to the Tripoli police along with uniforms and equipment. On 20 September, Nayed returned to UAE to take part in the Annual Ceremony where all new ambassadors gave their credentials to Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan. Nayed later held a press conference to hand over all work in these key sectors to the relevant ministries.
Inter-Faith Programme at the University of Cambridge
, UK; and Fellow of the Royal Aal Al-Bayt Institute in Jordan. He was included in the list of 500 most influential Muslims published by the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre, Amman. He was a former professor at the Pontifical Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies in Rome, and the International Institute for Islamic Thought and Civilization, Malaysia.
Nayed is one of the leading Muslim figures in the field of inter-faith relations, and has been involved in various inter-iaith initiatives since 1987, including the recent A Common Word process, of which he was one of the original signatories. He was part of the Muslim delegation at the seminal Common Word bilateral meetings between Muslims and Christians at the Vatican
, Lambeth Palace, Cambridge, Yale
and Georgetown
. In 2006 when Pope Benedict XVI
made controversial comments on Islam in Regensburg, Germany, Nayed was one of 138 Muslim scholars who drafted a letter inviting Catholic-Muslim dialogue. He also took part in a conference of clerics who reinterpreted the 14th-century scholar Ibn Taymiyya’s celebrated fatwa
on jihad
, arguing that radical Islamists who use it to justify killing are misguided.
When the Libyan civil war started in February 2011, he and other clerics issued a joint fatwa calling on Libyans to resist Colonel Muammar Gaddafi
. Two days later he fled to Dubai, United Arab Emirates, where he ran Kalam Research & Media, an Islamic theological research and policy organization, until he was appointed as Libyan Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates.
His forthcoming books include:
United Arab Emirates
The United Arab Emirates, abbreviated as the UAE, or shortened to "the Emirates", is a state situated in the southeast of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia on the Persian Gulf, bordering Oman, and Saudi Arabia, and sharing sea borders with Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, and Iran.The UAE is a...
. He is also the founder and director of Kalam Research & Media (KRM), based in Tripoli
Tripoli
Tripoli is the capital and largest city in Libya. It is also known as Western Tripoli , to distinguish it from Tripoli, Lebanon. It is affectionately called The Mermaid of the Mediterranean , describing its turquoise waters and its whitewashed buildings. Tripoli is a Greek name that means "Three...
, Libya
Libya
Libya is an African country in the Maghreb region of North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....
and Dubai
Dubai
Dubai is a city and emirate in the United Arab Emirates . The emirate is located south of the Persian Gulf on the Arabian Peninsula and has the largest population with the second-largest land territory by area of all the emirates, after Abu Dhabi...
. Until the outbreak of the revolution in Libya he lectured on Islamic theology, logic, and spirituality at the restored Uthman Pasha Madrassa in Tripoli, and supervises graduate students at the Islamic Call College there.
Before the liberation of Tripoli in 2011 he was appointed by the National Transitional Council
National Transitional Council
The National Transitional Council of Libya , sometimes known as the Transitional National Council, the Interim National Council, or the Libyan National Council,...
as the coordinator of the Tripoli Taskforce. When Tripoli was liberated in late August 2011 the remit was broadened and he was made the lead coordinator of the Libya Stabilization Team. Earlier in the year he was the coordinator for the Support Offices of the Executive Team
Mahmoud Jibril
Mahmoud Jibril el-Warfally , also transcribed Jabril or Jebril or Gebril, is a Libyan politician who served as the interim Prime Minister of Libya for seven and a half months during the 2011 Libyan civil war, chairing the executive board of the National Transitional Council from 5 March 2011 to 23...
of the National Transitional Council
National Transitional Council
The National Transitional Council of Libya , sometimes known as the Transitional National Council, the Interim National Council, or the Libyan National Council,...
(NTC) of Libya. He is also the secretary of the Network of Free Ulema – Libya
Network of Free Ulema – Libya
The Network of Free Ulema – Libya is a group of senior religious leaders, or ulama, from all areas of Libya. Due to the persistent security constraints with families and associates of those opposing Muammar Gaddafi being taken hostage none of the names of members have been released...
.
Early life
Aref Ali Nayed was born and raised in Tripoli. He later went to Canada to study at the insistence of his father and received his BS in Engineering from the University of Guelph. At Guelph he became deeply interested in philosophy and in science and stayed on to complete an MA in the Philosophy of Science, and then a PhD in Hermeneutics from the University of GuelphUniversity of Guelph
The University of Guelph, also known as U of G, is a comprehensive public research university in Guelph, Ontario, Canada. It was established in 1964 after the amalgamation of Ontario Agricultural College, the Macdonald Institute, and the Ontario Veterinary College...
. His doctoral work on operational hermeneutics was published in 2011 by Kalam Research and Media. Pursuing further his academic interests he studied Islamic philosophy
Islamic philosophy
Islamic philosophy is a branch of Islamic studies. It is the continuous search for Hekma in the light of Islamic view of life, universe, ethics, society, and so on...
and theology
Theology
Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...
at the University of Toronto
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...
and then specialised in Christian theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University
Pontifical Gregorian University
The Pontifical Gregorian University is a pontifical university located in Rome, Italy.Heir of the Roman College founded by Saint Ignatius of Loyola over 460 years ago, the Gregorian University was the first university founded by the Jesuits...
in Rome.
He went on to take up several academic positions and was Professor at the Pontifical Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies (Rome), and the International Institute for Islamic Thought and Civilization (Malaysia).
In the 1990s he returned to Libya and headed an IT Company with offices in Tripoli, Benghazi, Sharjah and Hyderabad.
As the former Libyan government began lifting restrictions on religious teaching, Aref Nayed helped restore and reopen the famous Othman Pasha Madrasa in the Old Madina of Tripoli. This madrasa was a renowned centre for theological and spiritual instructions and many leading Tripolitanian scholars of the past were associated with it. Aref Nayed taught theology, logic and spirituality at the Othman Pasha Madrasa until February 2011 when the political unrest in Tripoli escalated and the former regime's forces committed widespread violence, killings and summary arrests of those supporting the Free Libyan movement.
Aref Nayed is also Senior Advisor to the Cambridge Inter-Faith Programme; Fellow of the Royal Aal Al-Bayt Institute in Jordan; and was appointed to the Board of Advisors of the prestigious Templeton Foundation.
Advocacy early in the civil war
Nayed took part in demonstrations in Tripoli on 19 February and witnessed first-hand the brutality of the regime against its own people. Together with other Libyan ulemaUlema
Ulama , also spelt ulema, refers to the educated class of Muslim legal scholars engaged in the several fields of Islamic studies. They are best known as the arbiters of shari‘a law...
from Tripoli and Western region of Libya, Nayed established the Network of Free Ulema. The network comprised traditional religious scholars and they called for an immediate end to the killings by the regime.
On 20 February, Nayed left Tripoli for Istanbul
Istanbul
Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...
in order to help the campaign against Gaddafi. In Istanbul and Ankara he talked to the Chief Advisor to the Turkish Prime Minister Ibrahim Kalin and described the situation in Libya and requested that Turkey help the Free Libya movement and condemn Gaddafi. He also requested that the Turkish government send immediate medical supplies to hospitals in Benghazi
Benghazi
Benghazi is the second largest city in Libya, the main city of the Cyrenaica region , and the former provisional capital of the National Transitional Council. The wider metropolitan area is also a district of Libya...
through the Turkish ships that were evacuating their nationals. The day after, Nayed gave an interview to BBC Radio 4, in which he decried Saif al-Islam Gaddafi and the Gaddafi government, and called on them to stop attacks on innocent people and on the international community to help the innocent people.
As the situation in Libya escalated, Nayed, along with the Network of Free Ulema, issued a fatwa
Fatwa
A fatwā in the Islamic faith is a juristic ruling concerning Islamic law issued by an Islamic scholar. In Sunni Islam any fatwā is non-binding, whereas in Shia Islam it could be considered by an individual as binding, depending on his or her relation to the scholar. The person who issues a fatwā...
calling for open rebellion. The statement read:
On 22 February, the Network of Free Ulema called for urgent medical supplies and for the international community to help the Free Libya cause and condemn Gaddafi. Then on 23 February, the Network of Free Ulema issued an endorsement of the Declaration of the 17 February Revolution stating: “Today, we thank God for giving us the honor of endorsing and fully supporting the Declarations of the Revolution of February 17th, 2011, announced by our brother Dr. Al-Tarhuni and broadcast locally over the past few days, and on Al-Jazeera (Arabic) this morning.”
In the following days, Nayed contacted and briefed a number of key international leaders and institutions in order to galvanize international support for the revolution: Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan of the UAE, Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad of Jordan; Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair
Tony Blair
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
, Archbishop Desmond Tutu
Desmond Tutu
Desmond Mpilo Tutu is a South African activist and retired Anglican bishop who rose to worldwide fame during the 1980s as an opponent of apartheid...
, and World Council of Churches
World Council of Churches
The World Council of Churches is a worldwide fellowship of 349 global, regional and sub-regional, national and local churches seeking unity, a common witness and Christian service. It is a Christian ecumenical organization that is based in the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva, Switzerland...
(which led to it issuing a statement on 22 February).
Since the statements issued by the Network of Free Ulema on 19 February, Dr Nayed’s Kalam Research and Media office in Dubai became a centre for media activity supporting the Free Libya efforts. The KRM office, through its massive media network around the world, ensured that all statements of the Network of Free Ulema would be circulated as widely as possible to all media. The office also liaised with international journalists and governments to ensure they had up to date information on the Libyan crisis. The KRM office worked 24 hours daily to maintain media pressure and then very quickly expanded its team of Libyan experts, and with the blessing of the UAE government, and began engaging in diplomatic work with NATO to support the efforts of the Executive Team.
The KRM office also relayed to the media agencies (Al Jazeera, BBC, CNN, Sky News, and other international networks) video and audio footage from Tripoli and other parts of Libya about the situation there. There footage was received through direct contacts in the capital. On 23 February, Nayed maked a second visit to Istanbul to seek medical aid for Libyan hospitals and met with the Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu
Ahmet Davutoglu
Professor Ahmet Davutoğlu is a Turkish political scientist, an academic and an ambassador. On May 1, 2009, he was named Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkey after being the chief advisor to the Prime Minister of Republic of Turkey.-Life and career:...
to update him and to thank him for their efforts. Meanwhile, the situation in Tripoli worsened and due to his exposure to the media, threats to his family members in Tripoli also increased. On 24 February, the KRM media team joined with a team of young Libyans in Dubai to coordinate a strategic media campaign for New Libya. All efforts to place speakers, feature articles, and information packs were increased across all international media. Teams were working from multiple locations in the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
and Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
and the US. Then on 26 February the Network of Free Ulema issued a statement calling for more humanitarian help for the Libyan people and calling for arrest warrants to be issued by the International Criminal Court
International Criminal Court
The International Criminal Court is a permanent tribunal to prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression .It came into being on 1 July 2002—the date its founding treaty, the Rome Statute of the...
: “Please urgently send into Libya as much medical and humanitarian aid as possible. The Egyptian-Libyan border, Benghazi Port, and Misrata Port are now open, and we urge Libyans inside and outside the country to help in every way they can with logistics and distribution. We very much appreciate the early response from Turkey and from the International Red Cross/Red Crescent in this regard.” The Network of Free Ulema also issued a statement supporting and endorsing the National Transitional Council.
In March the Network of Free Ulema also issued a statement supporting the efforts of Libyan women in the Free Libya movement.
On 15 March, after the constant targeting, killing and harassment of journalists by the Gaddafi government, the Network of Free Ulema issued a new statement:
Working with the NTC
At the beginning of March, Nayed set up the support offices for the Executive Team. The support offices, with its experienced and volunteer and professional team of Libyan staff aimed to provide administrative and expert assistance to the Executive Team. Its teams assisted in the Energy, Diplomacy, Security, and other sectors particularly the offices of Mahmoud JibrilMahmoud Jibril
Mahmoud Jibril el-Warfally , also transcribed Jabril or Jebril or Gebril, is a Libyan politician who served as the interim Prime Minister of Libya for seven and a half months during the 2011 Libyan civil war, chairing the executive board of the National Transitional Council from 5 March 2011 to 23...
, Ali Issawi, and Ali Tarhouni
Ali Tarhouni
Ali Abdussalam Tarhouni is a Libyan economist and politician. Tarhouni served as the minister for oil and finance on the National Transitional Council, the provisional governing authority in Libya, from 23 March 2011 to 22 November 2011...
. At the Dubai Operations Room, the Support Office continued working vigorously on humanitarian needs of the Libyan people and diplomatic efforts and media outreach to support the call for the UN Security Council to impose a No-Fly Zone. Nayed rallied a number of leading government leaders internationally and political and religious personalities over the coming days to put pressure on the UN. Dr Nayed’s team in Dubai assisted the Centre for Islam and Democracy in Washington, D.C. to substantially increase the number of signatories calling for U.S. President Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
to support the No-Fly Zone. As a result a large number of leading academic and politicians in the US supported the petition which was given to the White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
.
On 17 March, the UN Security Council passed the No-Fly Zone. On 4 April, two Support Office members from Dubai accompanied Ali Isawi, then the Foreign Secretary of the NTC Executive Team to his meeting in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
with Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini. The Support Team provided him with media and press and administrative support throughout the visit. At the press conference after the bilaterial meeting, Frattini, on behalf of the Italian Government, officially recognized the NTC as the sole and legitimate representative of the Libyan people.
From the beginning of April, Nayed, along with two other assistants, Qatar provided assistance to Jibril. They assisted Jibril with the preparations for the Doha Contact Group Meeting on 11 April, and the EU Foreign Ministers Meeting on 12 April in Luxembourg
Luxembourg
Luxembourg , officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg , is a landlocked country in western Europe, bordered by Belgium, France, and Germany. It has two principal regions: the Oesling in the North as part of the Ardennes massif, and the Gutland in the south...
.
On 12 April, the head of the NTC Executive Team, Mahmoud Jibril
Mahmoud Jibril
Mahmoud Jibril el-Warfally , also transcribed Jabril or Jebril or Gebril, is a Libyan politician who served as the interim Prime Minister of Libya for seven and a half months during the 2011 Libyan civil war, chairing the executive board of the National Transitional Council from 5 March 2011 to 23...
was accompanied by Nayed to the EU Foreign Ministers Council in Luxembourg
Luxembourg
Luxembourg , officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg , is a landlocked country in western Europe, bordered by Belgium, France, and Germany. It has two principal regions: the Oesling in the North as part of the Ardennes massif, and the Gutland in the south...
. The meeting was chaired by Catherine Ashton, the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy.
Nayed was part of the NTC Delegation to the Contact Group meeting in Doha on 13 April. The Contact Group countries agreed to establish a Temporary Financial Mechanism to assist Libya. Doha was the first time that the NTC was able to attend the Contact Group meeting as an entity in and of itself and brief the Foreign Ministers on the current situation and the needs of the Libyan people and to request the international community to maintain the No-Fly Zone.The Support Offices worked closely with Executive Team and the Libya Contact Group representatives on the Temporary Financial Mechanism (TFM). The TFM was then agreed upon by the Contact Group and it became the mechanism through which the Contact Group donors would provide financial assistance. Detailed work on the construction of the framework of the TFM took place at the Support Offices in Dubai. The work was done in close coordination with the Economics and Oil Portfolio of the NTC Executive Team and with Abdullah Shamia, Omar Shakmak and Idris Al-Sharif. A draft was already ready by 18 April and the final version was completed by 28 April.
On 14 April, the Support Office team drafted a letter to ICC Prosecutor Ocampo, which were officially signed by Mustafa Abdul Jalil
Mustafa Abdul Jalil
Mustafa Abdul Jalil or Abdul-Jalil is the Chairman of the National Transitional Council of Libya, and as such serves as head of state in Libya's caretaker government which was formed as a result of the 2011 Libyan civil war. He is also a spokesman for the city of Bayda...
and also letters for Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
, the Maldives
Maldives
The Maldives , , officially Republic of Maldives , also referred to as the Maldive Islands, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean formed by a double chain of twenty-six atolls oriented north-south off India's Lakshadweep islands, between Minicoy Island and...
and Jordan
Jordan
Jordan , officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan , Al-Mamlaka al-Urduniyya al-Hashemiyya) is a kingdom on the East Bank of the River Jordan. The country borders Saudi Arabia to the east and south-east, Iraq to the north-east, Syria to the north and the West Bank and Israel to the west, sharing...
.
The Support Offices also helped draft a Weapons Control Mechanism for the NTC at the request of the Contact Group nations, particularly the UAE and Qatar. The first draft was submitted to Mahmoud Jibril
Mahmoud Jibril
Mahmoud Jibril el-Warfally , also transcribed Jabril or Jebril or Gebril, is a Libyan politician who served as the interim Prime Minister of Libya for seven and a half months during the 2011 Libyan civil war, chairing the executive board of the National Transitional Council from 5 March 2011 to 23...
on 20 April and then submitted to the Contact Group.
For three weeks in April the Support Offices under the direction of Nayed provided intense and around the clock help to the Financial, Security, Oil and Telecommunications portfolios of the NTC Executive Team and contributed directly to its initial successes for the Free Libya cause. On the Telecommunications front, the Support Office team members in Doha were working closely with the teams in Benghazi to restore the mobile phone lines with Libyana and were also working closely with Qtel for other telecommunication repair and reconstruction.
Nayed, Muneim Boud and the Support Offices, with the financial assistance from the Qatari authorities, purchased a field hospital
Field hospital
A field hospital is a large mobile medical unit that temporarily takes care of casualties on-site before they can be safely transported to more permanent hospital facilities...
with 50 beds for Misrata. Misrata was under intense shelling by the Gaddafi government and there was no working hospital. Nayed liaised with the Qatari authorities to finalise the financing, and Boud travelled to Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
to oversee the order and to learn the installation procedures. The field hospital reached Misrata by the end of April and it was soon operational with the help of Italian medical staff.
Further work was carried out during April on humanitarian, financial, diplomatic, and security sectors, and support teams actively worked in Dubai, Doha, Amman, and Bahrain. On 2-3 May Nayed met with 12 lawyers from five countries at Doha to discuss various issues ahead of the Contact Group meeting in Rome on 5 May.
The 3rd Libya Contact Group Meeting took place in Rome on 5 May and the Temporary Financial Mechanism was fully approved by the Contact Group Members.
Relations between liberated and non-liberated areas of Libya
In May Nayed and the Support Office coordinated the arrangements for major conferences in Abu Dhabi, Doha and Benghazi for Western, Central and Southern Libyan representatives, representing a total of 23 local councils. The main title of the three conferences was “Libya, Together and Free: Supporting the National Transitional Council”. The conferences culminated in a visit to Benghazi to join the NTC. This was a major initiative as until then the NTC did not have countrywide representation in its Council. The conferences received worldwide media coverage and anger from the Gaddafi government. Conferences therefore took place in:- ABU DHABI – 9 May 2011: organized with the assistance of the UAE Foreign Ministry.
- DOHA – 11 May 2011: organized with the assistance of the Qatari Foreign Ministry
- BENGHAZI – 13 - 14 May: With the assistance of the Qatari authorities all the 23 regional council representatives arrived in Benghazi on 12 May on a military plane and were welcome by NTC leaders. On 13 May, there was a mass rally at Freedom Square in Benghazi with the regional representatives gave speeches from the podium and announced their council’s allegiance to the NTC.On 14 May, the 23 regional representatives met with Mustafa Abdul Jalil to discuss issues related to their councils and regions and the NTC. After the meeting with Jalil, a press conference was held. Later that day, Jalil met privately each Council representative at the Fadhil and several representatives agreed to stay on in Benghazi and sit at the Council. This effort connected all newly-freed parts of the country with the NTC and to firmly stand behind the leadership of Jalil.
Stabilization in Libya
On 18 May, the new council members along with Nayed met with the diplomatic representatives of the UK, US, Italy and France to discuss the situation in the newly-freed areas of Libya such as the Nafusa Mountains, Misrata, and areas of the South. They also discussed how best to urgently assist those regions with humanitarian and tactical help. Support Offices for the Executive Team were then established at the Tibesti Hotel in BenghaziBenghazi
Benghazi is the second largest city in Libya, the main city of the Cyrenaica region , and the former provisional capital of the National Transitional Council. The wider metropolitan area is also a district of Libya...
. Together with the offices in Dubai, Doha, Amman, and Bahrain, Nayed was able to tap into a wide network of expertise and assistance across all required sectors.
On 22 May, Nayed was appointed as the Coordinator of the Tripoli Taskforce by Jalil. Nayed began forming the Tripoli Stabilisation Team, at that point named the Tripoli Taskforce. Nayed formed a new team in Benghazi to work on the Tripoli Taskforce; working from the Tibesti offices and also established an Operations Room. A further site was allocated as a storage site for humanitarian aid and other preparations for Tripoli. At the Operations Room, the Tripoli Taskforce regularly briefed and worked closely focusing on stabilization planning and strategy with experts from the UK, French, Italian, Qatari and US teams in Benghazi. On 22 May, Nayed organized a meeting with Abdulmajeed Saif Nasr, a Council member, and with other members a meeting of the Tobu and Tuareg and others to enlist their help in the various security and humanitarian sectors. There was a turnout of almost 800 people.
In late May the Contact Group sent an International Stabilization Response Team (ISRT) to Benghazi. These were experts from Contact Group countries led by the British Department for International Development and they were set the task of conducting preliminary assessments and issuing a report for consideration by the Contact Group. Nayed’s team, together with Foreign Minister Jehani of the NTC, were tasked with engaging with the ISRT team. The Tripoli Taskforce subsequently presented high-level and initial plans for the stabilization of vital sectors such as security, telecommunications, health, water, food, electricity, education, media and messaging, infrastructure, municipal services, and other vital sectors. The initial plans were praised by the ISRT team and other international partners and also by some NTC ministers. The Tripoli Taskforce organized two workshops in Benghazi, with the final one prior to the end of ISRT’s visit to Benghazi to assess and engage with their initial report. Dr Nayed had particularly pressed the ISRT to provide an update on the NTC request for De la Rue to release Libyan dinars. A report was delivered by the ISRT on 30 May and its was forwarded to the NTC. This document was foundational for the legal pursuit of the bank notes.
On 8 June, Nayed received a further decree from Jibril confirming and supporting the earlier decree by Jalil that appointed Nayed as coordinator of the Tripoli Taskforce. During June, Nayed returned to Dubai to add additional technical experts and project managers to the Tripoli Taskforce. In the weeks that followed, robust and sector-specific teams were formed with Libyan experts from the US, Europe, Middle East, together with those in Libya. Each sector had a detailed first phase plan prepared and that formed the basis for the presentations that were made to Contact Group partners in July. On 9 June, Nayed accompanied Jibril to a meeting with Abdallah Nahyan, Foreign Minister of the United Arab Emirates.
In late June, Jibril formed a steering committee to oversee the stabilisation of the whole of Libya. The Tripoli Taskforce was therefore subsumed under the larger stabilization plan for the country. The first meeting of the Organizing Committee was held in Abu Dhabi and organized by Nayed on 4-5 July. The meeting was chaired by Jibril and included Foreign Minister Mahmoud Shammam and several key Libyan leaders and individuals. Nayed presented the Stabilization Team’s plans as did others.
On 15 July, Nayed and his colleagues in the Tripoli Taskforce attended the 4th Contact Group Meeting in Istanbul and presented the stabilisation plans there. The stabilisation presentation was a key highlight of the Contact Group meeting and was cited positively by Hillary Clinton, Frattini, William Hague and other leaders. Requests were made by all main Contact Group countries for workshops to study the details of the stabilisation plan produced by Nayed and his team.
Nayed convened an Internal Stabilisation Workshop in 22-23 July, with his team coordinators and with Eng. Khaled El-Ghuel. The two-day workshop discussed the plans in detail with Eng. Khaled, who was formerly the head of the public works authority in Tripoli. On 28 and 29 July, Nayed hosted the Stabilising Libya Workshop with the Contact Group experts. The workshop was held at Dubai Knowledge Village
Dubai Knowledge Village
Dubai Knowledge Village is a educational free trade zone campus in the city of Dubai, United Arab Emirates, that provides facilities for training and learning institutions to operate with 100% foreign ownership. There are over 400 institutions operating within it, which include universities,...
. All key stabilisation experts from the UN, EU, US, UK and other countries attended to study in detail the stabilisation plans developed by the team. The NTC’s Minister for Infrastructure and Reconstruction, Jehani joined the workshop via a skype link-up from Benghazi.
Once the Stabilising Libya Workshop ended, key team members from the stabilisation team left for Tunisa and then for the Western Mountain where they spent the coming weeks meeting and discussing the stabilisation plans with Libyan professionals and local councils. They held meetings over this period with over 600 key Libyan personalities and officials and incorporate their efforts to the wider stabilisation plans. The Libya Stabilisation Team was thus developed to encapsulate a wider remit for all parts of the country. All of the Nafusa Mountain councils were firmly behind the stabilisation efforts.
On 2 September, Nayed held a meeting in Paris with senior decision makers from international organizations that included the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
, International Monetary Fund
International Monetary Fund
The International Monetary Fund is an organization of 187 countries, working to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty around the world...
, European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
, World Bank
World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programmes.The World Bank's official goal is the reduction of poverty...
and USAID. The purpose of the workshop was to release details on Stabilisation Team Priority Sectors to improve communications and aid flow from these organizations, through the Stabilisation Team, to Libyans. Focus was on Tripoli and the provision of prioritized assistance - especially water and fuel.
Throughout September the Stabilisation Team continued to work on the ground in Libya, liaising with the NTC at the strategic level and with town councils, militia and various other groups at the operational level. Town hall meetings, deployments of assessment and repair teams, retrieval of telephone records, logistical assistance in the distribution of humanitarian aid were all examples of the wide range of activities under the Team's remit. As the situation improved, the Team increasingly withdrew from working in sectors to ensure that NTC Ministries could fully take over.
Ambassador of Libya to UAE, and work to stabilize Libya
In early August the NTC announced Nayed as the new Libyan Ambassador to the United Arab EmiratesUnited Arab Emirates
The United Arab Emirates, abbreviated as the UAE, or shortened to "the Emirates", is a state situated in the southeast of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia on the Persian Gulf, bordering Oman, and Saudi Arabia, and sharing sea borders with Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, and Iran.The UAE is a...
(UAE) and he was given possession of the Libyan Consulate buildings in Dubai. He was the first ambassador to be officially appointed under the NTC. The Libya Stabilisation Team moved its operations HQ to the Libyan Consulate in Dubai with a full team working around the clock on all vital sectors and continued its diplomatic work with NATO. On 11 August, a Libyan cargo plane took off safely to Benghazi.
A public gathering was held on 19 August to mark the opening of the Libyan Consulate in Dubai. Over 500 Libyans residing in the UAE came to mark this key occasion. The famous Libyan Qur’an reciter, Sheikh Dukali, attended the ceremony and held the tarawih
Tarawih
Tarawih refers to extra congregational prayers performed by Muslims at night in the Islamic month of Ramadan. They are not compulsory; however, many Muslims pray these prayers in the night during Ramadan...
prayer at the Consulate. The new Libyan flag was raised at the consulate.
On 21 August, Day 1 of the Stabilisation Plan was announced by Jehani and Nayed at a press conference. Both Jehani and Nayed held key interviews for television and newspapers with all main media outlets, and daily press releases and regular press conferences were held at the Libyan Consulate in Dubai. On 22-23 August, the Libya Stabilisation team held a Security Workshop with the Contact Group members. Attending the meeting included specialist heads the UN, EU, US, UK, Italy, Canada, and the UAE. The two-day workshop, chaired by Jehani, discussed the immediate security and humanitarian needs for Tripoli and the rest of the country. Nayed presented a detailed report of the security situation in the country and an update on immediate developments. In Dubai on 23-24 August, Nayed held the initial meetings between the UN and NTC. Ian Martin
Ian Martin
Ian Martin, from the United Kingdom, is a human rights activist who has been involved in a number of human rights organisations. He was the Special Representative of the Secretary-General in Nepal for the United Nations Mission in Nepal from 2007 to 2009....
(the Secretary General’s Special Representative to Libya) and Hansjeorg Strommeyer (Chief of Policy at the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs) attended.
In Doha on 24 August, Nayed led the Libyan delegation at a mini Contact Group meeting of specialists on Unfreezing Assets and deciding humanitarian assistance for the Libyan People. Before the meeting in Doha, Nayed held interviews with CNN and with the Wall Street Journal. In Istanbul on 25 August, Nayed attended the Fifth Contact Group Meeting as part of the Libyan delegation. Nayed held detailed meetings with UN Special Representative Ian Martin, and UNDP Resident Representative in Libya, Constanza Farina. The Stabilization Team gave a copy of the stabilization plan presentation to all participants. Nayed left meeting early to send teams to work on the water crisis in Tripoli.
On 26 August, Nayed was invited by the UN went to Tunisia
Tunisia
Tunisia , officially the Tunisian RepublicThe long name of Tunisia in other languages used in the country is: , is the northernmost country in Africa. It is a Maghreb country and is bordered by Algeria to the west, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Its area...
to meet with UN agencies in their operational centre in Zarzis
Zarzis
Zarzis is a commune and coastal town in southeastern Tunisia, on the coast of Mediterranean Sea. The climate is mainly dry and sunny, making it a popular tourist destination mixing the old and the traditional...
. Nayed held the first operational meetings between the NTC and the UN. Meetings were convened on water, medicine and food, and Nayed briefed UN on the current situation and the crisis regarding water. On 27 August, during the ongoing water crisis in Tripoli, Nayed and members of the LST held key operational meetings on water with the UN. These meetings ensured that the UN and the NTC were coordinated in terms of water delivery and established method of delivery. They worked on implementation plan for water. From Tunisia, Nayed left for Tripoli and set up the Stabilization Team’s operations rooms at the Corinthia Hotel with his Libya Stabilization Team. Nayed and the LST team liaised with UN from 30 August to arrange UN Security Team to assess the level of security in Tripoli. Tripoli was decided to be safe enough for initial mission by Special Representative of the UN Secretary General, Ian Martin, and subsequently allowed UN operational teams to work in Tripoli. On 30-31 August, Nayed and the LST liaised with UN and NTC to get a formal request for water from Libya to the UN, to formalise the bilateral relationship between the UN and Libya. On 1 September, the stabilization team arrived early and worked with French and UN security and protocol teams to organise arrangements, security and logistics for meeting between UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, Jalil and Jehani.
Nayed flew to Paris for a major donor’s meeting on 2 September. The high-level donors meeting in Paris was chaired by Jehani and the UN’s Ian Martin, and was attended by all major donor organizations. Nayed presented the NTC’s stabilization plan to all agencies, who subsequently agreed to work with NTC. From this meeting a special framework for engagement was established between NTC and these organizations.
After the liberation of Tripoli, the Libya Stabilization Team and its members worked intensively and restored electricity, telecommunications, and water supply and fuel. They worked closely and held regular press briefings with Ali Tarhouni, Faituri, Shammam, Najib Bakarat and other ministers. Nayed helped the UAE reopen its embassy in Tripoli and received the UAE diplomatic delegation in Libya. He also arranged for UAE support for the Interior Ministry, including delivery of 100 police cars to the Tripoli police along with uniforms and equipment. On 20 September, Nayed returned to UAE to take part in the Annual Ceremony where all new ambassadors gave their credentials to Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan. Nayed later held a press conference to hand over all work in these key sectors to the relevant ministries.
Theological
He is member of the Board of Advisors of the prestigious Templeton Foundation; Senior Advisor to the CambridgeCambridge
The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...
Inter-Faith Programme at the University of Cambridge
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
, UK; and Fellow of the Royal Aal Al-Bayt Institute in Jordan. He was included in the list of 500 most influential Muslims published by the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre, Amman. He was a former professor at the Pontifical Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies in Rome, and the International Institute for Islamic Thought and Civilization, Malaysia.
Nayed is one of the leading Muslim figures in the field of inter-faith relations, and has been involved in various inter-iaith initiatives since 1987, including the recent A Common Word process, of which he was one of the original signatories. He was part of the Muslim delegation at the seminal Common Word bilateral meetings between Muslims and Christians at the Vatican
Holy See
The Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, in which its Bishop is commonly known as the Pope. It is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and...
, Lambeth Palace, Cambridge, Yale
YALE
RapidMiner, formerly YALE , is an environment for machine learning, data mining, text mining, predictive analytics, and business analytics. It is used for research, education, training, rapid prototyping, application development, and industrial applications...
and Georgetown
Georgetown
-Africa:*Georgetown, Ascension Island, main settlement of the British territory of Ascension Island*George, Western Cape, South Africa, formerly known as Georgetown*Janjanbureh, The Gambia, formerly known as Georgetown-Asia:*Georgetown, Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh...
. In 2006 when Pope Benedict XVI
Pope Benedict XVI
Benedict XVI is the 265th and current Pope, by virtue of his office of Bishop of Rome, the Sovereign of the Vatican City State and the leader of the Catholic Church as well as the other 22 sui iuris Eastern Catholic Churches in full communion with the Holy See...
made controversial comments on Islam in Regensburg, Germany, Nayed was one of 138 Muslim scholars who drafted a letter inviting Catholic-Muslim dialogue. He also took part in a conference of clerics who reinterpreted the 14th-century scholar Ibn Taymiyya’s celebrated fatwa
Fatwa
A fatwā in the Islamic faith is a juristic ruling concerning Islamic law issued by an Islamic scholar. In Sunni Islam any fatwā is non-binding, whereas in Shia Islam it could be considered by an individual as binding, depending on his or her relation to the scholar. The person who issues a fatwā...
on jihad
Jihad
Jihad , an Islamic term, is a religious duty of Muslims. In Arabic, the word jihād translates as a noun meaning "struggle". Jihad appears 41 times in the Quran and frequently in the idiomatic expression "striving in the way of God ". A person engaged in jihad is called a mujahid; the plural is...
, arguing that radical Islamists who use it to justify killing are misguided.
When the Libyan civil war started in February 2011, he and other clerics issued a joint fatwa calling on Libyans to resist Colonel Muammar Gaddafi
Muammar Gaddafi
Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar Gaddafi or "September 1942" 20 October 2011), commonly known as Muammar Gaddafi or Colonel Gaddafi, was the official ruler of the Libyan Arab Republic from 1969 to 1977 and then the "Brother Leader" of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya from 1977 to 2011.He seized power in a...
. Two days later he fled to Dubai, United Arab Emirates, where he ran Kalam Research & Media, an Islamic theological research and policy organization, until he was appointed as Libyan Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates.
Books
- Operational Hermeneutics: Interpretation as the Engagement of Operational Artifacts; KRM, Dubai (2011);
- The Author’s Intention; Co-authored with Jeff Mitscherling and Tanya Ditommaso; Lexington Books (2004)
His forthcoming books include:
- Catholic Engagements: A Muslim Theologian’s Journey in Muslim-Catholic Dialogue (KRM);
- The Future of Muslim Theology (to be published by Blackwell in parallel with The Future of Jewish Theology by Stephen Kepnes and The Future of Christian Theology by David F. FordDavid F. FordDavid Frank Ford is an academic and public theologian. He has been the Regius Professor of Divinity at the University of Cambridge since 1991...
.
Monographs
- "GROWING ECOLOGIES OF PEACE, COMPASSION AND BLESSING: A Muslim Response to 'A Muscat Manifesto'.
- "DUTIES OF PROXIMITY: Towards a Theology of Neighbourliness".
- "BUILDING PEACE: The Approach of Sheikh Abdullah Bin Bayyah and the Somalia Declaration".
External links
- World Economic Forum Jordan 2011-Insights on the Future of Libya panel discussion, including Aref Nayed
- 'Compassion and Understanding in Islam', The Bradley Lecture at the Pontifical Institute of Arabic and Islamic Studies, Rome, May 2007
- Opening Remarks to the 1st Meeting of Libyan Academicians in the UAE, Libyan Consulate, Dubai, UAE, 15 October 2011
- Libya Stabilization Team, final press conference, Libyan Consulate, Dubai, 21 September 2011
- AlArabiya Interview with Aref Nayed
- A Muslim’s Commentary on Benedict XVI’s 'Faith, Reason and the University: Memories and Reflections'
- Profile article in New York Times
- http://www.lavie.fr/archives/2008/02/28/aref-ali-nayed-pret-pour-dialoguer-avec-benoit-xvi,9197203.phpProfile article in La VieLa VieLa Vie is a weekly French Christian magazine, edited by Malesherbes Publications, a member of the Groupe La Vie-Le Monde.-History:Founded in 1924 by Francisque Gay as La Vie catholique , the magazine was renamed La vie in 1977...
] - Kalam Research and Media
- Network of Free Ulema
- http://blogs.reuters.com/faithworld/2011/09/03/post-gaddafi-libya-stresses-forgiveness-muslim-theologian-runs-stabilisation-team/Profile article on ReutersReutersReuters is a news agency headquartered in New York City. Until 2008 the Reuters news agency formed part of a British independent company, Reuters Group plc, which was also a provider of financial market data...
]