Monday, February 29, 2016


Christians often travel to other states, nations, and countries in order to tell others of their religion, in hopes of bringing others to those beliefs. As written in a previous post, Libya is a Muslim country.[1] The Arabic religion makes up just about the whole country.  Very few in this country, like much of the northern parts of Africa, claim the religion of Christianity. With that being said Christians, along with other religions, often feel it is their duty to come to Africa to spread the gospel. This is can be very dangerous. In some nations, it is even illegal to speak the name of Christ. In Libya, a mostly Muslim nation, Christians often travel here as missionaries. In February of 2013, three men were arrested for illegally spreading the Christian faith. These men were from the United States and attempting to distribute Christian writings, which is illegal in the country.[2]


In some countries, as well as African nations, Christians are killed for their beliefs. In more recent months, ISIS, a terrorist group, has been slaughtering Christians. In November, a man from Sudan who claimed Christianity, was killed.[4] However, the ISIS killings do not completely reflect Libya’s views on other religions or views on murder. Not all who live in Libya are a part of ISIS.

Now, more than ever, is Libya an extremely unsafe place for Christians to be. ISIS seems to have a high presence in Libya. They have no mercy for those who claim Christianity in any continent that they are in. They have imprisoned, beheaded and murdered many. [5] Regardless of these deathly scary situations, Christians still continue to go to African nations, in hopes to share the gospel with those there. These Christians display the fearlessness that Christians have because of their strong relationship with God.


Posted by at No comments:

Friday, February 19, 2016



Libya, a now independent country was once ruled by Italy. Libya gained their independence from Italy in 1951.[1] It took Libya over 400 years to gain its’ independence after the rule of the Ottoman Empire and then Italy. [2] The Ottoman Empire took control of Tripoli first, then the rest of Libya. The years that followed were ones of control being shared and fought over by Italy, Constantinople, and Britain. Europeans were and are still now more interested in Libya. This is most likely due to the location of Libya compared to Europe than to Asia.
 As previously discussed in other posts, Libya had a high amount of crude oil. Libya had had a good relationship with United States through trade, up until the 1980s. This relationship was ruined when Libya began to support Palestine’s military. This all led to the United States bombing some of Libya. There were problems between Libya and Chad, which led to issues between Libya and France, and more issues with the United States. [3] With these disagreements between Libya and other countries, it caused tensions and negatively affected both countries. Libya lost some countries to trade with and the United States were not able to trade with Libya and use their oil. When Libya was first being established there was religious influence from European countries to their north, that migrated, bringing the Muslim faith. This migration of Arabic faith expanded the religion and caused it to spread to other African countries. As of today, other countries are trying to help the Libyan people as much as possible. France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States of America are all trying to protect Libya’s independence.[4] While Libyan government may not be the best to deal with, these other countries are still trying to help the people as much as possible.


Posted by at No comments:

Friday, February 12, 2016

A major natural resource found in Libya is petroleum. In 1956, petroleum was discovered in Libya. The oil reserves in Libya make up three percent of the total amount in the world. Libya did sell oil to European countries. In 1980, there was a decline in sales due to a decline in demand because the amount of oil found in other places were enough. [1] Libya is in competition with other countries for supplying oil, however, Libya is one of those most important African countries that supplies oil.


At one point in time, Libya was producing 1.6 million barrels of oil each day. That number decline in 2014 to 800,000 a day because of rebel groups. This was a big decrease in production and affected Libya negatively.
Libya depends on oil for their economy. In 2010, by exporting oil, $47 billion dollars was made for the treasury. BP, Royal Dutch Shell and Total are among other corporations that are in Libya using their oil. [2]
Not only does the supply and demand, as well as the availability of oil, affect the Libyan economy, but it also affects the entire world. Because Libya has such an impact on the oil industry due to its amount found in the country, it can have effects on other oil. Oil from Libya can affect the prices of all the other countries that trade oil. [3]
  [4]
As mentioned before, there are rebel groups in Libya. These groups of people have been known to cause a decline in the oil market. There are rival groups that protest and fight other groups that are armed as well. They have been known to make demands in political and financial areas. The constant attacks and threats will cause production rates to decline and could essentially ruin the whole Libyan oil export situation. [5]



[1] http://www.britannica.com/place/Libya
[2] http://journal-neo.org/2015/03/15/rus-liviya-neftyanoj-sektor-pod-pritselom-boevikov/
[3] http://rx9vh3hy4r.search.serialssolutions.com/?ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&ctx_enc=info%3Aofi%2Fenc%3AUTF-8&rfr_id=info:sid/summon.serialssolutions.com&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:journal&rft.genre=article&rft.atitle=Oil+and+economic+development%3A+Libya+in+the+post-Gaddafi+era&rft.jtitle=Economic+modelling&rft.au=Ali%2C+Issa&rft.au=Harvie%2C+Charles&rft.date=2013-05-01&rft.issn=0264-9993&rft.eissn=1873-6122&rft.volume=32&rft.spage=273&rft.epage=285
[4] http://www.globalresearch.ca/protests-grow-as-western-powers-rival-militias-loot-libyan-oil-industry/5355345
[5] http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com.ezproxy.liberty.edu:2048/doi/10.1111/j.1467-6346.2015.06568.x/epdf
Posted by at No comments:

Thursday, February 4, 2016

Like most of the continent of Africa, Libyans take on the religion of Islam.  In Libya, there is no separation of religion and state. The lives of those in Libya are intertwined with religion and nationality. For example, in Thailand they believe in Hinduism. For one to be Thai, is to be Hindu. They are born being told that they are of this religion because of where they live. Just like in Thailand, in Libya, to be Libyan is to be Islamic, in most cases.
[1]
Islam came to be in A.D. 610 when a prophet name Muhammad preached revelations that he claimed to be from Allah, his form of God. In A.D. 622, the religion really took off and Muhammad began to get more and more followers. The Quran is of Muhammad's experience with God. Rules were created and put in the Quran in order to instruct the followers in how to live life. This Islamic religion spread to Libya and other African countries. [2]


Unlike the United States and other countries, there is no freedom of religion in Libya. All Libyans are to take the Islamic faith and abide by it. It is rare to find a Christian in Libya, so there has not been much of an impact from.Libya has the highest amount of Buddhism in all of the northern African countries with 0.3%. [3] There are very few Judaist in Libya, as Islam is 97% of the country's religion. The 3% of other religions in Libya are of immigrants coming from Asian countries.


 [4]


One myth about Islam is that all Islamic people are terrorists. That is untrue. There are certain types of Islam, some more radical than others. Especially in Libya, based on events in the past years, it is easy to think that Islamic Libyans are all awful people but that is a false assumption. I have not read the Quran so I cannot speak for what is written in it, but according to this article, there is a chapter that speaks of peace.[5]




[1]http://africawiki.wikispaces.com/file/view/Libyan_Religions.JPG/34195179/Libyan_Religions.JPG
[2]http://countrystudies.us/libya/50.htm
[3]http://us.wow.com/wiki/Religion_in_Libya
[4]https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv4X-RSBMI4yDfYmIg-nGomPXkZu3WqLtfDGqHB9yPgyY_bATRv7E-ViFFYRGTrCIhnNtrwl0KsTp99k1bVEQD3ghxq3ND06iihZz-aT1bKkHtJPCvA93y-BrrZ3HSoKaObf5LnGpWMyTE/s1600/Islam+Symbol+(31).jpg
[5]http://islam.about.com/od/terrorism/f/terrorism.htm

Posted by at No comments:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)