Revolutionary Committees Unofficial watchdog organizations whose members tended to be zealots devoted to Qadhafi and his teachings. First instituted in November 1977 to supervise the Basic People's Congresses and to fight bureaucracy, they have steadily grown more powerful. For example, their members play a large role in selecting delegates to the General People's Congress. Shia The smaller of the two great divisions of Islam. Also transliterated as ashraf.
Singular form is used as a title.
Not to be confused with the Republic of Sudan. Title of the Almoravid, Hafsid, and Ottoman overlords of Libya. Considered the ultimate secular title for a Muslim ruler. Sunni The larger of the two great divisions of Islam. Third International Theory Major tenet of Qadhafi's revolutionary ideology, which purports to offer nonaligned states what is regarded as the Third World political, economic, and social alternatives to Western capitalism and East European communism.