In Al Bayda, the main town in the region, residents roll their eyes at each new parade in celebration of the revolution's 30th anniversary.

ECONOMIST: Libya??s fair-skinned nonconformists

Al Bayda was for a time the capital of the Sanussi dynasty that Colonel Qaddafi overthrew in 1969, and the new regime transferred power from Jebel Akhdar's elite to the tribesmen of the interior and the townsfolk of Tripoli.

ECONOMIST: Libya??s fair-skinned nonconformists

Al-Bayda is reportedly a predominantly Sunni Muslim village located in an area inhabited largely by members of President Bashar al-Assad's Alawite sect, a heterodox offshoot of Shia Islam.

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