mbt early history - a false dawn-1

8/2/2019 MBT Early History - A False Dawn-1

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A False Dawn?

For a time many Muslms were oveawed by te b of oEnglish Muslm commuity. Ten, tey sensed hat someg had

goe wrong AbduiWahab EI-Afend looks at e_ glories, als ad tribuatios of te commuy's ode She1k Abda-Qad -Suf

E tr i et in trti, Orwein hih-teh iet where menhve eme tm, ed inrti eetni d kept trqi dr Te n "nrdx per i s the keeper Arve te ierit we e t"' ti nnw t ters One d t dispper he rrtr ite e t ke his pe. rhte diver e dirie Kd ther e the ew irnretre je in erh the teris oo o ane Terne tke hi t he mdikwter nted the newiviizti d thrh i ndi sh he diver Im. eetrn t i wrk ed n t dver tt the preentven t im the teri he keeper he i Zawy (reret)

w te veted oo o Sranewritte in hndwti. w Ad he keeper, the Adwht he hd t w witin ime !

e t i mre siti rei n irp. The thr, Da Bth wrier nd trh wed t the ext ph te er i nve Th oo oanr i re ie d he ere e ie t i D wped wit te sme diiienth ee the risn eeri theixtie, w he i the weertre, d were rt ir it wherever te d. Dd he ee K wh deriete intee hi ime - w hewthed 'smer ke mieiide te e their thht irt ee tei kwedent teh e hw t ive n te

wrd he edtr e hemeve tter rnt he te, tte w ti The hik t

hev d t reet Lie rem eim d te r hem ndeh rir end tr wit Im ein i

he idixie when he t Peri iitre nd divered ipti te me he enwe hkh A Qdir Jini it k. n the eve md i9 emred Im t heQrwii me i kehd he r hie he ne AdQdi. e w ppre initited i kh ee h site {n te ed the rdeme the

einnin qet r hvk irtin Nex meri


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A ai-Qadlr ai-Si hs bads as is community f Msms dream fEgad's rst Musm

had taeed wh a comanon (who

also figes in he Bk Sangen he summe of 68. The manembaced slam n Fez

n 170 Abd alQad teled toAmeca in ode to spead the wodhee oon a commnity of Bitihand Ameican Musms fomed aoundAbd aQadi asSu6 They squatedin a deeict ow of houses in BistolGadens Mada Vae west Lndonand fomed a sma coony thee ewhoe stee wa aken oe by thensual specace of tens of people ingeen tubans ad Mooan jelahass) e life the ied was

omantic and answeed

the needs ofthe disusioned youth feeng heWests matealstc cuue As themous companon

of the Bk

ane Abdla Bewly tod meNone of us embaced Islam becaset was easonabe' o te o becausei was the ?est egion We wee onlyden to 1t by ou sincee uest fotth and the uneasness we felt n ouculte a is why sufi sam specicaly appealed to us Then od ewaded o sncere seach by gdng uso the tuth

As a matte of fact, Abd aQadi

sed to accept in ths cicle a gup ofseeke fom a waks o life wthout makng acceting Islam a ndton o joining in acies Onlyate woud he tell them that thee canbe no way fowad wthout Islam

The lfe was also stomy andgoos Abd alQadi taelled consaty and made Daawa al oeuope and Ameca and eenbeyond e ate banched o SouthAfica Nigea, Malaysa ndonesathe Aab Wold etc Many of hsw w xectd to foow hmaound o go on erands on the own

at a sho noce his was ey dsptve of noma fe Bt no oneseemed to mnd, since most followeswee sngle people o couples whowee al pat of he gop Dsciplinewas also stict with euemens offll obedience to the Shaykh wihotuestions een n mattes elatng topeona life such as maage anddioce Thee was also a euementof shunning all aspects of modecultue and cisation No wetedess was alowed And fo seealmonths n the mdseenties they

electcity.Howeve, no one I met, een omthose who hae spli away fom themovement seem to eget that epi

ode Eeyone looks back at it aectionately as a omantic peod, wheelife went smoothly with the help ofwod fes and o lamps n the heatof London! ven now when I istedsome o the emainng followes Iwas eated to a smple mea in thewamth of a "ea' coal and wood fein an atmosphee that adiated easeand fendness We wee suoundedthough I must admit - wth thelatest n desk top publibshng compte technology

By 1971, Abd alQadis folowesnumbeed 16 n that yea he took

fou of hem to ajj whee they weeplanning to meet Shaykh alabiThe Shaykh, howeve died n Algeaon hs wa t o Ha j And fom thenon a new phase stated in Abd alQadis caee when he was began tospply all guidance himself e maintaned contact wit peronalties andgops all oe the Muslim wodChef among them was a foePakistani coonel who was one of thefondes of the samic Clta ente Colonel Ata ulRahim. Anothewas Uma Abdalla Ambassado of


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Whosever

knows that Allah

is thesamae Pth . Thenhistravling

on it

Abd l-Qadrpresents the

doom f WstenCivilisatio. Hetraces he oigin

to te Jaobis.

he resentsoiety, he wits

is openly

religious soietwose orsi isidoato.

2

the Comoro slads here was alsoShaykh Abdalla Mahmud ofShaa and the former Shaykh o AlAzha Abdu-Halim Mahmoud Allwere sus although he mainainedsome contacts with others

n 5 Abd al-Qadir made hisst seous attempt at provdig guid

ance Hs boo Te Wa ofMa came in that yea rmDwan Press the publshig am ofthe movement he boo was said tohave been the product o wo weeksof seusion n alioa the prevousyear t is a complex work wch sessentially an attempt o preent sufsm to an aveage weste audence is thus a double attempt to prove thatsusm is ue slam, and slam is tuefaih As he says at one point theslam o he Messenger ad) the Sufism of the Sus .. are idetical in allems of eference.

he book uotes extesively fromthe well-known Andalusian-panheistbn Al-Arab ad ends wth thisquote Woeve knows tha Alah isthe same as the ah knows the matter for what t is en he s ravellgon it since there is no know ecepthm He is you He later abandonedbn alAabi however n between headumbates most o the views tha wlldomnate his thnkig in the comngyears hief among these s the viewtat the life of the early slamic community n Mana epresets the peako human achevement hat there s

no sate n slam Stateslam hewes is sticly spaing the hrstian heresy of the church i the senseof a pesthood of believers t issusaned by an elte of scholars adpriests now caled uema andImams. ue susm reecs this because for sus ts whole world ofappearances is an llusio or usthe senses are no an openng oealty but a vei u i is on theselusions that the State Fantasy isbult, on the foudaton of the solidfons o money ad 'capta andmiltay power ere is hus o suchthig as an slamic stae e twoterms are mutually rreconciablee goes oI it s slam it is not a sate ratherit is a community ctoning organcly according to the ook n slamhee is no police or prisos or bansEvery ma is a polcema he bano Zaat is empted anually eveyma is a solder

We should loo back at slamichistory dspassonately Abd al-Qadirsays ad try to understand t In thishe Shii nd Suni tradtons should

cross-fetlise each othe He hstong views about this histo himself, thoug. He cticizes the collection of the Quran under Caph Uthman1 because it reflects: "he veyanxiety situaton hat eal slam hascome to dispel e matter was not nthe hands of thman and others t

was n he hands o Reality tselfhis collection was te rst step inhe betrayal of the wisdom processleading to the codification of Hadithwhich left us wth l the documentsbut we canot fd the men

In the book Abd al-Qadir oscllatesbetween the antquated sui cosmologyof Neo-Patonc oigis and modeWestern phlosophcal posiios n avey sillull maner whch s not freeom contadictions though. Mostsignficant he reiterates the sufi cosmoogy of the heachy of 30 pefectmen who are the aex of eistence

Headng hese is the Qub he pivotof exstece he sllness at the heartof the vast cosmic actvty

The signicance of these views ofAbd al-Qadir stems from their practica mplication For he man is keeo makg ts pracce conform to hstheoy he attemps were not awayssuccessful, bu they are vey illuminating regading the worth of these theories. Bu before discussig ths aspect,we have to ook at hs vews on modern cvlsation ad modern Muslimlife

an arcle published in 176 Abdal-Qadr pedcts the doom o westerncivlisation ad presents a strong crtie f t e traces he ogn ofmodern weser culure to he Jacobns and sees ts essece as'strucurasm he 'ani-bologcaltedency towads 'mathematsggidifying structuralising man a asocial-biologc realty is basic tendency ad the socal theores roduced ed to he Inerl systemstheoy cororaton capitalism andreidium-commusm e am is toontrol and eslave man Sieificmethodology s deology n dsgusewhile echnoogy ad deveopmet arethe instumens o domination used tolre Mslims into a word domnatedby his new ideology raditionaulema failed o sand up to this ecroachmet whle most Muslimstoday have become he dupes andspokesmaen of he Chrisian cultueOly susm could and did stand up tothis deluge nstead of tying to jointhis dyig cvilsaion Muslims shoudake slam to the unstuctuedSouth and buld there an "emprenot held by tyrany but by the ilum-


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inating teaching of the Arabian Propet' lam not a scial heor.ere i nothing more ridiculouthan te beardles be-suited modet endlely taking about thiwondeful reaonable Ilam te avedovered tat does not offend Wetern tecnocrats or Bihop, andwondeing w o few are onvnenoug to follow them"

n e following ear e developthi dual ique of weern and Mulim oieie fuer e pesentoie e wrte i an openl religiou oie woe worhip i idoltary The idol of toda i the abourproces, and the arament of teidolaor i te consumer product eprets ae the Unvert dean anddoctors e learning pethoodares the same baic eptemologand methodolog from eking oPar i impoible to reform tistem You can no more have lamicience ta ou can ave lak r


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community whch was supposed to befounded on solidaty and abence ofanxety over woldly matter founditelf in turmoil and inene anxetvabout wee tomoow meal i goingto come from. n the tadition of allgreat Su Saykhs Abd alQadr sawt as s ght o order hs folowerabout But unlke oher Shayks hewa in no pition to cater for themen he odered people to leavethei businesse and go away on someerand o oter he was in no posionto compenate them. A goup of hicloe followers, with hep of donationsfom all over te Muslim wold awto it tat Abd alQadi (who wanedto be like the deal su Shayk hedecbes in one of his book a avoex of energy who doe not caeabout lander or praise and toughwhom worldly goods ow constantlyto other people) lived and tavelledvey comfortably. But they coud notdo tat for everyody ese Tis led tobitter ticism, epeciay when a costly conference on Maliki fiqh wa organied in Norwich in 1982 wlemot people in the community livedon vg of >o

e pobem wa urhe compca

ted by clam made y Abd aQadifollowng te deat of Shayk aabib. Fo several yea he perisedin calling imelf Muqaddam Abd alQadir as-Sui. His book were publhed unde te name of Abd alQadir as-Suf o ome he added tetle adDaqawi. owads te midseventies he embarked agan on teearch for a new shayk At the endof 76 Abd a-Qadir said, we foundnone to wom we could entut ornoble fuqara (follower) He had earlie viited an aging Saykh in

Morocco who told him that hewas

e the net Shayk. Apparently awedby tis daunting proposition Abd alQad efained from declaring himselfa Shayk n late 7 he traveled toibya to e Say Muhammed alaytui rom te Alawiya aqaThe Sek ten ordeed m to gointo secluion for two and a alf daysand hen te incident is disputed)decared him Shayk of bothAlawiyya and aqawiyya aaswhich were supposed to be uniedunder im. He also claimed headpof Naqshabandiyya Taiqa in the Weton he autoy of ome TukhShaykh. One publication issued by ifollwer in even cal im"utb, the highest eve ank in Sucosmoogy.Smultaneous wih this, Abd aQadirs thought wa enering a newpase, symoblied by his book ia,a Goun Pla published in 7 nit he attempts to redefine Iamic histoy calling fo the repacement ofthe oficial hitory of great ules andculture and cience with that ofnge ocietes uch as te ulani(gea or Maabitun (Moravides inMoocco. e assai "ignoant

scolars wo are still apologsing andenven amending in oder to be accepted y "an ociey the outdatedlamic modermists ed by he'maonic Afgani and Abdu woted o ng Isam in te eventiethcentury ; te Muslim Broteroodwhich tries to kil slam by procaiming te idea of an slamic state, andwanted to ave Islamic cience ignoant of te fact that cence is itself abelief ystem; a region and thebullying uema wo wanted to tanda moal udge over people intead of

coning them and peking tohem e also denounced paid ImamsRabta (Muslim Wold eague) whichhe ees as a Muim Vatican andOC a masomc ody"

e popsed a pogramme callngfor public :e aming of al Muslms ection of pad mam open

activm, antinationaim and te reetablishment of Zakat. All thisshould culminate in Rbat, te suetrea-cum-milta-garrson fomwhich te Muabtn singla M-a) emerged e also atempts oanalye he 'Kafi world oder finding its core as he bankng ystemthe weaket and at the ame time the"most powe element n arphaaonic contol system. Buttesedby he amy poce prisons bureaucracy, welfare (the most pofoundmora copton) and he dtractonof ports.

A Mulim order, y contat willbe decentalied wit no such ytemof d contro athoug avey wilbe peited in it t a no capitabae, but a constant low of moneytough a reasu ha hould be emped contnuouslY. An oppounty toet up such a model ha been preented y te ankuptcy of the currenindustrial civilisation and the dawningof a new electronic-communication oriented oiet, which ofes an opprtunity o ontct on a sane basisa smooe and simper form of lifei can be done though the recoveryof te dynamic and pure lam byecoveing he nne elf a a purpoel exitence couped wit the ociaproject of othehood among mulim.

Ja signaled a hift Ad alQadir tinking. And i wa inidentaly te las wok he pbhed without puttng the title Sayh to hisname. But even a e became ShaykhAbd alQadi aSu he ha ubtlyhifted owad a more activist tanceA first e did th by emphaising teativst apecs of u teaching andhistoy e su he wrote, ae heonly ople who to up to colonialim and wee feared by it Theeamples of Sanuiva, he Mahdi ofSudan and Abd 1-Qadir al-Jarihow ths A did toe of OthmanDan odio and the Murabiun earlierut even a he wrote t he had torecoge that te olonialist playedthe Sufi brothehood again eachote he facts ae even moe siner than e admis t i known thathe Frenc in North Afca not onlybacked ceain aas like tTijaniya, but alo put sme money

q, J


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- .into revvg sufsm Algera the930's o coer the a (re fomst) ulema movemet led by Beads. Ths s e ulmate oy forAd aQadr's otology of real versus llsory exstence he usory "sold fom of moey ths fatasy goes to feed ad support he oly real

world of he su Ad ths realty ntur feeds ad supos he faasyof coloa sate domato.

Bt by bt hough Abd alQadrdstaced hmsef from tradtonal suquesm ad bacame more ad moreouspoke The dea he ropsoed earer about he Meda commuy took more romece hs though Now he ook he model of Meda com munty to mea he folowg of he Malk schoo of law sce Malk wasthe champo of the Meda In hslectures Ro Ilami Edc pbshed book fom 1982 he pus

great sress o hs I s a falacy hesad to say that all he for or verecognsed schools of hough are correc here s oly oe rue Maabwhch s ha of Mak All ese eher chea mtao or hamfulaberrao He even arades as sas Malk bgots who bashed ad harrassed folowers of other schoos!

hs book he also pos o hefe of acvs uema who wee otfs the tradoal sese and acea break wth hs sf ast tels hs folowers: f ths not the scece ofasaaf wha s? Ths actvsm s

he path to be folowed: Ad ayhg hat I have sad revousy o hs. ha cotradcs his wthdraw ad say dd o know! I had ode Ths loo ke verv ucharacters humly ul yoU eadthe ne sece Ad uhermore Ido ot mae ese for that becausenobody kew And obody told me

Ths marked the offcal beak wthsufm s was further emphassed by ublshg R lamc dder a moded athors ameShaykh al-Murabt he Shaykhs newa. b we must recal s heame chose by the SfMalk

waors of the Maghreb he Muabt of he 6th ad 7th CeresAH hs was Abd aadr's ftchage of ame whch may oshow the wsdom of the revale racce of mosg ames o eopleBefoe tha Abd alQadr sed heame havkh Abd al-Qadr asSuadDaaqa for wo books he ublshed Lee Aa Mm 191 ad K a Ilam Ce 19

The rs of these two books whch was aparely wrte the su

y jy

hase res to ela o Afcasater reachg o them he vues ofte Islamc savery whch he sasshold be revved o solve the refgee roblem) the atre of the nter atoal cotrol system ha keethem uder domnato and whoseroja horse s hghtech ad dev

elomet he soluo s to revvead revalse susm ad estore theshaa accordg to the Malk schoole lso reerates hs lack of fah the Arabs an ther capacty o leadthe umma ad hs blake codemato of all foms of moder samcactvsm whch he brads masoc

f s reseted by Abdlqadr asa atdote to kow oso ad asa eose of the magc of the modestae ad how to escape t e curre domat cltue s blt o the false rcle of rogress' whchalleges that the rest socety s he

bes ever ad wll forever mrove,ad prebes develomet as theway o atake t truth s a evl socety threaeed b collapse uder the weght of s ow bar barsm hs socey has as ts corezosm whch throug banks ad masoc erlks contros the wold Theoly way to brg dow ths system sto abolsh moey rer to barte ad

ll out of the teatoa moearysystem

But whle Shaykh Abd aQadr wasbusy utg the ars of the whole wold n order hs own communty was crumblng der hs fee eproect was pagued by cotadctos from he sart e total deace ofhe estabshed order was ever realFor whle the Shaykh was callg forthe esablshmet of a commy that wll stad to the world of

appearaces, ad prove s depedece of the usory pheomena of moey ad worldly ower, hs magaze lam was carg a adverse met askg for thrty thousadods of hs same fatasy moey o suot hs roect of a Islamcvllage that wll be above money The

ad aso aoced graelly the recept of e thousad ouds omShaykh Sula bn Muhammed alQasm the ruer of Sharjah udrasg mssos outely scoured chGulf States at the same tme as theShaykh was aouncg hs desar from all Arabs ad esecally the monaches whch even kafrs deouce as corrut ad the rlers who go to he mosque ther blletoofcars

s s because ths whoe re jeconst sace s uteable pactcally or theoetcally ecet as a ara

stc stace scavegng o the veypostos t rejecs You despse ecoomc woldlness bu you have to lveso you ded o wha you despsever gomosly e rejecto ofscece s bl o the same Cartesa fallacy of ota doub doubt Xtherefore doub everythg ut weall kow ha f someone comes to sad savs that doubt have a by we w ake hm to a metal hostaSmarly he clam that some sce fc theores are specuatve does o mea ha atomc weaos are a lluson Shavkh Abd alQadr roves

hs ont accaly when he oes etesvely the ver scentc ad meda kafr souces he despses toprove a ot Hs atcle orevelopmet quotes evoutoaryscence whle hs book had hals theadvet of he elecroc age whch would ot have bee ossbe wthou


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he ndustrial madnss castss somuc.

Even more sgnican he Saykwas neve nown to shy fom flying concord and leading a jetseing life, all he cos a his enals infanasy" money, a te same tme ase was ounselling uslims o abolismony and go back to te beauty ofhe Stone Age

This conradcions naly led o aciss in he communiy e crisis was delayed by proessive concessionsa were made o h ash ralities of life Firs Abd alQadir relaxed hs ban on eleccy and he use of ohermode echnological producs hen it was ddd ha h Moroccan dress hey wore was too muc of aindrance in delveng he message ohe local omuniy So e robe was dropped bu t green turban waskp. It was drped n tu laer.owev th ban on snding childrno scool was only lifted last yearaer sixteen years of untod ardship to parens and loss of propr duca- tion for cildren. (e Saykh be- lieved educaon o be he main instmen of indocnaion and assmila-on into Kafir sociey.

Towars e end of e 70s tewhole group was asked o dp susmand become aliks wic hey diden somtime later te Shaykasked for m (leader) to be

cosen for th Briish uslim communiy bcause e wantd o deachimself a litle bit from te affair of te group. A Libya was duly lectdAmir And ere te csis came o aead.

Prior to ha, he community whichad reaced a peak of around twounded familis, bgan to witness aslow drift away by ndividuals. Tiswas mainy due o unhappnss hhe Shaykh's dominering aitdewic used much distess to some indivduals eople who dffred wit te Saykh on any point soon found life wthin he comnity ntorable.Other sud n hr prsona eand dsaced tmslves fom e

ramaic atmospheree choce o he new Amir how- evr made he csis more gener-alisd. he Amir found his auoysrad by nlcing commands from e Saykh and challenged im.A rst Abd alQadir refused o see a poblem her but finaly agreed oatend a general meeing oweverhe walked out he minute a nt of cicsm of is leadship was voced.And ha ws te nd of te com-munty as i as been known ac tonal dispues broke ou and te

What n e Mlim o e devepnWor ln the sae o Nok

wole affair disintegraed. Wen vised Norwic last Novembe onlvifeen families emaned here anno all wre stil oyal o he Shaykh.owever one of is lose flowersrefused o see hs as a falue hiswas like a family, he said. Yo anno force cidren o reman n he home once they have grown up Now tankGod, we have many commted Mus lims dispersed around e word se ving slam. Sayh Abd aQadi ha done a grea service o e umma

And n a sene h was igh. Only one or wo people from h goup anown o ave eft slam And in facwha happened i pa of dialecticof slam tat has estalishd a patrn over te cenuries Sufi Shaykh and others would spread Islam in remo coes of he world but hen te communiy tey form outgrows hmand goes in searc of th compleslam

n a sense Ad aQadir himself wasa reflecion of his procss He tookhis slam from t sufis o Moroou en wen in sarch of t tsoures o lam. A ndamenalis if ever here was one, he wants to wpe

ou e whoe of Islamic hstory andsar anw. And in spite of his rejeion of wstern ulture wanted t promot an slam tat wil attractwesern man. ike al imiar projetssince bn Abdalwaab here s onemajor problem. Yo are facing a gar

den panted and rrigaed y te water of pure Islam, u some of its treesae dying ohers are rotten or even

poisnous If you wan to ake your own suppy of water, tae a virgin pot of land and plant your own Buhow long is hat gong to take And

we wil vou eat from wh!le wa ing? And w d you know i is goigo be a beter or even differn tree

e case of Abd alQadi sowsow suborn he heriage s Hmoved from susm o aliki iq oMurabiism ut he never leforoo ooccan Islam as es-seniay his blnd. he only addiivehe provided was his wesern outlookwic is anoher heitage

After the poblems in NoichSayh Abd alQadir made hijra oSpain. A mall ommuniy afiaed tohim has en formed hre sinc themidseventies entred m Granada.The concep of ij (emigraion) andi garson erea) is his answe ohe modrn Islami movemen whichhe acused of being a SiimasoncJewsh conspiray o subvert slamAghani was a Shi who aug hemasoni Abdu. wo taugh RashidRida who produd Hassan alBannaand he Mlim Boherhood (inci- dentally, his genealogy is preented by the masonc wod of wesernacademe and his poo of he mas onic ties of Abdu and Afghani have been jyously pced out of tewos of tw ewsh wrters on ofwhom is a zion he Muslm brot erhood is bul on Shi'i tiad andShii secerey so it us be rejectede Shaykh rejets as nneessary and illegitimate excep forhe few.)

he answer to his and .Do as he Muraitun did rereat and

whdraw, esabls a sufinpred communy am yorsef and henbounce ak on afr ocey ere isno suh hng as an sami revolution,r slam oceties, seet o oherwise owever, he has anohe presripon wi eems o onradithis Do ike he mafa of Sly, forma ommuny wh he cmmuny.nfre yor wn aws yourselveswihou waing fo an slamic stae.Te Islami sae is anher Shiimasoni concep

Again his proec poses e prac cal probem as year he Spanish

proe went sr The uasi toaliy of the mmny revolted against teShayk and too over h assts of the ommuniy Shayk Abd alQadirwas frced o eave ranad wih ahandfl of his supportrs. id tenreve to te maiastyle justic? Nohe resorted e kar fantasySpanish sae and was only oo gladwhen it cae down in his favour and decied tat the lusory, fanasysolid forms of assets and ankaccouns were is and his supporterso eep That might tl us something

q 1988

mbt early history - a false dawn-1

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