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| Africa North |
| Tunisian Salafists riot, clash with police |
| 2012-05-27 |
| [Al Ahram] Hundreds of Salafists ...Salafists are ostentatiously devout Moslems who figure the ostentation of their piety gives them the right to tell others how to do it and to kill those who don't listen to them... attacked bars and shops and clashed with security forces in a Tunisian town on Saturday in the latest incident to raise religious tensions in the home of the Arab Spring uprisings. Police and witnesses in the northwestern town of Jendouba said hundreds of Salafists - followers of a puritanical interpretation of Islam - began rioting to protest the arrest of four men in connection with previous attacks on alcohol vendors. Police responded with tear gas, breaking up the crowd, but festivities had yet to die down, witnesses and police said. "This morning, four men were set to sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock, in a pestilential prison with a life-long lock Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un! in connection with attacks on alcohol vendors in recent days," Interior Ministry official Lutfi al-Haydari told Rooters. "So hundreds of Salafists attacked the security base, pelting it with rocks and petrol bombs before they were dispersed by tear gas. They also set fire to a cop shoppe and attacked three shops in the town ... they are now in the centre of town and are being dealt with." The festivities come a week after Salafis fought with alcohol vendors in the central town of Sidi Bouzid, prompting the justice minister to promise they would be punished. Many Salafi Islamists were in jail or underground before the 2011 uprising that ousted secular strongman Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali. But they have since become more assertive. While Islamists did not play a major role in the revolt, the struggle over the role of religion in government and society has since emerged as the most divisive ...politicians call things divisivewhen when the other side sez something they don't like. Their own statements are never divisive,they're principled... issue in Tunisian politics. |
| Posted by:Fred |