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| Africa North |
| Confrontation looms as Tunisia moves on salafis |
| 2013-05-15 |
| Tunisia is taking a harder line on preaching by ultraconservative Muslim groups, a crackdown that has sparked demonstrations by rock-throwing protesters and ominous warnings of terrorist attacks to come. As it struggles to hunt down al-Qaida linked terrorists in its frontiers, the government has also been trying to rein in salafis emboldened by the fall of the country's repressive dictatorship two years ago. The interior minister said last week that gatherings will require permission, a measure rarely enforced in the past that is an attempt to stop tent meetings springing up around the country to build support for the groups. One of the most vocal of them threatened Monday that if the government cancels its annual conference this weekend—an event attended by 40,000 last year that featured martial arts displays and sword-wielding horsemen—its adherents who have experience in jihad could strike. "You are making a foolish mistake because faith cannot be defeated by any force in the world," said Seifallah Ben Hassine, the leader of Ansar al-Shariah, in an online statement. "I remind you that our youth that proved its heroism in the defense of Islam in Afghanistan, Chechnya, Bosnia, Iraq, Somalia and Syria will not hesitate to make sacrifices for the faith." Tunisia's government, led by the moderate Islamist Ennahda Party, which won elections after the overthrow of Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali's secular dictatorship, had been criticized by the opposition for its permissive attitude toward the conservative religious movements that arose with the fall of the regime. In the freedoms of the post-revolutionary period, these groups moved aggressively to gain supporters, alarming the more secular middle class in this country of 10 million. Ennahda Party members insisted they did not want to follow the old repressive policies of the dictatorship, but their tolerance for the salafis frayed as the groups became increasingly violent, attacking art exhibits, police stations, cinemas and the U.S. embassy. |
| Posted by:tipper |