Salafists mark their territory

Slaheddine Jourchi a specialist on the Islamist movement explains to  the newspaper Le Temps that the Salifists felt that Ennhada the main islamic party was elected on the basis of a fatwa calling for the party to be close to teh percepts of islam. Another faction boycotted the vote because they thought Ennhada would not enforce Sharia law.

He says that Salifism is a strict religious movement whilst Ennhada is more pragmatic and closer to the western idea of democracy. For Salafists moral and religious issues call for the use of violence to fight against sin and vice in society. The Salafists are a very diverse movement, the term"salaf" means ancestors and they concentarte on the community and they follow the Sunna and the Koran.Some groups have as yet no defined plan of  joint action.  They can be divided into conservative salafism and jihadists. 

The conservative Salafists advocate non violent preaching  (Eddaâwa) to fight against innovations (Bida) in religion and restore the purity of Islam. They avoid discord (fitna) with the rulers.The Salafist jihadis are prepared to use violence against anything they perceive as related to western democracy.

Ennhada has tried to have dialogue with the Salafists but deep diferences remain. Some Salafists are thinking about creating a political party as is teh case in Egypt.They seem to be moving away from violent confrontation. Some have criticised the incidents at Manouba University where salafists attempted to force women to wear the niqab.

The latest estimates suggest that there are several thousand Salafists. some 1,800 were released from prison in a post revolution amnesty. They are mainly  aged 17-30 and well educated. However they are not organised, they have no leader nor a clear strategy.