The Battle for the Future of Tunisia
Almost two years after the Arab Spring started in Tunisia, Salafists are intimidating women, artists and intellectuals. Many fear that the government is tacitly supporting the radical Islamists in their efforts to turn the young democracy into a theocracy, the german magazine Spiegel reviews the situation.
Source : https://www.marocafrik.com/english/The-Battle-for-...
Alexander Smoltczyk begins with attacksonprostitutes by salafis which then turn into attacks on women not waring the veil,artists,filmakersart galleriesandanyone the salafi's decide they dislike, always with violence and meances.Nouri Bouzid a filmdirector says that Ennhada is playing a double game allowing salafi's to commit outrageous acts to see how far they can go.Artists,he points out,do not support Ennhada.
Tunisia is close to Europe and has along tradition of secular freedom inherited from Habib Bourgiba. The salafists,the article says want to destroy this backed by financing from sympathisers in the Gulf. The salafists use facebook to publish the names and photographs of those they single out for attack. They have also taken over many mosques and ejected the old imams, the article says.Ennhada has yet to distance itself from the salifis and Rachid Gannouchi's advice to young salafis caught on video has caused widespread alarm.They have attacked institutions like Manouba University.
There are people in Tunis who believe that the country islikely to become a theocracy akin to the one in Iran. But no one seriously expects this to happen because Tunisian civil society is too self-confident -- and because Tunisia has too many people like Maya Jribi, the secretary general of the Republican Party .
The opposition accuses Ennahda of duplicity, saying that while it publicly encourages tolerant discourse, it also uses the young radicals to intimidate independent voices in what seems like a joint effort. Ennhada rejects the accusation and caims that it is misunderstood.Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi's decree granting himself extensive powers has triggered a debate over the true nature of the new Islamic regimes in North Africa, the article says. Are the Muslim Brotherhoods in Egypt, Libya and Tunisia totalitarian in disguise or are they ready to be pragmatic and allow personal civil liberties?
Béji Caïd Essebsi who led the transitional government after the revolution and allowed Ennhada back into the political process, says they are like old style eastern european communists who never want to give up power.They do no he says want a modern Tunisia but an archaic 7th century feudal state. He beliefves Ennhada and the salafists are really the same family. However Béji Caïd Essebsi thinks they are incapable of governing and as Tunisians are a literate people thanks to the policies of Habib Bourgiba they will not be so easily manipulated. Maya Jibri secretary general of the Republican Party says that whilst Ennhada is determined to seize power the opposition is preventing them and that this is democracy. Let us hope that the history of the Weimar republic that gave way to a dictatorship and the supression of the elites and civil liberties in eastern Europe after the Soviet victory in the second world war does not find a parrallel in Tunisia.
Tunisia is close to Europe and has along tradition of secular freedom inherited from Habib Bourgiba. The salafists,the article says want to destroy this backed by financing from sympathisers in the Gulf. The salafists use facebook to publish the names and photographs of those they single out for attack. They have also taken over many mosques and ejected the old imams, the article says.Ennhada has yet to distance itself from the salifis and Rachid Gannouchi's advice to young salafis caught on video has caused widespread alarm.They have attacked institutions like Manouba University.
There are people in Tunis who believe that the country islikely to become a theocracy akin to the one in Iran. But no one seriously expects this to happen because Tunisian civil society is too self-confident -- and because Tunisia has too many people like Maya Jribi, the secretary general of the Republican Party .
The opposition accuses Ennahda of duplicity, saying that while it publicly encourages tolerant discourse, it also uses the young radicals to intimidate independent voices in what seems like a joint effort. Ennhada rejects the accusation and caims that it is misunderstood.Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi's decree granting himself extensive powers has triggered a debate over the true nature of the new Islamic regimes in North Africa, the article says. Are the Muslim Brotherhoods in Egypt, Libya and Tunisia totalitarian in disguise or are they ready to be pragmatic and allow personal civil liberties?
Béji Caïd Essebsi who led the transitional government after the revolution and allowed Ennhada back into the political process, says they are like old style eastern european communists who never want to give up power.They do no he says want a modern Tunisia but an archaic 7th century feudal state. He beliefves Ennhada and the salafists are really the same family. However Béji Caïd Essebsi thinks they are incapable of governing and as Tunisians are a literate people thanks to the policies of Habib Bourgiba they will not be so easily manipulated. Maya Jibri secretary general of the Republican Party says that whilst Ennhada is determined to seize power the opposition is preventing them and that this is democracy. Let us hope that the history of the Weimar republic that gave way to a dictatorship and the supression of the elites and civil liberties in eastern Europe after the Soviet victory in the second world war does not find a parrallel in Tunisia.
Source : https://www.marocafrik.com/english/The-Battle-for-...