Tunisia’s Challenges -NYT

However a series of recent violent incidents, including attacks on the American Embassy and the American School  in Tunis last month, have fueled new tensions between the moderate Islamic government and liberal secularist opposition parties over Islam’s role and the best way to handle extremists, the NYT says.

Resolving these tensions will determine Tunisia’s future and the debate over whether Islam and democracy
can co-exist., the NYT affirms.

Ennahda , the moderate Islamist party that leads the government in a coalition with two secular parties, has tried to reassure  secular Tunisians that it would respect liberal  and democratic values and not impose a strict moral code according to islamic sharia.
 
The NYT observes that Ennhada's moderate credentials have been undermined  an indulgent attitude toward the violent excesses of the Salafists. Secularists, who are uniting under Beji Caid Essebsi's Party Nida Tounes (Call of Tunisia) in an attempt to defeat Ennahda in the next election, have been joined by  Human Rights Watch (HRW). It said that the authorities appeared unable or unwilling to protect individuals from attacks by Salafists. HRW also complained of increased restrictions on freedom of expression, with journalists, artists and critics of the government singled out under the guise of maintaining public order and public morals.
 
Rather than crack down on all Salafis, Ennahda’s leaders have tried to integrate them into the democratic system. The attack on the embassy, which has harmed Tunisia’s image and efforts to revive the faltering economy, may have forced a rethinkin thispolicy ,the NYT suggests. In interviews in Tunis last week, Ennahda officials said that extremists who engage in violence will be prosecuted according to the law. Last Wednesday, a Tunisian court sentenced a leader of radical Islamist group Ansar al-Sharia to one year in prison for inciting the embassy attack. In all, authorities have arrested 144 people.
 
Ennahda has also been criticised for drafting constitutional proposals that would enshrine Sharia and reduce the rights and status for women in society characterising them as "complimentary" to men. The party eventually backed away from those positions and the constitutional draft before the assembly omits Sharia and endorses gender equality. Ennahda leaders were trying to draw the Salafis into the process, while maintaining their political support the NYT suggests but this resulted in a greater loss of confidence in Ennhada. However the NYT cautions the secularists that in a democracy the islamist Ennhada can no longer be excluded from power.
 
However, Ennahda has  to deliver a Constitution that protects the rights of all Tunisians under a system of equal justice and to create jobs for unemployed graduates and the uneducated so that  they are not drawn into the Salafist  movement, which is  trying to exploit their disillusionment. Secularists  have to  to work with Ennahda to build a better Tunisian democracy.  This will require compromises from both sides which so far they  have not been willing to make, the NYT concludes.