Tunisia’s revolution ousted a dictator, but it also did away with a staunchly secular regime. Now the country’s Salafists are back on the streets trying to impose their ultra-conservative brand of Islam.
However, observers say Tunisia’s minority Salafists, who advocate a literalist interpretation of the Koran and are inspired by the lives of the first Muslims, are simply being opportunistic.
“They are not so much acting as reacting. This is why they’re popping out of the woodwork during a pre-electoral period,” said Alaya Allami, an expert on Islamism in the Maghreb.
On Oct. 23, Tunisia will hold its first elections since former Tunisian president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali — who had ruled with an iron fist for 23 years — was ousted by a popular uprising, tipping the first domino of the so-called Arab Spring.
“They are taking advantage of the freedom brought about by the revolution to try and impose their ideas on society,” historian Faycal Cherif said.
Visible again on the streets of Tunis and other major cities, the Salafists’ new assertiveness has led to a number of violent clashes.
In the eastern city of Sousse earlier this month, about 200 Islamists stormed the university campus after a female student wearing a full face-veil was not allowed to sign up.
Mob attack
The latest incident came on Sunday in Tunis when a mob of Salafists tried to attack the offices of private Nessma TV station after it aired Persepolis, a French-Iranian animation film in which God is represented as an old bearded man.
Cherif said that the two incidents were of a different nature.
“In Sousse, they were flexing their muscles, it was typical of Salafi activism. However, the Nessma case affected every Muslim because representing God is prohibited in Islam,” he said.
Salafism emerged as an organized political movement in Tunisia in the late 1980s, Allami said.
“They were implicated in various violent events, including the attack against the synagogue in Djerba in 2002 and the Soliman shooting in 2007” in a Tunis suburb, which killed 21 and 14 people respectively, he said.
He argued that the Salafists remain a small and fractious minority.
“More than 1,500 of them have been arrested and sentenced since 2007. Today it is estimated that there are no more than 200 active Salafists with a following of 5,000 to 7,000,” Allami said.
He identified two main currents in the Salafist movement: one non-violent group represented by Hizb at-Tahrir (Liberation Party) and an even smaller fringe group advocating jihad.
Algeria
In neighboring Algeria, the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) emerged about 15 years ago and carried out deadly suicide attacks as well as kidnappings of foreigners.
It has since morphed into al-Qaeda in the Lands of the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), the regional franchise of al-Qaeda.
Hizb at-Tahrir is the only movement in Tunisia calling for the establishment of a caliphate and was denied official registration as a legal political party after the democratic revolution in January.
“The Hizb was not legalized because it does not play by democratic rules, unlike Ennahda,” Cherif said, referring to the Islamist party close to the Muslim Brotherhood which is tipped to win the Oct. 23 vote.
Tunisian observers predict that the surge in Salafi activism would ebb.
“The vast majority of Tunisians practice a form of moderate Sunni Islam,” Allami said.
Amel Grami, a specialist of Islam, believes that Tunisia’s Salafists need to make a lot of noise because they are not significant players on the political scene at this stage.
Impatience
“They are taking advantage of the interim government, of the youth’s impatience and of the lack of courage displayed by the bigger parties who are failing to take a clear stance on religious freedom,” she said.
Allami said the odd “opportunistic convergence” between local Salafists and al-Qaeda members could not be ruled out but predicted that a successful electoral process next week would “marginalize violent jihadi currents.”
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese