Exiled Pro-Sharia Leader Set To Return To Tunisia

From Jihad Watch:

Exiled pro-Sharia leader set to return to Tunisia


But he says that he wants to establish true democracy in Tunisia. However, it is unclear in that case what would make him an Islamist, which is a term generally applied to adherents of political Islam. It seems that he wants to establish Sharia, but wants to do it as an expression of the popular will.



"Exiled Islamist party leader set to return to Tunisia," from France24, January 24:



Rached Ghannouchi, leader of Tunisia's Islamic party Ennahda, said Monday in an interview with FRANCE 24 that he was hoping to return to Tunisia in the coming days after spending 20 years in exile in London.

The Islamist movement in Tunisia was one of the most repressed opposition movements under ousted president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, who fled the country earlier this month.



Members were jailed or sent into exile, and the party was banned from politics. In a recent wave of protests leading to Ben Ali's downfall, the Islamist movement did not play a visible role. But after Ben Ali left power, Tunisia's interim government granted amnesty to all political prisoners and allowed banned parties, including Ennahda, to return to the political scene.



Ghannouchi said he would step down as Ennahda's party leader to pave the way for "a younger and more qualified generation" to lead the movement. Ghannouchi clearly stated that he did not want to be part of the new Tunisian government. "It is not my plan to take up any government post, but we will keep up political pressure until full democratic change is attained."



For Ghannouchi, the current interim government is "an extension of Ben Ali's fallen regime". "Most of the old figures still remain in the interim government," he said.



Ennahda's chief said his movement favoured creating a special assembly that would draw up a constitution for a truly democratic new regime.



"If the constitution does not change, a new dictator will once again take over in Tunisia," he said.



Posted by Robert on January 25, 2011 8:41 AM

Tunisia's Once-Suppresses Islamic Supremacists Re-Emerging

From Jihad Watch:

Tunisia's once-suppressed Islamic supremacists re-emerging


I've been harshly criticized for writing here that Islamic supremacists are trying to take advantage of the "Jasmine Revolution" and impose Sharia in Tunisia; now you can add Time Magazine to the ranks of the greasy Islamophobes.



"How Tunisia's Once-Suppressed Islamists Are Re-Emerging," by Rania Abouzeid in Time, January 21 (thanks to Maxwell):



[...] As Tunisians revel in their newfound freedom, the long-suppressed Islamists, like everyone else, are trying to figure out what role they can and want to have in the new Tunisia. Ennahdha leaders -- including the party's exiled founder Rachid Ghannouchi, who is waiting to return from London -- have been quick to reject fears that they espouse, let alone want to impose, a radical Islamic view.

Many Tunisians interviewed by TIME in the week since Ben Ali's spectacular fall, say there's room for everyone, as long as their political agendas are clear. "We don't want to live in a new dictatorship whether it claims to have heavenly or earthly credibility," says Amene, 22, a university student who has been protesting in Tunis's main Avenue Habib Bourguiba every day for weeks. A black-and-white keffiyeh, the symbol of Palestinian resistance, around her neck, the Chinese-language major says she doesn't want the Islamists to be sidelined. "On the contrary. I think everyone can be represented but we want fair and real elections." (The idea of a new beginning and a clean slate was reinforced on Friday when Prime Minister Mohamed Ghannouchi he would step from office and leave politics as soon as new elections were held.)



During a 30-minute sermon, the imam of Al-Quds mosque urged worshippers to take advantage of "this current change" and vote. He didn't suggest who they should vote for, but cautioned that this opportunity should not be squandered. "Our future is in our hands," he said. "The [Arab] regimes don't want us to succeed, they want us to fail so they can tell their people 'look at how Tunis has failed.' We must accept each other and unite, because there is strength in unity. This is our country."



Many of the hundreds of men streaming out of Al-Quds Mosque on Friday, some clean-shaven in sharp business suits, others with chin-length beards and no moustaches, were all eager to stress national unity and warn against attempts to sow division. "Tunisia needs all of its children, even some of those in the RCD," says Rida, 32, using the initials of the ruling Constitutional Democratic Rally. "We don't have extremism, people like to frighten others with labels," says Shawki, 34. Still, he follows up with a view that might give pause to some Tunisians. "God has given us our constitution, the Koran. Give me the Koran and the Sunna [sayings of the Prophet]," he says.



The worshippers claim that in a bid to stifle the influence of the mosques, Ben Ali restricted their operating hours to 30 minutes a day, five times a day during prayer times. Abdel Kouki, 57, says he wants the "liberation of the mosques." Former U.S President George W. Bush was responsible for sowing fear of Islam, he says, a view Ben Ali enthusiastically propagated to clamp down on opponents. "We are not backward terrorists," Kouki says. "Muslims don't have to have blue eyes to be modern."...



Posted by Robert on January 22, 2011 9:48 AM

Tunisian Islmaic Leader: "Muslims Are Fed Up With These Dictatorial Regimes And We Will Not Stop Until Islam And Only Islam Is Back In Power"

From Jihad Watch:

Tunisian Islamic leader: "Muslims are fed up with these dictatorial regimes and we will not stop until Islam and only Islam is back in power"


It's a jihad in Tunisia, as I explained here. The Liberation Party is the leading pro-Sharia party in Tunisia.



"'Islam, best option for a new Tunisia,'" from PressTV, January 20:



Islam is the best path for the Tunisian revolution and the rest of the Arab and Muslim world, not the methods prescribed by the West, an activist says.

"We say that only Islam will bring peace and tranquility and freedom to our people, not secularism, not dictatorship, not any other secular ideology supported by the West," Osman Bakach from the Liberation Party said.



"Muslims are fed up with these dictatorial regimes and we will not stop until Islam and only Islam is back in power," he added in an interview with Press TV.



Bakach pointed out his party wants "the masses to be aware of the plot now being planned by the security intelligence in Algeria, Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia with the help of the Americans and the French to sabotage, undermine and steal the fruit of this blessed revolution."



"Though the [former Tunisian] regime hangs on a bit through the prime minister now, the fact remains that this revolution has succeeded in toppling dictator Ben Ali and as such gave hope to the rest of the region that this is the way for liberation," he argued....



Posted by Robert on January 20, 2011 8:03 AM