Time for Tunisia to be tough on extremistsBy Borzou Daragahi in Cairo
In the six months since it was elected last year, Tunisia’s moderate Islamist government has for the most part been a model of relative success for a region undergoing drastic political change.
Led by Hamadi Jabali, the prime minister, of the Islamist Nahda party, it includes secular liberal groupings led by human rights activist Moncef Marzouki, who serves as president, and social democrat Mustapha bin Jaafar, the parliamentary Speaker. It has eschewed an ideological programme in favour of a pragmatic agenda focused on rebuilding the economy.
But in reacting to extremist Islamists rioting across the country over a provocative art exhibit, the government faces its greatest political test yet, one with the potential for grave failure. Many Tunisians and international observers worry that its half-hearted response is a misguided pursuit of short-term interests that might endanger the revolution and the hope that a new crop of moderate Islamist leaders will be able to uphold the tenets of liberal democracy while maintaining a Muslim identity.
A primary argument for accepting and even advocating the rise of moderate Islamists in Libya, Egypt and Syria is that only they will be able to confront the radicals in their ranks and guide them into the mainstream.
In Tunisia’s case, Nahda’s political inexperience has caused it to lurch between mollifying and confronting the Salafists. The ultraconservative Islamists smashed and looted the gallery, smashed up a courthouse, attacked police stations and tried to burn down the fine arts academy.
“Nahda are in a very difficult position,” said Omayya Siddik, an independent political analyst in Tunis. “They [the party’s leaders] do not know how to create a balance between the attacks from the Salafists and the possibility of losing the religious electorate. The problem is that the protests against the art exhibit are very popular among a huge part of the public.”
Some of the works in the exhibit – on display at a private gallery in the upmarket Marsa suburb of the capital – merely poked fun at the Salafists. Others were more provocative: one used dead insects to spell out the word “Allah”.
Politicians of all stripes condemned the violence, police arrested dozens of people and authorities barred a Salafist cleric from preaching after he called for the death of one of the artists – but the government has shied away from overt condemnation, failing even to criticise the Salafists by name.
Instead, Nahda leaders and the party’s officials in government criticised the artists for launching “attacks on national sacred symbols” – in the words of a press communiqué issued by Rachid Ghannouchi, the founder of Nahda – and advocated laws to ban art that offended religious sensibilities. In so doing they are supporting the Salafists’ world view: do not bother firebombing galleries, just wait for the government to shut them down.
Time and time again, Nahda and its leaders have shown they are moderates who generally respect the ground rules of liberal democracy. But by seeming to appease the Salafists, they run the risk of appearing weak or opportunistic: devout Muslims are part of its political base and general elections are scheduled for March next year.
North African governments face serious challenges from militant Islamists. At the weekend, al-Qaeda leader Ayman Zawahiri declared jihad against the Tunisian government. Many of the country’s mosques have been taken over by Salafist preachers who have been known to rail against the same democratic principles that allow them to speak freely.
Analysts say the government would better serve its own interests – as well as those of the country – by cracking down on any Salafist who breaks the law, opening investigations into Salafist finances and siding firmly with liberals when basic issues of state and society are at stake. This may be the Tunisian post-revolutionary political class’s moment to assert its authority.
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