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2012-05-17
Tunisia approves first Salafist party
By Houda Trabelsi for Magharebia in Tunis – 17/05/12
Tunisia has approved a Salafist political party for the first time in the nation's history. The "Reform Front", granted license on May 11th, includes a group of leaders who were tried in the 1980s for participation in the Islamic Front.
"The party received the license under the Political Parties Law, which emphasises respect for the civil principles of the state," an interior ministry press official told Magharebia.
Party chairman and founder Mohamed Khouja said, "The Reform Front is a political party that depends on the approach of the Sunna and the community with the concept of the [Islamic] nation's rightful predecessors."
![[AFP/Fethi Belaid] Salafists in Tunisia have a legal political party for the first time.](/awi/images/2012/05/17/120517Feature1Photo1-650_429.jpg)
"The political party's platform does not impose anything, such as dress or other personal conduct concerning Tunisians' daily life," he added.
Khouja said his party was committed to the "civil values of the State" and that it "respects the particulars of the democratic experiment in a peaceful framework removed from all forms of violence and hatred across the political spectrum."
Khouja holds a doctorate in nutritional sciences and has worked as a professor at the University of Tunis, where he was dismissed in 1990 because of his affiliation with the Islamic Front.
In the days before the licensing of the Islamist party, Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali said, "Salafists did not come from Mars. They are our people and our society. We do not want to address the outcomes, but rather the causes."
"We will not put them in prison as Zine El Abidine Ben Ali did," he asserted. "The solution is in more freedom that respects the law," Jebali said, adding, "We tell them you have your ideas as well as your beliefs, so convince the people."
Bassel Torjman, an expert in Maghreb affairs and specialist in Islamic movements, told Magharebia that licensing the party was "a precedent in the Arab Maghreb region, as it reflects an intellectual background incompatible with democracy, the peaceful transfer of power, and the civil state that the majority of Tunisians demand".
"The aim of the Salafi groups is application of Sharia law and establishment of an Islamic state and they consider the current phase a transition to reach power," Torjman said.
Torjman continued his analysis, wondering whether the new party would work within the civil system and respect laws or adopt a Salafist jihadist approach.
"This move encourages these currents to put their ideas and experiences forward with more daring to the street and to target a specific category comprising its select circle, which is the youth in schools and universities and the unemployed.
Many Tunisians supported approving a Salafist party in the framework of freedom of political activity after the revolution.
"Granting a license to a Salafist party is a good indicator of the richness of political activity in Tunisia," said Mohamed Etajer. "Each movement has the right to operate within the legal framework, and those able to convince people, success to them in the elections."
Monther Belajouza said that the approval "reduces the possibility of secret activities of these people and brings them under the scrutiny of the law".
"I personally, despite my secular orientation, do not see an objection to the licensing of such Islamist movements in Tunisia, so they can take their lot like others," Belajouza added.
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POST YOUR COMMENT 9
قف 2012-5-23
Without redundancy, is the computer in front of you the result of the primitive mythical thoughts or is it the product of modernism? Moreover, is the rifle in the hand of the terrorist a primitive “blacksmith” product, or the product of experimental sciences? Aren’t experimental sciences the product of the rational method which rose up against the religious thought? What are these absurdities?? Hundreds of years ago, Al Mutanabi said “O nation whose ignorance made other nations laugh”. What would he say if he saw our situation these days??
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QQQQQ 2012-5-23
He, who provides the funding, governs, and the people pay the piper.
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toukabri souheil 2012-5-21
Within the framework of a new vision for Tunisia, which permits all people and all parties to express themselves within the limits of respect, a front for reform has full right to exist and participate in the political, cultural, economic and social life of our country. As such, it will be able to participate in properly building a healthy life for our people within a deeper, wider and more rooted framework: the nation!
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trahison 2012-5-21
Revolution!?! Who is speaking about revolution besides the big string-pullers who hunted down a dictators who no longer satisfied them. The appetites of his clan had become annoying, so they put another person, who is worse and thirstier for power and the blood of the people in power in order to continue to exploit their resources, their labour and nearly all the compromises made with the people who put him in power regardless of what way and regardless of how much time and regardless of the cost. He is ready to ally himself with the Devil! This is the complete opposite of a revolution!
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عبد الرؤوف ......تونس 2012-5-21
I call upon everyone to be objective in expressing their opinions, avoiding calculations and favoritism in assaulting any authorized party regardless of its ideology through offense, defamation and influencing readers, using obscene and embarrassing words which affect all readers. Every individual is free to make his political choices and affiliations. In this way we will contribute to establishing a real Arab-Islamic democracy, not the imported and questionable kind. Hence, there will be co-existence with all those who choose this nice land, our Green Tunisia where the reality of the spring of love, brotherhood and pureness is spread. Let’s always raise high the word of right “right of God” with what His book was sent free of extremism and radicalism, spreading brotherhood between the Umma of Mohammed, peace and the blessings of God be upon him. Congratulations to Tunisia for the new Salafi party!
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zed 2012-5-18
This is the price of dependence.
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Yacine 2012-5-18
This is a fatal mistake for Tunisia and, subsequently, for Algeria and for Libya. The Tunisian government has, most certainly, acted under pressure in order to save some time, but the terrorists (salafis) will be the ones to exploit this time. Let us get this straight right now: what exactly is an Islamist or Salafi – moderate or otherwise? It is someone who supports a societal project whose essence is a return to the origins, which is to say governing the matters of a town as in during the time of the caliphs or, more precisely, the strict enforcement of the Sunna. This means that all legislation should reference to Qur’an and the hadiths. The Islamists (moderate or otherwise) and the Salafists – in short, the terrorists – reference the hadiths most especially because they are ambiguous and, therefore, unable to be interpreted, and there are people who have taken up arms to impose their societal project according to them: al-Qaeda, Shabaab, Boko Haram and the DHDS. There are also people who exploit the opportunity that democracy gives them – particularly the so-called moderate Islamist parties like Hamas, Ennahda, the Justice and Development Party, the Movement of Society for Peace, etc. – to achieve the same ends, namely an Islamic republic where women are almost nothing, philosophy is haram and theologians are superior to other scholars, including scientists. Please, stop spreading concepts of the modest Islamist sort and the hardliner Islamist sort and so on. They are all the same. They love to go on vacation. They love to be surrounded by beautiful women and they kill anyone who oppose them. Keep up the good work.
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ahmed 2012-5-18
A revolution to end up here!?! I might as well end up thinking that Ben Ali was right in saying that terrorists were behind the movement preceding January 14th. When you see these Islamist scum of all sorts and in all the key positions in the state, when you understand that religion is dictatorship, you will then be free.
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Anonymous 2012-5-17
If it is true, as Bassel Torjman said, that the ideology of this Salafi party is incompatible with the wishes of the majority of Tunisians, what should we be afraid of? During the elections, the majority only needs to vote for the parties that reflect their wishes. It is not very complicated.
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