Remember when that "radical fringe" was sure to be a harmless, ineffectual sideshow of a Tiny Minority of Extremists? Not only is the Tiny Minority once again less tiny and inconsequential than advertised, but they do not need to attain absolute power to do very real damage to human rights and civil liberties.
There is also the matter of mixed and ambiguous messages: Tunisia's leaders here are finding it more difficult to uphold the inconsistency of saying the "right" things to different people. "Tunisia's Islamic leaders pressured by radical fringe," from Agence France-Presse, January 26 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):
AFP - Tunisia's moderate Islamist leaders are under pressure from a radical Muslim fringe, forcing them to stress their liberal democratic credentials without alienating their base, analysts say.Ultra-conservative Salafists have in past months launched bold challenges -- demanding full-face veils for female university students, castigating a TV channel for a "blasphemous" film and beating up journalists at a protest.
Their actions have heightened tensions in the north African country that was under secular rule for decades until the overthrow a year ago of strongman Zine El Abidine Ben Ali kicked off the Arab Spring and led to elections in October.
Moderate Islamist Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali, who took power in December, has this week adopted a firmer tone, while his Ennahda party also took unusually clear positions against the extremist religious activists.
On Tuesday, the authorities intervened to end a two months old sit-in protest by Salafists on a university campus, the faculty of letters at Manouba, about 25 kilometres (15 miles) from the capital Tunis.
The students, most of whom were not enrolled at the university, had camped out there since November to demand the right for women students to wear the full veil, known as the niqab, and for a place of prayer on campus.
Police removed them on the first day of delayed exams. The university had banned the niqab citing security concerns if students wore it with a flowing garment, which would conceal them from head to toe.
Also this week, Ennahda in an unprecedented statement affirmed its commitment to free expression and dissociated itself from a legal action lawyers close to Islamist groups launched against the privately-owned Nessma satellite TV station. [...]
The prime minister in a speech to the national assembly this week stressed his determination "to enforce the law" and denounced the beatings of journalists.
"The government is worried," said Ali Laidi Ben Mansour, editor in chief of Nessma and of news site webmanagercenter. "From my point of view, a confrontation is looming between the 'moderate Islamists' of Ennahda and the radical Salafists.
"Until now the Salafists -- who are certainly a minority but capable of mobilizing and acting -- have taken advantage of the government's hesitation."
He said Ennahda has no deep interest in facing up to this problem, which highlights that the party itself is "torn between hawks and doves".
The Salafists have a hard core of about 200 people but 5,000-7,000 supporters, including backers of Ben Ali's dissolved party, according to estimates.
"The fact remains that much of the base for Ennahda is close to that doctrine," said researcher Alaya Allani, specialist in Islamic movements in North Africa.
Suddenly, Tunisia's ruling Islamist party "finds itself in a very difficult situation," said the researcher. "It does not want go to war with the Salafists, because it does not want to lose that base before the next election.
"But it won't be able to maintain its stance of ambiguity much longer."
The students, most of whom were not enrolled at the university, had camped out there since November to demand the right for women students to wear the full veil
Now, that's a nice spin to put on things.
"Moderate Islamist Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali..."
Not really, he calls for the conquest of Jerusalem and the construction of an Islamic Caliphate also. The "extremists" (i.e., Salafis) are just upfront about it and don't play politics with their beliefs.
Article:
"On Tuesday, the authorities intervened to end a two months old sit-in protest by Salafists on a university campus...
...demand the right for women students to wear the full veil."
LARSEN
"Now, that's a nice spin to put on things."
_________________
Yeah. What the hell?
There's no hope for these people. It's a sort of Quasi-OWS- Islamo-Campout mentality in the "new Tunisia", or something...all in the name of Misogyny a la Mohammed.
It's beginning to get ridiculous.
Unfortunately, it's becoming every-more apparent that not only is Islam incompatible with democracy in the liberal sense; democracy itself is not a desirable form of government in Muslim countries.
The brutal strong-men of the past: Saddam Hussein, Hosni Mubarak, Hafaz Assad, Nasser, knew how to deal with the Salafists, who are willing to kill and die for picayune reasons. The Salafists, when facing the prospect of long, slow torture decided their virgins could wait.
Now, under democracy, the Salafists face only drawn-out judicial procedings and a security force which is politically sensitive. Hence, the Salafists are able to easily employ violence against opponents of Sharia.
Any political philosopher recognizes that a liberal democracy can exist only when a majority of the electorate shares liberal (small 'l') values and a commitment to individual rights. Democracy in a Muslim country is a contradiction in terms.
The West would be immeasurably better off if it were to stop seeing Muslim countries in Western terms, and more important, stop toppling governments which, while brutal, are actually the best that can be hoped for.
Excellent argument. All people are NOT the same.
The radical fringe wont be on the fringe very long...Islam has a way of growing on them...
RonaldB,
You are probably right that Occidental interventions to facilitate democracy do more harm than good.
But even apart from these the tide of Islamism is rising with democracy everywhere in the lands of Islam.
There is probably not much the West can do to stop or even much slow that.
We need to seek to minimize the damage to our own legitimate and natural interests.
Israel needs to do the same.
As for Europeans, my own opinion is that the immigration they continue to permit is becoming so harmful that it may do them more damage than shutting it off would bring from adverse reaction in Muslim lands.
The point is arguable, though, I suppose.