The Salafist Reform Front is following the popular trend; will Ennahda be able to buck it? “Tunisian Islamist party says religion, politics are one,” from AFP, July 8:
TUNIS “” Tunisia’s ultra-conservative Salafist Reform Front, which advocates Islamic law, or sharia, met for the first time on Sunday and urged the authorities to renounce the separation of politics and religion.
For AFP, you’re “ultra-conservative” if you want to impose Sharia, and “far-right” if you want to resist Sharia.
Mohamed Khouja, head of the Islamist movement made legal in March, told AFP the call was being made to the constituent assembly “that sharia be inscribed as the sole source of legislation” in Tunisia.
Foued Ben Salah, a member of the party’s political bureau, said: “Separating religion and politics is a major mistake, since politics is the management of people’s affairs.”
Some 300 members of the Reform Front met in the capital to hear officials put forward their programme that aims to turn Tunisia into an Islamic state….
The constituent assembly, the interim body tasked with drafting a new constitution and preparing fresh elections, is dominated by a tripartite coalition of the Islamist Ennahda and two centre-left parties, the Congress for the Republic and Ettakatol.
In March, Ennahda (Renaissance), the country’s main political grouping, said sharia would not be inscribed in Tunisian basic law, much to the relief of its coalition partners.