• Why Jihad Watch?
  • About Robert Spencer and Staff Writers
  • FAQ
  • Books
  • Muhammad
  • Islam 101
  • Privacy

Jihad Watch

Exposing the role that Islamic jihad theology and ideology play in the modern global conflicts

In central Tunisia, birthplace of Arab Spring now jihad hotbed

Sep 17, 2015 4:50 am By Robert Spencer

This is no surprise to the few who identified the Arab Spring from the beginning as an attempted Islamic supremacist takeover. We were derided at the time for our pessimism, as mainstream analysts hailed the dawn of democracy in the Middle East. At that time on Fox, Juan Williams responded that I was “fearmongering” when I said that the Arab Spring was hardly a flowering of democracy, and that the groups best poised to take advantage of it were pro-Sharia Islamic authoritarians. Now we know.

Sidi Bouzid

“In Central Tunisia, Birthplace Of Arab Spring Now Jihad Hotbed,” by Frédéric Bobin, Worldcrunch, September 16, 2015:

SIDI ALI BEN AOUN — Ali Chadli opens his eyes wide, incredulous even now. No, he had no idea his sons were planning to leave for Syria, where they eventually died. “They were praying as usual,” he says. “I hadn’t noticed anything particular.”

The aging man invites us to take a seat next to the grapevine, on the terrace of his little farm, outside a small village called Sidi Ali Ben Aoun. The village sits at the end of a bumpy path lined with olive and barbary fig trees, at the foot of the infamous Sidi Aich mountains, where armed groups have their hideouts, according to villagers.

Located 250 kilometers south of Tunis, this Salafist stronghold is a different world altogether. Here, a portion of the young people dream of jihad in Iraq, Syria or Libya. Some are even starting to turn their anger against their own country.

For Ali Chadli, the troubles began in 2012, with a phone call from Turkey. The voice on the other end was his son Mohammed, who hadn’t, the father realized, “gone there for tourism.”

Before that, Mohamed attended univeristy and found a job in Tunis as a security guard. He seemed happy and settled, which is why his Ali Chadli was so stunned when his son disappeared to Turkey, the entry door for jihadists heading to Syria. The farmer had no idea that more trouble was yet to come.

A year later, it was his younger son, Raki, who telephoned, days after vanishing. The phone call came from Libya. A second call followed a few weeks later, this time from the Syrian city of Raqqa, the ISIS “capital.” Ali Chadli can only speculate about how and why things transpired the way they did. “Maybe he was influenced by his elder brother,” he wonders.

The irony of the situation is that the two brothers joined rival organizations: Mohamed fought with al-Nusra, a local al-Qaeda branch, while Raki joined ISIS. That didn’t keep them from staying close to one another. It was Raki who called their father when Mohamed was killed in July 2013. Raki himself died in a U.S. airstrike on Raqqa in July 2014. One of Raki’s friends called the father to inform him.

Over the past few years, in the small village of Sidi Ali Ben Aoun alone, between 15 and 20 young people are said to have left and gone abroad to fight under the jihadist flag. And the flow continues.

Central Tunisia, left out of the economic development that has mostly benefitted the prosperous coastline, seems to be particularly vulnerable to the jihad temptation. In early July, the country was shocked to learned that some some 30 young adults from the southeastern village of Remada, including three soldiers, had crossed the border with Libya.

Warrior traditions

Tunisia has now become one of the biggest suppliers of jihad candidates around the region. A preliminary report by the United Nations Working Group on the use of mercenaries, published in early July, suggests that some 5,500 Tunisians have left to country to fight, a figure well above the 3,000 that had been officially acknowledged up to that point.

The report pointed out that between 1,000 and 1,500 of them were in Libya. This group of jihadists trained in Libya is particularly worrying here because their main target, it appears, is Tunisia. The attacks in the Bardo Museum on March 18 and at the tourist resort in Sousse on June 26, carried out by perpetrators believed to have been trained in Libya, have highlighted this danger only too well….

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • More
  • Click to share on Skype (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Telegram (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)

Follow me on Facebook

Filed Under: Featured, Tunisia Tagged With: Arab Spring, Sidi Bouzid


Learn more about RevenueStripe...

Comments

  1. Charli Main says

    Sep 17, 2015 at 5:47 am

    This is the kind of vermin, that are being welcomed into Europe, by crowds of clapping and cheering Muslim huggers.
    As Churchill said ” today they are ringing the bells, tomorrow they will be wringing their hands.”
    The never ending tidal wave of Muslim sewage, currently flowing across Europe, bringing the stench of Islam with it, is Europe´s death knell.

    • ECAW says

      Sep 17, 2015 at 7:44 am

      Muslims are vermin and sewage?

      It’s almost a though you want to give visiting neutrals an excuse to turn away from us in disgust.

      • Charli Main says

        Sep 17, 2015 at 9:05 am

        Only idiots living in La La Land, think there are neutrals, in the war against the Muslim vermin infesting the planet.

        • ECAW says

          Sep 17, 2015 at 10:03 am

          There are also people who are neutral because they don’t yet know that we are in a war. Imagine someone realising that what the MSM are telling him and what he sees with his own eyes don’t match so he takes the plunge and investigates the counter jihad sites. For the most part he will see restrained, rational argument, as in Robert Spencer’s posts. Then he sees Muslims dehumanised as vermin and sewage. What’s he going to think? Probably that that’s the kind of talk that Nazis used to refer to Jews, and he may decide that he doesn’t like the company.

      • munga says

        Sep 19, 2015 at 5:10 am

        I agree but ill also say, as a new comer to the site, another thing you guys need to cut out if you want to be taken seriously by visiting neutrals is the Christianity crap some of you keep going on about. It makes you no different to the Muslims. This is the 21st century for F*&ks sake. I read posts denouncing believers of Islam followed by a quote from the Bible???
        Talk about the pot calling the kettle black.
        Unless you are a small child then there should be no reason to believe in imaginary bearded people in the sky, no matter what you want to call them

        • don vito says

          Sep 21, 2015 at 4:12 pm

          That demand has be answered many times in the past, search the archives..

  2. Gary says

    Sep 17, 2015 at 6:02 am

    Muslims can “claim” that Mohammad was,”The Prophet”, but ignoring the truth eventually catches up with you…..

    “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap” (Galatians 6:7)

    “He who covers his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy.” Proverbs 28:13

    Bottom line….

    “For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.” Hebrews 4:12-13

    • Edward says

      Sep 17, 2015 at 8:14 am

      Gary, your selection of the Holy Bibles passages of today certainly resonates with one’s human psyche deeply. Perhaps this total effect is the result of its efficacies…..its universal TRUTH!

      • Edward says

        Sep 17, 2015 at 4:01 pm

        Addendum to my last reply:
        If a Muslim would read the Gary’s bible passages in Arabic would the reaction be the same as mine? It brought great joy and genuine hope to me. Would the result be the same to the Muslim? I guess not for the Muslim would be fearful of being called an apostate.

        There lies the truth (in simple terms) of which god offers its creation its best of all possible accommodations to a human being. The God of the 10 (God10) commandments would allow me to read the Koran without retribution as long as I don’t convert my beliefs to a another god. The Muslim’s god, Allah, through its terrestrial proxy prophet (Mohammad) who founded Islam as a religion (established 1400 years ago) would have its believer executed for not observing its total allegiance to Allah. For Allah demands complete submission from its believers, while the God of the 10 (God10) commandments has instituted free wills to His creations since the beginning of human creation.

        Perhaps its naïve me to say: this mess in the ME would not exist if the Islamic religion was never concocted!

    • munga says

      Sep 19, 2015 at 5:14 am

      Change God for Allah and you sound just like a Saudi Cleric, Gary. No different

      • Jay Boo says

        Sep 20, 2015 at 3:37 am

        munga
        I don’t see that equivalence
        However, I agree Gary’s comment is more about proselytizing than on topic.

        Then again I will also point out that you claim to be a visiting neutral in your comment below but are not that objective as clearly displayed in your comment below “imaginary bearded people in the sky” and “Christianity crap “

      • Jay Boo says

        Sep 20, 2015 at 3:40 am

        The Irrational Atheist: Dissecting the Unholy Trinity of Dawkins, Harris, and Hitchens. By Vox Day. Benbella Books. 320 pages. $24.95.

      • Jay Boo says

        Sep 20, 2015 at 3:43 am

        Here is some info about the atheist ideology
        The Irrational Atheist: Dissecting the Unholy Trinity of Dawkins, Harris, and Hitchens. By Vox Day. Benbella Books. 320 pages. $24.95.

        • Jay Boo says

          Sep 20, 2015 at 3:45 am

          this post was delayed and reposted

      • don vito says

        Sep 21, 2015 at 4:45 pm

        But knowing at least some of the attributes of each, a knowledgeable person would not be able to say alla = YHWH (I AM).

  3. Angemon says

    Sep 17, 2015 at 6:25 am

    In Central Tunisia, Birthplace Of Arab Spring Now Jihad Hotbed

    Yeah, it’s almost like, oh, I don’t know, the “Arab Springers” were jihadis trying to impose sharia.

    Gee, who could have foreseen this outcome…? sarc./off

  4. jr says

    Sep 17, 2015 at 7:18 am

    Isn’t tunisa a secular country?

  5. Alarmed Pig Farmer says

    Sep 17, 2015 at 10:07 pm

    At that time on Fox, Juan Williams responded that I was “fearmongering” when I said that the Arab Spring was hardly a flowering of democracy…

    Juan Williams has the comfort of being wrong on everything, but he’s always high minded. Juan should go into business with Alan Colmes and start a consulting company on how to lose freedom in exchange for piety. There’d be plenty of customers lined up, with Bernie Sanders and Hillary at the head of the line, and Fauxcahontas next in line.

    • don vito says

      Sep 21, 2015 at 4:18 pm

      True indeed, I wish they could and would be called on it, by their own true believers, it might have more of an impact on the Juan Williams of the world.

  6. Jerry says

    Sep 18, 2015 at 10:37 pm

    That’s why in court we swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

    Unfortunately, when referring to “The Arab Spring” most omit the following word which is “Trap”.

  7. munga says

    Sep 20, 2015 at 3:05 am

    I agree but ill also say, as a new comer to the site, another thing you guys need to cut out if you want to be taken seriously by visiting neutrals is the Christianity crap some of you keep going on about. It makes you no different to the Muslims. This is the 21st century for F*&ks sake. I read posts denouncing believers of Islam followed by a quote from the Bible???
    Talk about the pot calling the kettle black.
    Unless you are a small child then there should be no reason to believe in imaginary bearded people in the sky, no matter what you want to call them

    • Angemon says

      Sep 20, 2015 at 8:07 am

      Huh, what? Because some posters take their religion seriously enough to talk about it here they’re no better than the muslims who are chopping off heads and raping women and little children all over the world? And what some people post in the comments section somehow detracts from the articles themselves?

      • munga says

        Sep 20, 2015 at 12:47 pm

        It delegitimizes the message of this website when there are christian posters carrying on with bible quotes etc. I’m not comparing the beheadings.
        I’m saying when a poster writes that muslims are wrong for preaching about mohammed then in the same sentence quote Jesus, then they just sound ridiculous.
        We need to confront religion not argue over who’s imaginary brown bearded guy is right and who’s is wrong. these posters preaching christianity are just bringing themselves down to the muslim clerics level.

        • Angemon says

          Sep 20, 2015 at 7:53 pm

          If you say so.

        • don vito says

          Sep 21, 2015 at 4:40 pm

          Partnerships of all religions and nonreligious is needed to defeat our common enemy. This has been stated over and over on this site. Do you think you are the first to demure here, about faithful believing Christians and Jews writing a comparison about their beliefs, compared to what the moslems say about Christian and Jewish faiths? Where is that highly touted tolerance, nonbelievers are suppose to have?

FacebookYoutubeTwitterLog in

Subscribe to the Jihad Watch Daily Digest

You will receive a daily mailing containing links to the stories posted at Jihad Watch in the last 24 hours.
Enter your email address to subscribe.

Please wait...

Thank you for signing up!
If you are forwarding to a friend, please remove the unsubscribe buttons first, as they my accidentally click it.

Subscribe to all Jihad Watch posts

You will receive immediate notification.
Enter your email address to subscribe.
Note: This may be up to 15 emails a day.

Donate to JihadWatch
FrontPage Mag

Search Site

Translate

The Team

Robert Spencer in FrontPageMag
Robert Spencer in PJ Media

Articles at Jihad Watch by
Robert Spencer
Hugh Fitzgerald
Christine Douglass-Williams
Andrew Harrod
Jamie Glazov
Daniel Greenfield

Contact Us

Terror Attacks Since 9/11

Archives

  • 2020
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2019
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2018
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2017
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2016
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2015
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2014
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2013
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2012
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2011
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2010
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2009
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2008
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2007
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2006
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2005
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2004
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2003
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • March

All Categories

You Might Like

Learn more about RevenueStripe...

Recent Comments

  • gravenimage on Al-Qaeda Calls on Jihadis to Kill Non-Muslims With Poisoned Coronavirus Masks
  • Infidel on Uighur leader: ‘We’re actually quite worried’ about what Biden might let China get away with
  • Infidel on Uighur leader: ‘We’re actually quite worried’ about what Biden might let China get away with
  • gravenimage on Al-Qaeda Calls on Jihadis to Kill Non-Muslims With Poisoned Coronavirus Masks
  • Infidel on Iranian Kurdistan: Muslim brothers behead their sister in honor killing over her romantic relationship

Popular Categories

dhimmitude Sharia Jihad in the U.S ISIS / Islamic State / ISIL Iran Free Speech

Robert Spencer FaceBook Page

Robert Spencer Twitter

Robert Spencer twitter

Robert Spencer YouTube Channel

Books by Robert Spencer

Jihad Watch® is a registered trademark of Robert Spencer in the United States and/or other countries - Site Developed and Managed by Free Speech Defense

Content copyright Jihad Watch, Jihad Watch claims no credit for any images posted on this site unless otherwise noted. Images on this blog are copyright to their respective owners. If there is an image appearing on this blog that belongs to you and you do not wish for it appear on this site, please E-mail with a link to said image and it will be promptly removed.

Our mailing address is: David Horowitz Freedom Center, P.O. Box 55089, Sherman Oaks, CA 91499-1964

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.