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                  Tunisia Moves to Rein in Islamic Hardliners

   by Jamie Dettmer

   Ultraconservative Muslim leaders in Tunisia are warning the more
   moderate Islamist government they will resist any new efforts to rein
   them in and will defy a measure requiring organizers to get government
   permission for gatherings and protests.

   The warnings come as Tunisia's government, led by the moderate Islamist
   Ennahda Party, is working with neighboring Algeria to hunt down
   militants linked to al-Qaida in the Mount Chambi border region in the
   west of the country. Government security forces recently uncovered
   nearly two dozen caches of weapons and explosives in the area.
   The government's harder line on ultraconservative Muslim groups was
   evident a week ago when police arrested members of Ansar al-Sharia in
   Tunisia, a fundamentalist Salafi group, who were delivering public
   lectures or distributing literature on the streets.  Those arrests
   prompted rock-throwing protests.
   Salafi leaders say the government is risking a jihad if the crackdown
   continues.
   "You are making a foolish mistake because faith cannot be defeated by
   any force in the world," Seifallah Ben Hassine, leader of Ansar
   al-Sharia, warned in an online statement. "I remind you that our youth
   that proved its heroism in the defense of Islam in Afghanistan,
   Chechnya, Bosnia, Iraq, Somalia and Syria will not hesitate to make
   sacrifices for the faith."
   Risking jihad?
   In 2000, Hassine, who uses the name Abu Ayyad al-Tunisi, co-founded the
   Tunisian Combatant Group and fought in Afghanistan. He has been in
   hiding since his group was implicated in an attack last September on
   the U.S. embassy in Tunis and an assault on a nearby American school.
   This weekend, Ansar al-Sharia is to hold its annual conference, which
   attracted more than 40,000 adherents last year. It was unclear if the
   government would grant formal permission for the conference, and there
   were conflicting signals from government whether the conference
   scheduled for May 19 in Kairouan would be banned.
   "We haven't decided yet regarding the meeting of Ansar al-Sharia," said
   Interior Minister Lotfi Ben Jeddour.
   The group's spokesman, Seifeddine Rais, said in a radio interview that
   regardless of what the government decides, the annual conference would
   go ahead. "We will not march backwards," he said.
   "If it is banned, one cannot predict the reaction of the participants
   who are already frustrated with the way things have been going," Rais
   said. "If it is banned, what revolution and what freedom are you
   talking about? ... Preaching to God does not require an authorization
   from the government everywhere in the world."
   ''That prompted the Interior Ministry spokesman, Mohammed Ali Aroui, to
   warn that, "We will confront with the law, or if necessary by force,
   all people who attack the security forces or the institutions of the
   state."
   Ultraconservative Muslim groups have risen to prominence in Tunisia
   since the Arab spring overthrow of Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali's secular
   government. In the past, alarmed secular parties and activists have
   accused the Islamist Ennahda Party of being in league with Salafi
   groups and of fanning religious flames.  Secular critics also claimed
   that the goal of the Salafists and Ennahda was the same - an Islamic
   state - and only their tactics and timing differed.
   Ruling party anxious since assassination
   But Ennahda leaders have become anxious about fundamentalist groups
   since the February assassination of popular leftwing politician, Chokri
   Belaid. Police say Muslim militants were behind the assassination,
   which triggered the biggest street protests in Tunisia since 2011.
   Ansar al-Sharia is one of the most powerful of the Salafi
   fundamentalist groups in Tunisia. The government now accuses some
   members of the group of having links with al-Qaida in the Maghreb.
   In Tunisia, Ansar al-Sharia has modeled itself on the Palestinian Hamas
   movement, devoting itself in part to social welfare initiatives and
   Islamic education. Some security experts caution that the crackdown on
   the group should be focused more on the vigilantism of Ansar supporters
   and other Salafists seeking to enforce Islamic dress codes or targeting
   art exhibitions and restaurants that serve alcohol.
   A confrontation with the government over protests and gatherings could
   trigger renewed trouble, regional experts fear.
   They worry the government's actions might radicalize Salafists or push
   them into reacting more violently.
   Aaron Zelin of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy argues
   that the crackdown could force Hassine to call for greater defiance so
   his authority would not be questioned by even more hardline Ansar
   members.
   "This is why his recent statement about youths rising up to defend
   Islam is so alarming -- it shows that the tipping point may be near,"
   Zelin said.
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   [1]http://www.voanews.com/content/tunisia-salafists-muslims/1662556.htm
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References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/tunisia-salafists-muslims/1662556.html