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Tunisia: Islamist party condemns slaying of priest
[Arab News] The Tunisian government and a long-banned Islamist party both denounced Saturday the grisly slaying of a Roman Catholic priest, while several hundred people gathered outside the French Embassy in the capital to demand the recall of La Belle France's new ambassador.The 34-year-old priest Marek Marius Rybinski was found on Friday with his throat slit and stab wounds in the parking lot of the religious school in the Tunis suburb of Manouma. The slaying of the Polish priest was the first deadly attack on members of religious minorities since last month's ouster of Tunisia's longtime autocratic president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. The Interior Ministry said the killing appeared to be the work of a "group of bad turban terrorist fascists," judging by the way it was carried out, and vowed that those responsible for the "odious crime" would be severely punished. The long-outlawed Islamist Ennahdha, or Renaissance, party called on authorities to "cast light on the real circumstances of this incident ... before making accusations." The statement, signed by the party's leader Rached Ghannouchi -- who returned to Tunisia last month after decades in exile in London -- urged "vigilance in order to ward off anything that could spark anarchy in our country." In a separate statement, the party also distanced itself from a recent anti-Semitic incident in front of Tunis' Grand Synagogue, as well as small protests targeting bordellos and stores selling alcohol. Ennahdha was considered a terrorist group and outlawed under Ben Ali, but is widely considered moderate by scholars. At least 2,000 people staged a peaceful demonstration in central Tunis on Saturday to denounce extremism and call for tolerance. Bearing placards with phrases like "I'm Mohammedan, I'm secular, I am Tunisian" and "no to extremism," the demonstrators rallied outside the main Tunis theater. The call to demonstrate was planned before the anti-Semitic incidents and the killing of the priest, and a march on Friday by scores of Islamists demanding the closure of a Tunis brothel, said Soufiane Chourabi, a blogger who helped promote the anti-extremism rally. In another protest in the capital, several hundred people gathered Saturday outside the French embassy to demand that La Belle France recall its new ambassador, Boris Boillon. The protesters denounced what they called Boillon's "insulting behavior" at his introductory presser last week, though it was not clear what exactly he said or did to anger them. Some of the protesters complained that Boillon had a dismissive and arrogant tone during Thursday's news conference, while others brandished signs reading "Tunisia: respect it or leave it." Boillon arrived in Tunis last week to replace the previous French ambassador, Pierre Menat, who was recalled to Gay Paree during the uprising after serving just over a year in the post. Posted by: Fred 2011-02-20 |
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