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| Africa North |
| Radical Tunisian Islamist party warned over attacks |
| 2014-07-12 |
| [MAGHAREBIA] Tunisian Prime Minister Mehdi Jomaa on Thursday (July 10th) threatened tough measures against salafist party Hizbut Tahrir ...an al-Qaeda recruiting organization banned in most countries. It calls for the reestablishment of the Caliphate... , which he accused of undermining the republic. He gave the salafist ...also known as Wahhabis, salafists are against innovation in religion or in anything else. They eat the same things every meal of every day and all their children are named Abdullah. Not all salafists are takfiris, but all takfiris are salafists. They are fond of praying five times a day and killing infidels... party a 30-day deadline to fix violations. Jomaa said Hizb ut-Tahrir, which obtained a license about two years ago, had called for disobeying the constitution, rejecting democracy and other violations of laws governing political parties. The salafist party's Ridha Belhadj said Jomaa's warning was illegal. "It's not one of the government's powers to speak about Hizb ut-Tahrir," he stated. But according to constitutional law professor Hajar Bechikh, "Mehdi's government has the right, and the power, to hold Hizb ut-Tahrir to account, but it has to provide the necessary justification, which I think it has." Jomaa's message came one day after Tunisians citizens presented a petition demanding that the government withdraw recognition from any party or association that did not respect the values of the republic and the civil nature of the state, as per the constitution. The petition was circulated in response to a video from Belhadj, released on the first day of Ramadan, which targeted writer and researcher Mokhtar Khalfaoui. Khalfaoui told Magharebia that he decided to resort to court "to file a complaint against Hizb ut-Tahrir spokesperson Ridha Belhadj, who has publicly accused me of kufr". "Belhadj has rushed to the traditional abyss of takfiri ...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who most be killed... sts, which is to describe their intellectual and political opponents as opponents to God himself and religion. And we all know that those who are against religion are apostates, and that the ruling for apostates is killing," he added. The video has spurred reaction from other writers. Hedi Yahmad, hakaekonline editor called on the government to reconsider allowing parties such as Hizb ut-Tahrir o have licences to engage in activities. "When the spokesperson of that radical party publishes a 20-minute video accusing one of the country's intellectuals, i.e. Mokhtar Khalfaoui, of kufr, we have to ask the following question: Doesn't this necessitate a firm stance in order to cleanse the country once and for all from all those takfirists?" Yahmad asked. "It's clear that the gunnies who are slaying our soldiers in Jebel Chaambi have accomplices in cities. Hizb ut-Tahrir is one of them," he alleged. Yahmad said that the demand to disband Hizb ut-Tahrir and all religious parties that don't believe in the republican system has now become an urgent request a few months before the election. "This is because leaving these parasitic, religious parties doing whatever they want will lead to known and catastrophic consequences, which we'll find in ballot boxes and on the sidewalks that will be stained with blood because of takfirist parties' calls," he added. |
| Posted by:Fred |