Tunisia's Secular-Religious Tension Heightens
Kathryn Montalbano: In post-revolution Tunisia, tensions between what have been described as secular and conservative Muslim citizens recently heightened in the capital, Tunis, foreboding one of the major difficulties the country will face in rebuilding its sovereignty. On Tuesday, members of the Islamist Salafist movement, which has propagated its demands in several Arab countries this spring (i.e. Jordan and Egypt), demanded the return of six of their activists who'd been arrested for vandalizing a cinema that was host to a group of secular lawyers.
Kathryn Montalbano: In post-revolution Tunisia, tensions between what have been described as secular and conservative Muslim citizens recently heightened in the capital, Tunis, foreboding one of the major difficulties the country will face in rebuilding its sovereignty. On Tuesday, members of the Islamist Salafist movement, which has propagated its demands in several Arab countries this spring (i.e. Jordan and Egypt), demanded the return of six of their activists who’d been arrested for vandalizing a cinema that was host to a group of secular lawyers. The film being screened, “Ni Allah, ni Maitre” (“Neither Allah, nor Master”), centered on secularism in Tunisia and subsequently offended the Islamist activists. Twenty-eight demonstrators were arrested in the aftermath of the raid. (Note: Salafism is not intrinsically synonymous with terrorism.