Tunisian Cleric Who Praised Europe's Tolerance, Preaches Death For Cursing Mohammed

On December 27th, a video posted on the Internet shows Tunisian Sheikh Bechir Ben Hassen in front of the International Court of Justice in The Hague. He praises Europe for allowing Muslims the freedom to preach their faith in Islam, to wear what they want, for "unfettered" freedom of speech.

"One finds here a considerable measure of justice, which in many Muslim societies was lost under the pretext of fighting terrorism and fanaticism. They themselves have descended into anti-religious extremism and fanaticism. When freedoms are denied when people are oppressed, and when scholars and preachers are silenced, one should not wonder about the spread of extremism and takfir, which lead to terrorism."

I'm not sure what "societies" he's referring to, but it's the extremist preachers who are not silenced who are the ones radicalizing the youth of today.

He also talks about the importance of teaching children the notion of moderate Islam. Blablabla.Then MEMRI shows another clip posted on the Internet on December 24, where this 'moderate' Muslim talks about Tunisia being a Sunni country, and that the Shiites have no right to be there, claiming they pose a greater threat to Islam than the Jews and Christians. He also states that wherever there are Shiites, stability and security are

"shattered, and crimes, attacks, and bloodshed appear on the scene."

Really? Let's see what brand of Islam all the most violent extremist groups belong to:

ISIS are Sunni.
Al Qaeda are Sunni.
Taliban - Deobandi Sunni.
Boko Haram - Sunni.
Al Shabaab - Deobandi Sunni.

 MEMRI video here, with both clips back to back.

And then we see that same preacher- who stood in the snow in The Hague talking about the wonders of freedom of speech in Europe- preaching about death for anyone who curses the prophet Mohammed. He asserts that this is sanctioned in both the Quran and the Sunnah.

Islam needs to get rid of this kind of preacher, if it ever wants to evolve.

Tunisian Seculars Claim Victory Over Islamist Ennahda Party In Elections

According to exit polls and Nida Tunis (Tunisia's Call)- Tunisia's secular coalition may have won more parliamentary votes than the Ennahda party- the Islamists who won a majority post Arab Spring.

Votes are still being counted, and the results will not be known until Wednesday, but Tunisia's are voting for 217 members of parliament, and a prime minister.

Beji Caid Essebsi, the 87-year-old leader of Nida Tunis, said soon after polls closed that “there are positive signs we may be first” with a large margin of seats.

His prediction was backed by exit polls conducted by the private Tunisia-based Sigma Conseil institute, which gave his party 37 percent of the 217-seat body, with just 26 percent to Ennahda.

“Based on our observations, we are optimistic,” said Yusra Ghannouchi, a party spokeswoman, who described the Nida Tunis announcement as “irresponsible.”

Good news for Tunisia, if the votes do turn out in Nida Tunis' favor. However, they are predicting a unity government.

Ennahda (which ruled the roost post Arab Spring) seems to have learned its lesson, after they were forced to step down for trying to Islamize the country, and two secular leaders were murdered.

The rest here.

Tunisian MPs Choose Civil Over Shariah Law For The Land

Well, here's some good news for a change. After a continuing battle against growing Islamism in Tunisia post-Arab spring, Tunisian MPs have voted for civil rather than Shariah law for the land, though Islam will remain the country's religion.

The full story here.

We'll see how long that lasts. The Islamists in the country are already balking.

Tunisia Banned From 2014 Davis Cup After Boycott Of Israeli Player

Politics has no place in the arts or sports, but it happens all the time. Tunisia is finding out the hard way. As of now, Tunisian players have been banned from competing in the 2014 Davis Cup competition after the Tunisian Tennis Federation told its top player Malek Jaziri to not play Israel's Amir Weintraub during a tournament in Tashkent last month.

Although Jaziri was cleared by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), the International Tennis Federation (ITF) was not so understanding, and rightfully so.

“The ITF Board of Directors found that the Tunisian Tennis Federation was in breach of the ITF Constitution by interfering with international sporting practice and ordering Tunisian player Malek Jaziri not to compete against Israeli player Amir Weintraub at the 2013 Tashkent Challenger in October."

“The Board was not satisfied with the case put forward by the Tunisian Tennis Federation and voted to suspend Tunisia from the 2014 Davis Cup competition.”

According to ITF President Francesco Ricci Bitti:

“There is no room for prejudice of any kind in sport or in society. The ITF Board decided to send a strong message to the Tunisian Tennis Federation that this kind of action will not be tolerated by any of our members.”

Way to go ITF.

More on the story here.

Pregnant "Sexual Jihad" Girls Heading Home To Tunisia

Remember all those pious Muslim gals trekking on over to Syria for "sexual jihad"? Some of them are now trekking back home- with a bun in the oven- after sleeping with anywhere from 20 to 100 rebels. I guess it doesn't matter who the daddies are since they're prostituting themselves for the greater good. And no matter how you slice it, it is prostitution, and they're no better than whores. Even the former Mufti Sheikh Othman Battikh of Tunisia called it that when he commented about the 13 Tunisian girls headed out to Syria, back in April.

“For Jihad in Syria, they are now pushing girls to go there. 13 young girls have been sent for sexual jihad. What is this? This is called prostitution. It is moral educational corruption,” the mufti told reporters.

Battikh was fired shortly thereafter.

Tunisian Interior Minister Lotfi Bin Jeddo had this to say about the pregnant girls:

The Tunisian girls “are (sexually) swapped between 20, 30, and 100 rebels and they come back bearing the fruit of sexual contacts in the name of sexual jihad and we are silent doing nothing and standing idle,” the non-partisan minister said during an address to the National Constituent Assembly.

According to Bin Jeddo, since March of this year, a whopping 6,000 Tunisians have been banned from traveling to Syria.  Although it seems odd, human rights organizations have been critical of the travel ban for jihadists. Jihadists don't deserve any rights.

Tunisian Bomb Maker Blows Himself Up

Tunisian officials have no clue who the Muslim extremist bomb maker who blew himself up was. Maybe they'll find out from his wounded pregnant wife. If she surives.

How's that for instant karma.

Source: Al Arabiya

5 Tunisians Arrested In Spain For Spreading Jihadist Propaganda

Operation "Kartago" netted 5 Tunisian jihadists who were arrested in Barcelona, Spain for distributing and  spreading jihadist propaganda via the Internet.

The men had been under surveillance for a year, and were arrested because they were radicalizing.

The operation is ongoing.

Go get 'em, hermanos.

Video- Salafis In Tunisia Threaten Jihad

Tunisian Salafis threaten the government, unveiled women and alcohol sellers with jihad.

Their aim to establish shariah and liberate Jerusalem.

The Arab Spring opened the gates of hell.

Tunisian Husband Forced Wife To Wear Niqab, She Kills Their Baby

How tragic is this.

A Tunisian woman stabbed her two-month old daughter to death to punish her husband for forcing her to wear the niqab, or full-face Islamic veil, Arabic newspaper Al Jomhouria reported Wednesday.

The family lives in M'hamdia, in the Ben Arous governorate.

The woman confessed the murder to police, explaining why she did it. 

You have to wonder would this have happened prior to the Arab Spring? It seems that the inherent chauvinism of the Muslim faith has emboldened many of the men in what once were secular countries. They now feel they have the right to control their women, with Islamic law to back them up.  Wherever Islam rules, women's rights take a huge nosedive.

Source: Ansamed

Head of Tunisia's Islamist Ennahda Wants Blogger Who Exposed His Son-In-Law's Affair Flogged

The daddy-in-law of Tunisia's Foreign Minister Rafik Abdessalem, whose embezzlement of public funds and extramarital affair were exposed by a female blogger, wants those charged with slander flogged. In other words, flog that blogger. Daddy-in-law also happens to be Rachid Ghannouchi, the leader of the Islamist Ennahda Party that now rules Tunisia with an overwhelming majority, so he could get his way.

The Islamist leader said during a Friday sermon that the content published by Tunisian blogger Olfa Riahi reflects “values of hypocrites” punishable according to the Shariah law.

Female blogger Riahi had published what she said were authentic documents accusing Foreign Minister Rafik Abdessalem of having paid for nights he spent with a woman in Sheraton hotel from the government’s coffers.

Riahi said the hotel receipts and billing information she obtained beat the names of the minister and his alleged mistress. In an interview with alchourouk.com, Riahi said it took her two and half months to verify the authenticity of the documents and trace the bill payments.

“I have the bank account of the foreign ministry and I am certain the documents are authentic,” calling on the authorities to open a probe into the “scandal.”

The minister appeared in the state television dismissing the allegations as part of a plot against his Islamist government. He said he expects similar accusations to be leveled against other ministers.

But he admitted staying at the Sheraton hotel “because he does not own a house in the capital and because the hotel was near his office.” He also admitted that the woman mentioned in Riahi’s documents was true, but said she was a “relative” who came to see him at the hotel.

Mondir Thabet, a Tunisian political analyst said Ghannouchi’s statement was a rejection of the country’s civilian status and “a clear call for imposing Shariah.”

Ziad Krichan, editor-in-chief of the daily newspaper “al-Maghrib” said Ghannouchi’s call reflects the Islamists unable to separate religion from politics.

Of course, the first thing Islamists do is claim that any accusations of corruption are just evil plots to defame their party, whereas it turns out their pious posteriors are simply just as corrupt as other politicians.

Islamists Caught With Their Pants Down

For all their so-called piousness conservative Islamist politicians are just as likely to stray from the moral path as say their conservative Christian counterparts. We've had our share of Christian political conservatives who have been caught with their pants down, so to speak, but so have Muslims.

There's the Egyptian cleric and MP for the uber conservative Salafi Al Nour Party, Ali Wanis, who was caught with his 19-year old girlfriend in a car "engaged in an indecent act." Now that might seem harmless to a Westerner, but in Islam it's forbidden to have sexual relations prior to marriage. And from the same political party, there's Anwar al-Balkimi (or Balkimy) aka the "nose job MP" who lied about getting a nose job because it's not allowed in Islam. He also apparently secretly married a famous belly dancer, Sama al-Masri, while still married to another woman. Again, polygamy is allowed in Islam, the problem is he didn't tell Sama, and no-one knew they were married, probably because she's definitely not conservative. When Sama discovered the truth about al-Balkimi she filed for divorce, which was how the rest of Egypt found out.

Now the latest Islamist scandal comes out of Tunisia.

Tunisia’s Foreign Minister Rafik Abdessalem, from the ruling Islamist Ennahda party, has found himself at the center of an embarrassing scandal following accusations of public money embezzlement and involvement in an extramarital affair.

According to documents published by Tunisian journalist and blogger, Olfa Riahi, the Islamist minister spent several nights at the Sheraton hotel in Tunis with a woman and paid for his stay from the government’s coffers.

Riahi she obtained the receipt and the billing information bearing names of the minister and his alleged mistress. In an interview with alchourouk.com, Riahi said it took her two and half months to verify the authenticity of the documents and trace the bill payments.

“I have the bank account of the foreign ministry and I am certain the documents are authentic,” calling on the authorities to open a probe into the “scandal.”

The minister appeared in the state television dismissing the allegations as part of a plot against his Islamist government. He said he expects similar accusations to be leveled against other ministers.

But he admitted staying at the Sheraton hotel “because he does not own a house in the capital and because the hotel was near his office.” He also admitted that the woman mentioned in Riahi’s documents was true, but said she was a “relative” who came to see him at the hotel.

Naturally they've all denied any wrongdoing, blaming the accusations on plots to bring down the Islamists. Wanis claimed he was just wiping his sick girlfriend's face, and al-Balkimi claimed he didn't even know Sama.

If you are going to claim moral superiority, make sure you live up to it, otherwise you're just a hypocrite, like these men.

Tunisian Cleric Denies Calling For Wiping Out The Jews

Sheikh Ahmad Al-Suhayli, the Tunisian cleric who called for wiping out the Jews in a sermon which was broadcast on Hannibal TV denies he said any such thing. Nope. He was not talking about killing them all. Not at all calling on killing Tunisian Jews. He was only talking about:

"...a sect of Jews that was mentioned in the Quran." "I was talking about their digression from the path and laws of Allah, and their distortion of his words."

I guess it matters not to Suhayli that since they were NOT Muslims, they had every right to digress from those laws and path. And because they were naughty Jews they deserved what they got, back in the day.

"That sect, mentioned in Quran, justly earned the wrath and punishments of Allah." [for killing some Muslim prophets] "These are Quranic facts. These are the words of Allah."

Referring to that evil Jewish sect that he claims still exists in Palestine:

"These are the extremist racist Zionists, who have been killing and slaughtering the Palestinian people for decades.  They have occupied their lands and trampled their honor.  Everybody in the world knows this."

"Then I called upon the Islamic nation to assume its responsibility regarding these continuous attacks." "I absolutely did not call to kill the Jews- I did not call to kill them all. Obviously, some among them are peaceful."

I would venture to say that he believes that those "Zionist Jews" are fair game.

Then he talks about anti-Zionist Jews, probably referring to the wacko, self-loathing Jews  Neturei Karta (who also happen to be holocaust deniers of sorts), and  how in Islam, Muslims are not allowed to harm non-Muslims (even though they do) because:

"Islam is a religion that preaches tolerance and non-violence." 

And yes it is, for some.  Canadian Tarek Fateh comes to mind.


Of course Suhayli's backtracking has more to do with the lawsuit filed against him by a group in Tunisia that advocates for minorities, and the Facebook page "Ennahda Made Me Hate Islam."  He was horrified to find his photo posted along with comments like: "Tunisian criminal of jahili origins calls to kill our Jewish Tunisian people."

Tunisian Cleric Wants Allah To Kill All The Jews

"Muslims, Christians, Jews, we are all Tunisians"

In 1956 there were approximately 100,000 Jews in Tunisia, that was the year the country gained its independence from France. Now, some sixty years later, only 1,500 or so remain, with continuing attrition. And no wonder. With imams like Sheikh Ahmad Al-Suhayli more will undoubtedly leave.

Suhayli hates the Jews. Not only does he want them out of his country, he wants them totally annihilated, and he said as much in a sermon on Hannibal TV on November 30 after the Hamas/Israeli ceasefire.

"O Allah, you know what those accursed Jews have done, the corruption they spread across Earth... Strike them so that there is not one of them left. Allah, make the men and women sterile." 

 As a result, Kais Baltagi, a lawyer for an association that advocates for minorities in Tunisia, has filed a complaint with authorities.

"We have lodged a complaint with the court of the first instance in Ben Arous against the imam of Rades mosque, Sheikh Ahmed S'hili, for inciting hatred."

Apparently, Suhayli could face up to three years in jail for using media to:

"incite hatred between races, religions and people."

And people wonder why the Jews gravitate to Israel. If they can't live in their homelands because of this kind of abuse and persecution where else are they going to go?

Tunisian Cleric Calls For Total Annihilation of Jews

On Hannibal TV, November 30, 2012, Tunisian cleric Sheik Ahmad Al-Suhayli prays to Allah for the total annihilation of the Jews, calling them obstinate, rebellious, deviant transgressors, who defied Mohammed and Allah and are now living on land the do not deserve.

As for the Arab Spring, he says it "will not truly be a spring unless we support our brothers in Gaza, and stand united with them, in order to drive those Jews out of Palestine and to liberate Jerusalem."

No Blasphemy Law For Tunisia's New Constitution

Tunisia might be ruled by a majority Islamist parliament now, but they're not getting they're blasphemy law written into the new constitution, at least for now. That's one for the good guys.

Mustapha Ben Jaafar, the speaker of the National Constituent Assembly said:

“There will certainly be no criminalization."

“That is not because we have agreed to (allow) attacks on the sacred, but because the sacred is something very, very difficult to define.”

That means no long prison terms for someone accused of blasphemy. Or death, if you happen to live in Pakistan.

However, you can bet the Islamists will continue to attempt to Islamize Tunisia, a once secular country under dictator Ben Ali, but the secularists will fight back. In fact, the media and secularists have been instrumental in ensuring that the blasphemy clause does not make it into the constitution. Surprisingly, Ennahda has agreed to it. Surprising, because it has strongly advocated a global ban on blaspheming, ramped up after the violent protests in response to the anti-Islam film.

Jaafar, whose leftist party Ettakatol is part of the ruling coalition said:

“Sometimes we hold talks within the troika (three-party ruling coalition) and we feel that they (Ennahda) are prepared to let their opinions develop, to move the lines a bit.”

Jaafar, a strong proponent of freedom of expression said:

“There is a fundamental achievement of the revolution that should never be called into question, and that no one should be able to challenge, which is the freedom of expression and of the press.”

I wish them luck fending off the creeping Islamization of their country.

Tunisian Kiddies Magazine Publishes 'How To Make A Molotov Cocktail'

Because children need to know how to concoct a Molotov cocktail, a 'how-to' was just published in a Tunisian kiddies magazine. Not that you can't find that information on the Internet. Thankfully, however, there are concerned citizens suing "Qaws Qouzah" or "Rainbow" in English, a popular magazine catering to boys and girls between 5 to 15 for their asinine decision.

Some of the details printed in the article, include:

“Molotov cocktail – is a home-made incendiary weapon which consists of a glass bottle and a folded cloth dipped in a flammable liquid – oil, alcohol, petrol,” the article read.

“The name was coined by Finnish soldiers in World War II in honor of Vyacheslav Molotov, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Soviet Union during the Winter War, also known as the Soviet-Finnish war of 1939-1940,” it said, according to Bloomberg.

“The unit should be ignited and thrown at the enemy. After the initial contact, the bottle breaks and penetrates the target,” it read.

A judge will decide what and whether the publishers will be charged with. Incitement to violence is one possibility.

Nothing like teaching them young, especially since Molotov cocktails are often the cheap weapon of choice for your common protester.

Tunisian Rape Victim Accused Of "Indecency" By Her Rapists

Tunisia, although secular and modern until the Islamists took power after the Arab Spring, was still a Muslim country, and women were therefore subject to mistreatment, as they often are under Islam. And, not surprisingly, they still are suffering at the hands of  a male chauvinist religious culture.

Take the 27-year-old woman who was in a car with her fiancé when the two were "apprehended" by several policemen. After demanding money and handcuffing the fiancé, they proceeded to rape the young woman in the back seat of the car. Now she's being hauled in to face a judge after the two reprobate rapists accused her of "indecency", and is therefore being victimized twice. Many think it is simply a tactic to intimidate the woman into dropping charges against the two police officers.

At least she has a lot of pissed off people advocating for her, including planned protests on the day the police have their court appearance.

Leading human rights, feminist groups and other prominent members of civil society have formed a committee evening to co-ordinate a campaign in support of the woman, including the Tunisian Association of Democratic Women and the Tunisian League of Human Rights.

Faïza Skandrani, the head of the Equality and Parity organisation, told Al Jazeera that the case was an important one for two reasons: it marked the first time a woman allegedly raped by the police had taken the case to court, and it was the first time the authorities were trying to publicly shame a woman into dropping such charges.

"The investigating judge is turning her from the victim to the accused, to help the police officers get away with it," she said. "I've heard about similar cases in Pakistan, but this is a first in Tunisia. Next they will be charging her with prostitution."

And activists have taken to social media to get their message out there, regarding planned protests.

A Facebook page supporting the protest called on Tunisian couple to bring signs saying "We love each other: Rape us!" More than 1,200 people had confirmed that they would be attending at the time of writing.

There are also calls for a nationwide "Women's strike" in the public sector on Tuesday.

Many Tunisians expressed their solidarity with the woman online, writing "Rape her then judge her" on the ministry’s Facebook page. The messages had been deleted at the time of writing.

Apparently, Zine Al Abidine Ben Ali's regime was equally oppressive when it came to women's rights, and some blame the current problems on the fact that the interior ministry has retained a bunch of Ben Ali's cronies with no efforts to reform or investigate the security forces, which have been blamed for rapes, torture and other abuses.  Nothing seems to have changed.

There have been many reports of police bullying ordinary citizens, including reports of them accusing women of prostitution in an attempt to solicite money.

Khaled Tarrouche, a spokesperson for the interior ministry, told the AFP news agency that the ministry "had nothing to do with" the proceedings against the young woman, emphasising that the decision to summon her was taken by the magistrate.

"In this case, we acted as was required of us. What had to be done was done, and the three police agents were arrested straight away," he said, insisting that cases of police assaulting women were "isolated".

"We shouldn't read into this anything organised, or generalised," he added.
"The police are also citizens first and foremost, and when they commit crimes, the law is applied unequivocally."

Faiza Skandrani, of the Equality and Parity organization, said

"This is a drop in the ocean of the problems we've been fighting.  Each time we close one door, they open another. The revolution was about freedom and democracy, not about undermining women's rights. They want to build a society where women can be used and treated like objects and where the man is always right."  

The woman also has an advocate in Karima Souid, an MP who belongs to Ettakatol, a centre-left party, that is part of the ruling coalition with the Islamist Ennahdha Party.

"I completely dissociate myself from this government. The rape case and the summoning of the victim this morning is the last straw," she wrote on Facebook.

Source:  Al Jazzeera 

Tunisian Islamist Organization Wants To Legalize Polygamy

Polygamy is illegal in Tunisia, but Tunisian Islamists want to change that because one wife just isn't enough. Besides, it's un-Islamic not to allow polygamy.

Adel Elmi, who is head honcho of what used to be the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, and is now called Tunisian Moderate Association for Awareness and Reform claims:

“Sanctioning polygamy is a popular demand now in Tunisia.”

The "moderate" in the organization's new name is a major joke, considering there is nothing moderate about wanting to establish shariah law in what used to be a somewhat secular country. A country that in the mid-1950s banned polygamy, outlawed forced marriages for underage girls, raised the marriage age to 17, and made it easier for women to divorce. But not only does he want to legalize polygamy, he wants any laws that are not Islamic in nature to be abolished.

The ruling Islamist Ennahda Party has promised women will not lose their rights, but Tunisian women's rights activists are very concerned, and with good reason, even though Elmi has said that the first wife will have "to approve before her husband is allowed to remarry”. How progressive is that.

According to Radia al-Nasrawi, a lawyer and activist, there is already a member of the Ennahda party that has bucked the polygamy ban by having two wives.

"He had a wife in Tunisia then married another in exile and brought her with him when he got back,” Nasrawi said.

Nasrawi added that the first wife filed a lawsuit against him with the court of Nabeul in northeastern Tunisia, but no measures have been taken against him so far.

We'll see whether Ennahda keeps its promise, or whether Tunisia becomes the Islamic Republic of Tunisia, down the road.

Tunisian Salafis Targeting "Un-Islamic" Cultural Events Worrisome

Angry Tunisian Islamists

Tunisia is taking a quick dive into Islamist hell.  I'm not sure what was expected when the people voted overwhelmingly for an Islamist leadership, but they're certainly getting what they voted for. Perhaps some were foolishly duped into thinking that they could trust the so-called 'moderate' Islamist Ennahda party's vows of moderate Islam; but guess what, it 'aint happening. The ultra-conservative bearded Salafis are flexing their muscles and the Islamist-led government is doing nothing to stop them.

It starts slowly, with little things like cultural events. Salafis destroyed art they believed to be offensive at an art exhibit/fair in June. And they're back targeting the arts again. This time it was the "un-Islamic" Bizerte music and theatre festival that was attacked by a bunch of Salafis bearing arms which left five people wounded. Four men were arrested, but people there said it took a good hour before the police did anything about the melee, and that the government isn't doing anything to control the Salafis thuggish behavior. And the attacks on culture have increased to the point that some producers are cancelling events.

Last week, the director of a festival at Gboullat, in the northern Beja region, announced he was cancelling the event under pressure notably from the Salafi -- adherents of a strict Sunni interpretation of Islam similar to the one practiced in Saudi Arabia.

Another festival had been cancelled at the end of July, in Sejnane, with the organizers again blaming radical Islamists, who interrupted the event, saying it was unacceptable during the month of Ramadan.

But the Bizert festival isn't the only event that has been targeted recently, in fact there have been a spate of attacks since the violent confrontation in June that left many wounded and one dead.

It was the third and most violent such incident in just three days, after Salafi prevented an Iranian group from performing at a Sufi music festival in Kairouan, south of Tunis, saying their Shiite chanting amounted to a violation of Islamic values.

On Tuesday, renowned Tunisian actor Lotfi Abdelli was prevented from performing his comedy act “100% Halal” by hardline Islamists who had occupied the auditorium.

The fact that the Salafis are allowed to wreak havoc and yet anti-government protests are quickly dealt with has some believing that the Ennahda are involved.

“They leave the Salafi alone,” said Tunisian actress and playwright Leila Toubel.

“How can we believe that this government and Ennahda are not involved? I would like to think that there is nothing to it, but these people (the Salafi) go unpunished, they make their own law,” Toubel said.

She accused the ruling Islamists of “complicity at least by silence.”

And some online media sites, like Kapitalis, feel the same way.

“What is serious about all this, more than the activism of these religious extremists, which grows by the day, is the laxity of the authorities who give in every time when faced with the diktats of some bearded fanatics."

Although the ministry of culture weighed in on the cancelled Abdelli show by saying it was an “attack on freedom of expression and a dangerous threat to cultural rights,” it's doubtful anything will be done; after all, an Islamist is an Islamist, whether they claim to be moderate or not.

It starts with the cultural events, and then eventually it will creep into other areas of life, until it is too late to do anything about it.

Salafists Destroy "Offensive" Art Work In Tunisia

Divine Creatures- offensive to Islamists in Tunisia

Instead of just ignoring something one might find offensive, the boorish, uncivilized Islamists want it outright banned or destroyed. And of course, their idea of offensive is often offensive in and of itself. An art exhibition/fair- The Printemps des Art Fair- in La Marsa, Tunisia was the latest target of their fanatical extremism. According to Luca Luccatini, the exhibit's director, four works in the exhibition were deemed "offensive to sacred values" by some Salafist oafs (two men, a woman in niqab and a lawyer) who showed up at the venue on Sunday and demanded they be removed.

When that didn't work someone broke into the gallery some time between Sunday night and Monday morning and destroyed some of the art works including some paintings (which they slashed) and an art installation which was removed and burned outdoors. A photograph was also apparently destroyed.

Luccatini had called the police after the first "aggressive" encounter- which included threats of returning-but that obviously was of no help, since they did, both to protest later that evening and then to destroy the work later on.

One of the 'offending' pieces was an art installation called "The Punching Ball" by Faten Gaddes. It's two punching bags, used in boxing, with a photo of a veiled woman and inscribed beneath the picture "I am a Christian woman." An obvious indictment against religious persecution. The abstract artwork above- "Divine Creatures"- was also found to be offensive, though no-one seems to know why. It's certainly not very appealing, but other than that, who knows. More than likely it was the title that they took umbrage with, since nothing is divine other than Mohammed and Allah. Or maybe it's the naked woman hidden amidst the mishmash of creatures.

A detailed account of the sequence of events can be found  in English on Tunisia Live here, and here. In French here.

After the initial encounter and before the vandalism occurred, the exhibit coordinators were able to galvanize fellow artists to counter Islamists who showed up in protest, and not surprisingly angry words were exchanged. And there has been criticism from both camps complaining about the other side's provocation. One Salafist, Mohamed Karim,  complained  about not being allowed to view the whole exhibition.

“I wanted to come to see for myself what was happening. I only saw a few pictures. They [supporters of the event] spoke a lot and I didn’t have a chance to see the other ateliers. They tried to provoke me, thank goodness I didn’t react."

And why should they let him? More importantly, why would he even want to view something he knows he would be offended by?!

Surprisingly, some feel the artists over-reacted, including a photographer who was at the event. Wijaya Mahouichi said,

“They are treating people unfairly. They are provoking people in front of the cameras.”

Well, I would too if it was my work or the work of my friends and people were threatening to destroy it.

Besides the destruction of art work, graffitti was found on the Abdallia Palace walls (where the event took place).

Freshly written messages in Arabic could be read including “Let God Be the Judge”, “Tunisia is an Islamic State, with the license of the Ministry of Culture, the Prophet of Allah gets insulted,” and “Hey you infidels, Ennahda, Tahryr and Salafist are brothers.”

Complaints have been filed, but no-one believes anything will happen since even the Culture Ministry, though claiming to support "freedom of creation", condemned some of the work as “all kinds of aggression against sacred values”. But what can one expect from an Islamist-led government.

To view some of the works, someone posted a video on a Facebook page. The video has the words  “Tomorrow all followers of Islam should rise in anger to defend Islam.”  There is also a list of all the artists that participated in the exhibit and photos of some of the supporters. Looks like some of the pieces might have hit a little too close to home, and those people will probably need to watch their backs.

As an artist and photographer the thought of anyone's work being destroyed infuriates me. No-one has the right to destroy another person's creative work. How dare they!

Bottom line, if you find something offensive turn the channel, turn the page or move on to the next painting. No-one is holding a gun to anyone’s head forcing them to view something they deem unsavory.

And they wonder why the West balks.