Tunisia: Understanding Conflict 2012 - Johns Hopkins School of ...

during exams, preventing other students from going about their daily routines. When a
professor asked a student why she was protesting, the student apparently replied, “Islam
is under threat.”
While there is general consensus that the salafists are neither organic to Tunisia
nor preferred by any of the Tunisian political leaderships, opinions differ as to how to
respond to their activities and why they exist in the first place. Ghannouchi argues that
the salafists are the fruit of the former regime, and the result of Ben Ali’s suppression of
Ennahdha. When Ennahdha was expelled, Ghannouchi believes its expulsion created a
cultural vacuum that was then filled by extremist influences from the Gulf states. He
rejects accusations that he collaborates with the salafists, noting that the salafist protesters
have also attacked Nahdha members. Khadija Arfaoui argues for a firm crackdown on
salafist activity, and doubts that salafists can be democratic. Her suspicion that
Ghannouchi doesn’t want to begin his term in government with the salafists as enemies,
coupled with the slow reaction time on the part of Ennahdha against the activities at
Manouba, enhances her distrust of Ennahdha (SAIS Group Meeting, 23 January 2012).
Professor Alaya Allani, from Manouba University, is also suspicious that Ennahdha
wants to avoid having its first public trial be against salafism for fear of losing legitimacy
in the eyes of their base. He believes the government should have reacted immediately
and strongly to the protests at Manouba and that ultimately, the salafists who he believes
make up the Ennahdha base must undergo a “rationalization” in which they accept the
separation of church and state (SAIS Group Meeting, 27 January 2012). According to
Abderrazak Kilani, the Minister for Coordination between the Constituent Assembly and
the Tunisian government, given the economic and social crises, the potential dangers of
extremism are not the most pressing issues on the official agenda. For him, the greatest
threat extremist activity represents is the threat to tourism, and he explains the mostly
passive police response against various salafist actions by the fact that in a transition
period, the police are lacking confidence (SAIS Group Meeting, 26 January 2012).
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