Historical Dictionary of Terrorism Third Edition

ISLAMIC TENDENCY MOVEMENT • 325forces arrested around 300 members of Nahdha, of which 100 weremembers of Tunisia’s armed forces, including officers of the rank ofmajor, for plotting to establish an Islamic regime through a militarycoup. Nahdha also received financial support from the al TaqwaBank run by Idris Nasreddin that was later designated by both theUnited States and the United Nations as a financial backer of terroristgroups. Tunisian police arrested members of armed Nahdha groupsin December 1991 following alleged coup conspiracies in Septemberand early December 1991. Following 1991 Nahdha was banned fromoperating as a political party, but Nahdha members are allowed to runfor elective offices as independents.Cooperation between Algeria and Tunisia in containing theirIslamic fundamentalist movements led Algeria to expel the leaderof the Nahdha movement, el-Ghanoushi, who went to Sudan beforesettling in London. Diplomatic relations between Sudan and Tunisiawere all but severed in October 1991 in protest against Sudan’srenewing a diplomatic passport for el-Ghanoushi. At this timeTunisian authorities claimed el-Ghanoushi was wanted on chargesof plotting to kill Tunisia’s president and overthrow the government.Although el-Ghanoushi once attended a fund-raising rally forIslamic militant causes held in the United States in 1989, when hetried to attend a later conference held in the United States he wasrefused a visa as a known member and leader of a terrorist group.Since settling in London, el-Ghanoushi has established his own factionof Nahdha followers known as the Front Islamique de Tunisie(FIT), or Tunisian Islamic Front. While el-Ghanoushi began to talkabout allowing more democratic processes and social pluralism inhis proposals for an Islamic state in Tunisia, the FIT itself has beenimplicated in collaboration with the Armed Islamic Group (GIA)of Algeria and participation in attacks on Tunisian border guards.On 11 February 1995 the FIT claimed responsibility for an attackon border guards at the Tamerza crossing between Tunisia and Algeria,for which responsibility was also claimed by the GIA. In June1995 French police uncovered an Islamic extremist network in Parisinvolving joint efforts by the FIT and the GIA. Since 1995 the FIThas not been implicated in further terrorism. On 27 February 2006Tunisian President bin ‘Ali pardoned about 1,600 prisoners, of whomabout 270 were members of Nahdha who were released on conditionof refraining from violence or political activism.