Tunisia: Netizens Turn to Facebook to Criticise Islamists

The question of the power of Islamic movements has become a hot topic since the so called Arab Spring started in Tunisia last December. Salafis have caused many controversies over the past months in post revolution Tunisia. According to news reports, they have attacked one of the movie theaters for showing a movie by Tunisian female secular filmmaker Nadia El Fani; attacked a university office for refusing to register a woman wearing Niqab as rules put by the former regime impose; and they have also burned the house of Nessma TV owner for showing the movie Persepolis, which includes a scene of a girl talking to God. Those actions were also used to attack Ennahda Islamic party, which won 40 per cent of the votes in the recent elections, saying that Islamists in Tunisia want to turn the country into another Taliban-run Afghanistan, Sudan, or Iran. The attacks were seen as Islamophobic reactions which make those three models as the image of political Islam by some. Others found them as just planned campaigns by competing Tunisian political parties to decrease the popularity of Ennahda. Yet, many of those groups defend themselves by saying they are of Islamic identity yet they have the desire to protect secular Tunisia. 

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