At the beginning of last week, the Tunisian parliament witnessed violent acts between a number of MPs. The Parliament’s President pledged to investigate the incident.
Activists published footage, showing Anwar Bel Shahid, the representative of the Democratic Movement, bleeding from the forehead, while his colleague Samia Abbou appears unconscious after she was attacked by al-Karama Coalition MPs.
In a statement, Bel Shahid confirmed that he had been attacked with bottles by the representatives of the al-Karama Coalition, namely Saifuddin Makhlouf, Muhammad al-Afas and Ziyad al-Hashemi.
He says that what happened to him was part of a terrorist operation, confirming that extremism exists inside the parliament.
Although Parliament Speaker Rashid al-Ghannouchi condemned what he called “skirmishes” inside the Parliament and announced opening an investigation into the attack against MP Anwar, what happened is an opportunity to discuss what the al-Karam Coalition’s MPs are doing.
This bloc that includes a number of takfiris, ignores the constitution and the state’s laws in order to conduct their political work in an abnormal way.
Observers are concerned that the Parliament Speaker, Rashid al-Ghannouchi has not taken any measures to end such differences, which prompt them to assume that the Takfiri parties in the Parliament are protected by the President who does nothing more than condemnation whenever he is asked to interfere.
Tunisians have fears that the country might return to the violent era that was known during the rule of the Ennahda movement in 2013. During that period, assassinations and chaos plagued the country. the Tunisian Parliament turned into a platform for incitement and whitewashing terrorism, reminding us to beware of underestimating the repercussions of such acts.
Promoting Takfiri Speeches
A group of Tunisian organizations, associations and figures presented a petition to the President of the Republic Qais Said and the Speaker of the Parliament Rashid Al-Ghannouchi, calling for preventing glorification of terrorism. Political disagreements took a dangerous inflammatory dimension that recalls the scenario of political assassinations during the Ennahda rule. The petition included a request to the public prosecution to apply the law firmly to those, who support hate speech, no matter what their positions are. It pointed out that the House of Representatives has become a hotbed for terrorism, takfirism supporters and those who glorify ISIS.
According to expert in Tunisian political affairs, the Al-Karama Coalition is leading a war in proxy for the Ennahda Movement through its inflammatory speeches inside the parliament against its political opponents.
It is noteworthy that the president of the al-Karama Coalition, Saif Addin Makhlouf, has criticized the Al-Kairouan University for refusing the former spokesman of the banned Ansar al-Sharia organization, Saif Al-Din Al-Rais, with a Ph.D. degree.
Makhlouf considered this decision as discriminatory and goes into depriving a Tunisian citizen of continuing his education, which contradicts with what was mentioned in the 2014 constitution. Strangely, Makhlouf has forgotten or maybe he does not mind that Saif al-Din al-Rais and Ansar al-Sharia are terrorists, who committed virtuous crimes against Tunisians.
In a speech in the House of Representatives, the same party’s deputy, Mohamed Afas, says that “we should not be shy about labeling someone as unbeliever because it is a Sharia rule.” In addition, his colleague in the Al-Karama Coalition, Nidal al-Saudi, said: “We have become accustomed to this rhetoric from the enemies of Islam,” in reference to critics of their extremist positions.
Secret Terror Nest
Some Tunisian MPs, who have intellectual and ideological differences with al-Karama and backed by Ennahda, held the government responsible for their safety as their lives have become endangered sure to incitement against them.
Takfiri people cannot understand the phenomenon of intellectual differences. Therefore, they see all critical thoughts as ideas for disbelieve.
For this reason, the two MPs statements prompt us to believe that the Tunisian Parliament has become a secret nest for terrorists, planning to retaliate against society. What is happening today is an explicit call for violence and incitement in order to conduct the Sharia. Hardline religious groups have adopted that call at previous times, which led them to accept terrorism as a solution for their crisis. However, the situation today is different, as such calls are protected by the legislative authority, in principle a threat for the safety of the state and public security, as Takfiris are now enjoying parliamentary immunity.
Ghannouchi: Silence
To our surprise, al-Ghannouchi is terribly silent and does not act against the explicit call for violence, suggesting that he has the same attitude towards the coalition. The man who leads Ennahda Movement is not known for condemning the assassination of politicians whom the Takfir had pursued, nor did he acted against the incursions on theaters and halls of fine arts during the rule of the Troika.
Ghannouchi, the parliament speaker, is silent about calls for Takfirism because he agrees on them. Otherwise, his position would allow him to interfere and prevent MPs from repeating the Takfir slogans, harming the country’s security and breaking the law.
Chapter 6 of the Tunisian Constitution criminalizes excommunication and incitement to violence and states that “the state is a sponsor of religion, a guarantor of freedom of belief and conscience and the practice of religious rites, a protector of sanctities, a guarantor of the neutrality of mosques and places of worship.”
