"Several thousand Islamists took to the streets of Tunis on Friday to defend the Islamist-led government from popular demands for it to resign over the assassination of a secular opposition politician.
As Islamists and secular opponents staged rival protests over the future of Tunisia's Ennahda government, the interior minister pointed the finger of suspicion at a hardline Islamist, saying the same gun had been used in Thursday's killing as in an assassination earlier this year that provoked violent protests.
"The people want Ennahda again!" and "No to a coup against democracy!", the Islamists chanted, rejecting demands for a new government of national unity.
" Reuters
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Isn't this where the "Arab Spring' began? It is amusing to witness the spectacle of Islamists like Al-Nahda chanting their support of democracy. The only democracy they are interested in is an election that brings then to everlasting power. After that they are quite willing to murder to remain in power. pl
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/26/us-tunisia-death-idUSBRE96O0M320130726
YUP!
Wouldn’t it be more appropriate to label these movements the “Islamist Spring” since that is who came to power?
That is what Ayatollah Khamenei of Iran calls them.
Agree with FRED! But now the counter revolution occurring in Egypt!
Will Egypt get a Napoleon?
A general to remake the state and civil society? No. Egypt has a far different society than France of 1793.
I think the idea that the Arab Spring is primarily driven by religion is erroneous. “Islamic” parties may have won the elections, but the movement is essentially economic, and if the “Party of God” in Tunisia, Egypt etc don’t deliver on the economics and then start trying to amend constitutions in their favour, re Egypt, they are looking at civil war.
Hernando de Soto’s take on it is compelling:
http://www.spectator.co.uk/features/8959621/what-the-arab-world-really-wants/