Category: News Update

Clashes broke out between alcohol sellers and hardline Salafi Muslims in the Tunisian capital, a security official said on Sunday, wounding a police commander in the latest illustration of religious tensions in the home of the “Arab Spring.”

Tunisia, whose authoritarian president, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, was overthrown by a popular uprising last year, now has an elected Islamist-led government.

Reuters says the struggle over the role of religion in government and society has since emerged as the most divisive issue in the North African country, which for decades was considered one of the most secular countries in the Arab world.

On Saturday night, a group of hardline Salafi Muslims attacked alcohol vendors in their small shops, a security official said. Police intervened to stop the violence.

“Commander Wissam Ben Sliman was injured last night in clashes after Salafis attacked alcohol sellers in the Dawar Hicher (area),” Sami Gnaoui, a member of the National Guard (police) syndicate said. “They attacked him with a knife in the neck. He is now in hospital in critical condition.”

Last month, dozens of Salafi Muslims attacked a hotel in Sidi Bouzid, the birthplace of Tunisia’s revolution, because it was serving alcohol. They destroyed furniture and smashed bottles of alcohol.

Gnaoui said it was the second time Salafis had attacked national security personnel in the Dawar Hicher neighbourhood, a poor area on the outskirts of Tunis.

He said a mosque in the area, called “Nour Mosque”, had become “like a military base where Salafis are hiding Molotov cocktails, knives and sticks”.

Interior ministry officials were not immediately available for comment.

Tension has been growing between Islamists and secularists since the Islamist Ennahda Movement won an election last year.

President Goodluck  Jonathan has condemned Sunday’s suicide bomb attack on a Catholic Church in Kaduna.

In a statement  by Presidential spokesman, Reuben Abati, President Jonathan said he  was extremely saddened by the explosion, describing it as “barbaric, cruel and uncalled for.”

He noted that the apparent objective of the criminal and unpatriotic elements and forces behind the attack is to set back the progress the Administration has made in the fight against terrorism in the country. “It is obvious that these people do not mean well for Nigeria and its unity and development,” he said.

The President however, expressed confidence that the war against terrorism would become more unrelenting as the nation would never give in to the forces of terror and retardation. He added that the persistence of messengers of evil will not prevail over the will of the government and the people to secure peace and safety.

“Our efforts to deal with all acts of terror and violence would only be redoubled even as the security agencies continue to receive all the support they need from government to reverse this unfortunate and unacceptable trend that threatens the peace and stability of our nation,” President Jonathan said.

The President commiserated with the Catholic Church, family and friends of the victims of the bombing, assuring them that government’s resolve to deal with the threat of terrorism remains strong.