Breaking up Free Destourian Party sit-in amid Tunisian fears of leniency with terrorism

Hossam al-Haddad

After the political crisis between the symbols of authority in Tunisia entered its seventh week without reaching a solution, without any signs of an imminent breakthrough, and after all mediation attempts and initiatives failed to find a way out, President Kais Saied insists on the resignation of Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi, who rejects the president, backed by a parliamentary coalition led by Ennahda, which is headed by Parliament Speaker Rached Ghannouchi, and the Heart of Tunisia Party. Mechichi says that “his resignation is not on the table, because the country needs government and stability.”

Tunisian security units intervened to disperse the Free Destourian Party’s sit-in and remove them from the tent in front of the local headquarters of the International Union of Muslim Scholars.

The security units warned in the first stage that they would implement a curfew upon instructions from the Public Prosecution.

Free Destourian Party leader Abir Moussi said on Wednesday, March 10 that she was attacked, along with the rest of her party, by the head of the Ennahda-loyal Karama coalition bloc, Seifeddine Makhlouf, in front of the local headquarters of the International Union of Muslim Scholars.

Members of the Free Destourian Party were attacked in an attempt to break up the sit-in, in which the party was joining alongside human rights activists, in order to reveal the activity of Yusuf Qaradawi’s Brotherhood-affiliated International Union of Muslim Scholars, in addition to exposing the “lessons” it offers that undermine the values ​​of the educational system in the country.

The security forces intervened in the Montplaisir area of the capital, Tunis, to break up the clash between the supporters of the Free Destourian Party and the Karama coalition.

The security intervention resulted in the hospitalization of a number of Free Destourian Party MPs.

The Ministry of Interior stated that it had recorded the attendance of a group of people with other political sensitivities in the vicinity of the Free Destourian sit-in and examined an exchange of physical and verbal violence between the two groups, so it had informed the Public Prosecution of the details of the situation.

It added that the authorities intervened within the framework of respecting the law to separate the two groups in order to avoid the development of the situation and any bodily harm that might result from it, and in full respect for the safety of procedures and the full application of the law.

The ministry stated that it is equally distanced from all parties and is committed to implementing the law and to preserving the safety of persons and public and private property.

Commenting on the events, Prime Minister Mechichi said in press statements that the crisis of dispersing the sit-in by force and the accompanying attacks by the supporters of Karama and Ennahda fall within the jurisdiction of the judiciary and the Public Prosecution, which gave its instructions in this regard.

Regarding International Union of Muslim Scholars file and the documents presented condemning its branch in Tunis due to suspicious activities supporting extremism and terrorist ideology, Mechichi said that the government heard all the accusations and “will not take action except within the framework of the law.”

For his part, Free Destourian Party MP Majdi Boudhaina said that terrorism in Tunisia used to have a legislative incubator in the person of Parliament Speaker Rached Ghannouchi and his bloc, and then today he finds another incubator in the executive authority, represented by the government and its agencies.

Observers consider the events on early Wednesday to be a dangerous development in the political debate taking place in the country and that the intervention by force to disperse the sit-in reflects the Tunisian state’s standing to protect a dubious foreign organization, which is being pursued by accusations across the world of being involved in a call to raise arms and incite killing and whitewashing extremist ideology.

Social networking sites were filled with a wave of solidarity by thinkers, journalists and activists with the Free Destourioan Party against the violence it was subjected to by an organization facing serious charges of supporting the incubation of terrorism in Tunisia.

It is worth noting that the Free Destourian Party has been leading since last November the “Leave Us” sit-in in front of the organization’s headquarters in Tunis, calling for an investigation into the activities, plans and finances of the International Union of Muslim Scholars.

Meanwhile, there are many suspicions surrounding the activity of the Qaradawi branch in Tunisia, while university professors and researchers have warned of the threat it poses to the modern education system in Tunisia and the society’s values ​​system by spreading the ideas of extremism and terrorism.