Tunisia purging its own embassies of Brotherhood presence

Sara Rashad                                  

Tunisia is now busy getting rid of the Muslim Brotherhood and its affiliated organizations.

The Arab country has also started cracking down on Brotherhood elements overseas, including inside its own embassies in other countries.

Inevitable purge

According to the Tunisian news site, Voice of the Two Banks, identical security sources confirmed the launch of a purge campaign, by relieving a number of security supervisors at Tunisian embassies in other countries of their duties, during the first half of 2021.

The sources added that those elements included the security supervisor at the Tunisian embassy in Canada, Abdelkader Ben Farhat.

Efforts

Measures in this regard move hand in hand with efforts Tunisia is making to get rid of the elements of Ennahda movement, the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood in Tunisia.

Top in the list of these elements is former interim president, Moncef Marzouki, against whom Tunisia had issued an international arrest warrant.

The warrant was issued against the background of Marzouki’s remarks, in which he incited against his country.

The remarks caused the 18th summit of La Francophonie, which was scheduled to be held in Tunisia at the end of November, to be postponed.

Marzouki had led a demonstration in France in October 2021, where he called on French authorities not to support what he called the ‘coup’ in Tunisia.

Hours later, the summit was postponed.

Internal efforts

Tunisia also works to trim Muslim Brotherhood presence inside it. The Ministry of Religious Affairs decided on October 27 to revoke an agreement with the Center for Islamic Studies and Democracy, which is headed by Muslim Brotherhood member, Radwan al-Masmoudi, and the Association of Islamic Scholars, which is led by Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood affiliate, Youssef al-Qaradawi.