“The Interior Ministry did not authorize any demonstration for Friday in Tunisia,” the spokesman of the Ministry Khaled Tarrouch told AFP, while several calls were launched to defend what is said to be the values of the Sacred after Friday prayers.
The calls were launched, both by the Salafists through a video of Abu Ayoub and Ennahdha party during its recent press conference. They came in the wake of the attack against a cultural center in Marsa by Salafists who would have discovered at the El Ebdellia palace photos or images purportedly undermining Islam and which no one could provide evidence of these accusations.
And in interpreting the call of Abu Ayoub, observers of the Tunisian political scene, have questions about the purpose of the call for protests on the day of the demonstration of Salafists.
The explanation may lie in a political and election overbidding, the attempt to cover those who deviated and whom Ennahdha has never disowned or even scolded, or also the attempt by Ennahdha to give its interior minister grounds to ban, certainly the demonstration of Salafists, but more importantly that of Ennahdha and accordingly give the impression that the ban applies to everyone.
The thesis of the overbidding could be explained by the desire to ride the wave of the Sacred Defense, in response to Abu Ayoub and Dhawahiri who publicly denigrated it and thus gain more legitimacy in relation to the «Attahrir » party which wields the defense of the Sacred as its standard.
This stepping in by the Ennahdha under the excuse of the defense of the Sacred would have given more opportunity to Rached Ghannouchi and Ennahdha to outdo the initiative of Caïed Essebssi, one day before the announcement of his party.
For now, the Interior Ministry appears to be categorical, even in relation to the governing party and stated by the voice of its spokesman Khaled Tarrouch that it “did not authorize the organization of any march tomorrow [Friday].”
K. Tarrouch even states that the “law would be enforced against any act of violence,” explaining that “calls for violence are circulating on Facebook,” he said.
Indeed, all security forces have been put on a high alert at the Ministry of the Interior.
To the fear that the “Mutineers of the Bounty” made-in Tunisia, will challenge this ban, as they had already done last April 9 and May 1 and that the two demonstrations escalate, is added the death threat hanging on more than one Tunisian political figure.
The most important remains the Salafist threat of death launched against Ahmed Nejib Chebbi.
According to his brother Issam, police officers would have been assigned to him. The threat seems well taken very seriously, especially as, unconfirmed, information, would state a possible acting out this Friday as a symbolic gesture.
The other concern of the Ministry of the Interior, according to unconfirmed sources and of which we speak with all the usual precautions, would be a possible striking action against the Constituent Assembly which could be stormed.
All this would be of concern presently to the Ministry of Interior where meetings follow to prepare for this possible event expected Friday. But not only this according to foreign news, even if they are to be taken lightly.
The site “ElNashra” says to this effect, that “the Tunisian Ministry of Interior has obtained documented information demonstrating the existence of movements planned by Al Qaeda linked with extremist elements in neighboring countries and the existence of armed groups who are waiting for the signal to transform Tunisia into a base for Al Qaeda actions in the region and Northern Mediterranean countries.”
Information is however to be taken with utmost care, the site ElNashra known to be close to the Syrian regime!
Certainly more credible, the site of Al Bayan newspaper reported the statements of a certain ” Salim Abu Ahmed Ayoub,” presented as the second man of Al Qaeda in Tunisia, who announced Friday, June 15, “the beginning of the holy war against Tunisian President Marzouki,” whom Abu Ahmed Ayoub accuses of apostasy and to “establish an Islamic State in Tunisia, by taking advantage of the latest violence resulting from the alleged violations of the Sacred in La Marsa.” Strange coincidence! May God protect Tunisia!
