Sent by the writer in translation from the Italian newspaper Il Giorno.
Now we will hear it over and over again from journalists and politicians: the Arab Spring was a great success, as shown by the elctoral choice of Ennahda, as the Tunisian ruling party.
In fact, notwithstanding the risks involved in putting a strain on its electorate, Ennahda decided not to change article I of the 1959’s Constitution. That is, as in the text that Tunisia is "a free, independent and sovereign State: its religion is Islam and its regime is republican."
In short, Ennahda kept the right to still be called an "Islamic Democratic Party" by the international press, because Islamic law, the Sharia, was not included in the first article - even if immediately after that, Islam is declared the religion of the state.
In fact, the Tunisian drift toward the Muslim Brotherhood (Ennhada is a branch of it) is a very important matter, even if tries to declare moderation. Everybody knows that, more than an Arab Spring, what we are witnessing is an Islamic Spring all over the Arab countries and Egypt, for instance, is a good example.
Here, too, the "moderate" branch plus the Salafists got 72 per cent in the parliament.
In Morocco, where only yesterday an Israeli diplomat besieged by the crowd, had to flee for his life, Islamism has won.
In Tunisia, if Ennahda will ever want to choose the soft Islamic way, we can easily predict that the Salafists will take the streets, no one knows with what result. Meanwhile, yesterday in Tunis, 8000 people took to the streets to ask for the application of Sharia, shouting, "We want an Islamic republic. "
The problem is that examples of Islamic pride, not opposed by Ennahda, have been quite common. Take, for instance, the fact that an Islamic militia has been legalized.
The expert, Anna Mahjar Barducci, on the Gatestoneinstitute website, reports that the Tunisian Minister of the Interior legalized the "Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice," a religious police force established after the revolution.
The police is composed of three committees controlling religious observance, science, and legal affairs. The police lash out against women who do not wear a veil, occupy mosques, and persecute liberal journalists and professors.
Moreover Ennahda, fearing Salafist power, gave them the opportunity to occupy and control small towns, such as Sejnane with its five thousand inhabitants, in the northwest of the country.
According to the Tunisian media, about 250 people talebanized the city, imposing Sharia with countless episodes of intolerance and violence towards wine (a vendor had his fingers broken), tobacco, the sale of cakes for new year’s eve because it’s a Christian holiday, women's clothing.
The government, local media say, permitted the Salafists to do their local experiments of harsh Sharia.
Recently, they also allowed an officially banned party, Hizb ut Tahrir, or Party of Liberation, organize an international women conference entitled "The Caliphate, bright example for the rights and the political role of women." There were five hundred participants from all over the world. They agreed that democracy had failed, and that "the Caliphate, historically tested, may give a better future for Muslim women" (the British delegate said so).
The conference, held in the luxurious palace of Gammarth, in the northern suburbs of Tunis, had a festive feel. Ennahda seemed to have nothing against women spending all of their energies to explain how good the Caliphate is.
In short, although Rachid al Gannouchi, the leader of Ennahda who received forty per cent of the votes, held a moderate Islamic line from the beginning to demonstrate his willingness to dialogue with the West, it is difficult now to imagine that he will stop the aggression of the Salafists. They would blame him for abandoning the Islamic road, which is, after all, the Muslim Brotherhood road.
If you look at the interviews of Ennahda’s leaders to the Tunisian newspapers, they admit to watching carefully and with "caution" the Salafi movement, to avoid worsening the divisions. Therefore, in the next few days, we can expect Salafi protests, while Ennahda in a more or less obvious and gradual way, will comply with their demands.