Al-Qaida Chief Urges Tunisians to Rise Up for Sharia
إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية
Al-Qaida's chief has urged Tunisians to rise up to demand the rule of Islamic law, slamming the ruling Ennahda Islamist party for "violating" sharia law, in a message posted online on Sunday.
"O, honest and free Tunisians. The masks have dropped. Rise up to support your sharia," said Ayman al-Zawahiri in an audio message entitled "People of Tunisia, support your sharia," posted on Islamist websites.
"Call for a popular campaign advocating support for sharia and Islam and the rule of the Koran," the Muslim holy book, he said.
"Don't settle for any alternative to sharia," he added.
Zawahiri criticized the ruling moderate Ennahda party for not calling for Islamic rule in the North African nation where demonstrations led to the flight of its long-serving president Zine El-Abidine bin Ali in December 2010, triggering Arab Spring uprisings across the Arab world.
"It is astonishing to find a leadership claiming to belong to Islam saying that it does not want to rule with it," he said, denouncing what he called Ennahda's wish to have a "consensual constitution."
He accused the Ennahda of ignoring Islamic rules in order to appease the West and Gulf states.
"They are inventing an Islam that pleases the U.S. State Department, the EU, and the sheikhdoms of the Gulf. It is an Islam upon request, that permits gambling clubs, nudist beaches, usury and secular laws," he said.
The moderate Ennahda party, legalized in March 2011, has refused to adopt fundamental sharia law, but some have voiced fears Islamist movements within the country, emboldened by the Ennahda victory, may try to restrict free expression and secular values.
Zawahiri became Al-Qaida's chief after its founder Osama bin Laden, who was the world's most wanted man, was killed in a U.S. raid on a Pakistan hideout in May last year.
10 June 2012, 23:02
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Look at this guy! Is he leading the people into the 21St Century or trying to recreate the 7th?
11 June 2012, 00:38
03
Nope, karim_m1 he's all your's. A sunni 7th century rag top is about the same as shiite 7th century rag top. They all ought to show their faces by getting a shave, show their heads and end that most modern practice of beating themselves with knives and chains to atone for an event that happened 1400 years ago.
March 14 as far as I can tell wants to make of Lebanon a free pluralistic, open and welcoming place for tourists to come and enjoy life and spend their money. Seems that M8 is all about recruiting people to kill themselves, and convincing each other that everyone is against them.
11 June 2012, 00:39
03
Oh yeah, there's the drug and diamond smuggling too.
And have you noticed yet, that the largest supplier of diamonds to Israel is Russia and that this same Russia is the staunch ally of Iran and of Assad and the circle is completed by Hezbollah smuggling diamonds. Iran, Hezbollah, Assad, Israel and Russia all in bed together. These are your allies karim_mi and rag top al-Zawahiri keeps all of you guys huddled in the corner together, which makes him your ally as well. Without the glue that he provides how could you all stay in bed with Aoun and see him in the morning without his comb over.
