Tunisian Salafists rally to demand greater role for Islam
Thousands of hard-line Islamists held a rally in central Tunisia on Sunday, calling for the spread of Shariah law in the north African nation, known as the cradle of the Arab Spring and one of the most secular countries in the Islamic world.
Ansar al-Shariah, or Partisans of Islamic Law, held their second annual rally in Kairouan, the fourth holiest city in Islam. The hard-line Salafist movement got its start in April 2011 after a popular uprising toppled long-time ruler Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, sparking a wave of revolt that swept the authoritarian regimes in Libya and Egypt from power.
The movement's followers, who descended on the town from all over Tunisia, waved black flags and draped a banner over the minaret of the town mosque, the oldest in Africa.
Seifallah ben Hassine called for media, education, tourism and the commercial sectors to be reformed along Islamic principals. Hassine was one of the founders of the Tunisian Combatant Group, which was listed by the UN in 2002 for having ties to al Qaeda. He was captured in Turkey in 2003 and then imprisoned in Tunisia, but was subsequently granted amnesty after the fall of Ben Ali.
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