On 05/17/2013, France24 reported that Tunisia bans Salafist group (Ansar Al-Sharia) from holding conference.
On 05/15/2013, AP reported Confrontation looms as Tunisia moves on Salafis.
On 05/10/2013 AP reported that a court in Jerusalem in the State of Israel ruled that women can pray like men at the Western Wall wearing same costumes that for decades have been reserved only for men and have been protected by ultra orthodox followers of the divine religion of Judaism.
The ultra orthodox in Israel did not claim religion when citing men’s only right to pray wearing certain costumes; they claimed that its Custom which is seriously important among certain ultra religious people in Israel.
In Tunisia on 05/17/2013, contrary to the ultra Orthodox in Israel, the spokesman for the Salafi group Ansar Al Sharia cited God when protesting the ban of the group conference and said that (Tunisian) Prime Minister Ali Larayedh will answer for his policies before God.* The original ‘Sofi Salafis’, distinguished from the modern day and current political Salafis, are those Sunni Muslims ( Sunni Islam is the core and the hub of the divine religion of Islam) that only believe and only cherish the words of the Quran and the prophet Muhammad and his immediate successors- they do not consider latter teachings or interpretations as part of the original Islam that they need to follow and adhere to. Those Salafis have existed since Islam started over 1400 years ago. They exist in many Arab countries especially in North Africa, Egypt in the Middle East as well as Muslim countries like Pakistan.
The Salafis are considered ultra orthodox or traditionalists, so when we say Salafi Muslims, it means equivalent to the ultra orthodox in other religions mainly Judaism and Christianity but also other worldwide faiths like Hinduism and Buddhism. The “other” Salafis or so called Salafis that are in “business’ now in the Middle East including countries like Pakistan and Afghanistan are using the badge Salafi but not the substance to advance an agenda in most cases of war, belligerency and confrontation using their version of Islam. Those Salafis, Ansar Al Sharia is a good example, would take a word in the Book and interpret it the way they like, attach it to a “cause” they create and legitimize and start running with it- like most politicians generally speaking.
The two Chechen Russians Boston bombers belonged or were influenced by those Salafis, the Taliban belongs to the worst version of those Salafis. Hamas in Gaza and The Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Tunisia and other Middle Eastern countries do not belong nor do they use Salafi in their pursue of business and politics, they just use Islam. There is no clash between Islam and freedom or Islam and democracy or Islam and women driving or women traveling or voting or becoming leaders. In the same token, there is no clash between Judaism and any form or shape of freedom and equality. The difference between the ultra orthodox in Israel and the Salafis “Ansar Al Sharia” in Tunisia is that the ultra orthodox in Israel respects the State and the civil authority, they will fight from time to time, but at the end, courts and laws rule. For now and in Tunisia democracy is new and the political Salafis might evolve into accepting the State authority while preaching certain versions of their politicized religion. So far the political Salafis in Tunisia in particular has been waging a war against the democratic authority and with others in Egypt, the Gulf countries are trying to create cult style societies within their own countries to protect not Islam but their privileges.
Through extremism, those Salafis survive, through the message of hate they want to rise and through the injustices, they want to manipulate. Democracy usually over periods of time recycles these ideas and their mouthpieces; its early though to tell how things will evolve in the Arab countries in the Middle East and how the ultra orthodox in the State of Israel will evolve into accepting women as equal partners and gradually accepting to have less overall social and economic privileges than they have now.
Originally published in WSN on 05/20/2013
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