Tunisia’s Islamist party has chosen Simon Salama, a Tunisian Jew, as its candidate for the municipal elections in Monastir, south of Tunis. Salama said that Ennahda is a civilian party open to modernity, adding that all Jews in Tunisia could participate in civic, social and political life as Tunisian citizens. “I am sure that I would join the polls as an independent candidate from the Ennahda Movement. If a party other than Ennahda came to me with this offer, that would not be the answer,” he said. Ennahda was founded as “The Movement of Islamic Tendency” in 1981, inspired by the Iranian Revolution and Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt.

Source: The North Africa Journal February 25, 2018 23:37 UTC