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    Tunisia secular, Islamist students clash on campus

    TUNIS (Reuters) - Hundreds of Islamists demanding segregated classes and the right for women to wear full-face veils at university clashed with secular students near Tunis on Tuesday in the latest flare-up between the two camps.

    Since Tunisia ousted its leader in the first "Arab Spring" revolution this year, the country has seen mounting tensions between secularists who have traditionally held power and Islamists whose influence has been growing.

    What began as a protest by Islamist students at Manouba university near Tunis soon degenerated into fighting, said witnesses.

    The clash came a day after Islamists besieged a building at the same university, holding students and professors hostage in a protest over the same issue.

    "We do not want to clash with anyone," one bearded Islamist said while his fellow protesters waved banners and shouted "God is greatest" at the university on Tuesday.

    They also demanded a prayer room at the university.

    "We want respect for a student's freedom to wear a veil like other students," he added, referring to the niqab, which covers a woman's face, leaving only a slit for the eyes. Students in Tunisia are only allowed to wear headscarves that do not cover the face.

    Secular students responded to the Islamists' chants by singing the Tunisian national anthem. No one was seriously injured in the scuffles.

    "I cannot believe what I see," said one secular student who gave only a first name, Sabrine.

    "What we see is similar to universities in Afghanistan ... Is this their idea of freedom?"

    In the country's first democratic election, Tunisians last month elected a coalition government led by the moderate Islamist Ennahda party. That party has promised not to impose strict Muslim rules on society and to respect women's rights.

    But a small contingent of Salafists, hardline Islamists not associated with Ennahda, have been trying to overturn secularist laws.

    Many Tunisian secularists, a group that has dominated the political landscape since independence from France half a century ago, fear that their freedoms will be undermined.

    (Reporting By Tarek Amara; Editing by Francois Murphy and Andrew Heavens)

    What do you feel about this article?

     

    66 comments

    • Irish Ike  •  2 months ago
      I wouldn't think that having to wear a face-mask is a right.
    • This Independent says  •  Hicksville, United States  •  2 months ago
      Why does a country feel it has to be Islamist? All countries should separate government and religion.
    • m  •  2 months ago
      No theocracy in deomocracy. Brainwashing of religon leads to psychosis. If men cannot function and have a need to self combust at school or at work around women who are wearing clothes and not a cloak, there is a serious problem.
    • walt  •  North Arlington, United States  •  2 months ago
      This is just the beginning, waiting for Egypt, Libia, Syria and Iraq to adopt sharia laws. It will come. "I cannot believe what I see," said one secular student who gave only a first name, Sabrine.

      Suprise, suprise...........
    • D. K  •  Philadelphia, United States  •  2 months ago
      The overthrow of the Shah was supported by many elements of Iranian secular society. When the Islamic powers prevailed, many of those that had brought the regime to power were executed or beaten down. There is no reason to think that the results will be any different here. Thank you Obama; thank you NATO. You always know what is good for us. You are soooooooo much smarter than us. We only have common sense.You have a much better understanding of how the world works--you and your buddies from Goldman Sachs.
    • Turpin  •  Sunnyvale, United States  •  2 months ago
      Maybe those women miss having bricks chucked at their heads or having their heads cut off too. perhaps they miss being treated like second class animals, and having their men copulate with goats sheep dogs and camals. Send them back where they came from subhuman subcultured aholes
    • agy  •  2 months ago
      In a muslim society a secular dictator is better than an islamist govt. anytime.
    • Victor  •  2 months ago
      Theocracies will always encounter conflict because their beliefs are based on myth and nonsense.
    • Brinkmanship  •  Middletown, United States  •  2 months ago
      I guess freedom to enslave women is kind of a freedom.
    • G_I28R1a3R1b9G9J237J16E1b ...  •  New York, United States  •  2 months ago
      Their is no country in the world that these Islamic fanatics will not try to impose their ways when they reach 10 % of the population. After that is attacks or a civil war.
      I feel sorry for the moderate Tunisians.
    • a  •  Dallas, United States  •  2 months ago
      Islamist are PIGS do NOT want to integrate into society, they should go back to the 1500s and get the f out
    • Rick  •  2 months ago
      Ah yes, the islamic ideal of freedom. Being free to treat women like dogs.
    • craig  •  New York, United States  •  2 months ago
      Arab Spring is turning into a hunting season for the hardliners....and the prey is freedom and anything that resembles democracy. Was there really any doubt where Islam would take any of these countries? Islam will always default to the violent, hateful 10th century nomad mentality. Iran is the pattern, the evil empire is alive and growing in the mideast.
    • InfidelHere  •  2 months ago
      Women's rights as this country falls into an ISLAMIC hell hole?? Yeah...right! Their Koran (4:34) gives Muslim “men” (if you call these animals that) permission to BEAT their wives for disobedience. It plainly says that husbands are “a degree above” wives. Even their “holy” Hadith says that women are intellectually inferior, and that they comprise the majority of Hell’s occupants.
    • dawg  •  2 months ago
      Islam cannot coexist within itself(Sunni vs. Shi-ite, they're blowin' up each other's mosques). Can't coexist with any other religion(or lack thereof) either.
    • MR26.2  •  Glendale, United States  •  2 months ago
      There is no place in society for radical religious fanatics imposing their will on the people, i.e. radical islamist imposing strict interpretation of islam.
    • Turpin  •  Sunnyvale, United States  •  2 months ago
      Kick the dirty islamist wogs out of the country, send them back to the dung heap they could,nt wait to eascape from,
    • Kenshin Himura  •  2 months ago
      Islam will only come to an end when the people have had enough.

      Let them have their oppressive regime, when the people finally revolt (again) they will never return to a Muslim theocracy.
    • Candid comment  •  Jacksonville, United States  •  2 months ago
      Looks like they want to opt out for the "Stone Age" maybe its a better place for them Morons'
    • required  •  Denver, United States  •  2 months ago
      Peace on Earth will only exist when every last islamist extremist is hunted down and put to death like the rabid dogs they are.
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