Islamist party wants to establish Shariah law in Tunisia
TUNIS - An Islamist party in Tunisia said Thursday it wants to install "by political means" a regime based on the strict Shariah form of Islamic law in the north African country.
"We are working to install a regime founded on Shariah," said Ridha Belhaj, a spokesman for the party Hizb At-Tahrir.
The party claims that "Islam is the solution" to problems in Tunisia after the ouster of longtime strongman Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in January following a popular uprising.
While denouncing violence, the party does not rule out "rebellion or civil disobedience in order to establish an Islamic state," Belhaj added."In Islam, the nation has the right to overthrow its leaders, even by armed force," he said, while also denouncing the debate over gains by women in Tunisia, the only Arab country to ban polygamy.
The Hizb At-Tahrir intends to take part in elections set for July 24 to win representation in parliament, although it does not recognize its laws, "Shariah being the only source of laws," said the party's secretary general Abdelmajid Habibi.He has also said if the Islamists are successful in winning power they would ban other parties.
The Hizb At-Tahrir is the Tunisian branch of a group founded in 1953 in the Middle East by an extremist element within Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood and banned in other Arab countries.
Another Islamist group in Tunisia, Ennahda, became legal on March 1, some 30 years after it was founded by intellectuals inspired by the Muslim Brotherhood.
Experts say it is hard to gauge the strength of Islamism as a political force in Tunisia as it has been banned for decades, but Islamists were its most powerful opposition force before the persecution by Ben Ali began.
Ennahda leaders, however, have said that Shariah Islamic law has no place in Tunisia.
© Copyright (c) AFP
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