Tunisia's Islamists resist proposal to step down.

[dipsydoodle]

Source: Reuters

(Reuters) - Tunisia's ruling Islamists rejected on Monday a proposal under which they would step down pending elections, a decision likely to deepen confrontation with secular opponents demanding their immediate resignation.

Tunisia, whose 2011 uprising was the first of a series across the Arab world, has been in turmoil since an opposition leader was assassinated in July, threatening a democratic transition once seen as the most promising in a troubled region.

The country's powerful UGTT union had been pushing both sides to accept a plan for the Islamist-led government to step down after three weeks of talks to decide on a date for elections and the composition of a new caretaker administration.

But the moderate Islamist Ennahda party called on Monday for more guarantees on the election date and said an assembly writing a new constitution should finish its work before the government agreed to relinquish power.

"We have said that this government would not step down concretely before the completion of the constitution," Rafik Abd Essalem, a senior Ennahda official, told reporters.

Read more: http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/09/23/uk-tunisia-crisis-idUKBRE98M0K220130923

[JCMach1]

1. Not a moderate Islamist party when you intimidate and assassinate opposition and don't respect

minority rights...

[happyslug]

3. No one has accused the ruling Islamic party of the assassination

The assassination was done by an independent radical Islamic party with no connections to the ruling party.

As to intimidation, it is the opposition that are trying to intimate the ruling Islamic Party to step down, even refusing to rejoin the group writing the new constitution. The ruling party wants guarantees of elections in the near future, something the opposition refuses to give. The opposition wants to form an new Government, with it being part of that Government, BEFORE any elections are held.

Thus if you believe in elections, you have to support the Islamic Party, for it is the opposition that is most opposed to elections (and it appears to be Labor that is trying to get both sides to work together).

[JCMach1]

5. Ask Belaid's family who did it then

the more radical Islamist parties in Tunisia operate like brownshirts for the Ruling Party... there have been numerous reports about these things...

[seveneyes]

2. moderate Islamist party

I honestly don't know any details about Islamist parties, but is this the one that allows a woman to go out in public with only two family members of the husband rather then three? /.5s

[happyslug]

4. The ruling party is split, moderate in urban areas, more "Traditional" in rural areas

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ennahda_Movement

The worse part is that the Saudi Arabia supported Salafis groups. The Salafists in Egypt ended up backing the Coup, even as they were to the RIGHT of the Moslem Brotherhood in terms of Islam. I bring this up for its appears the Salafists groups are becoming the main opposition to the main Islamic party, and much of the opposition is in reaction to the raise of the Salafists as opposed to the ruling Islamic Party.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/04/ennahda-religious-policies-tunisia_n_3861793.html

Thus the problem may NOT be with the ruling Islamist party, but Saudi Arabia using the Salafists to spread support for Saudi Arabia even at the cost of anything else (and in this case Women's rights).

[KamaAina]

6. I was wondering what was going on in Tunisia

birthplace of the 'Arab Spring".

Looks like it, like Libya, Egypt (until recently) and soon Syria, has descended into an Islamist winter.