Tunisia’s Crisis: Between Affiliation to France & Pleasing America
بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
Tunisia’s Crisis:
Squandering the Country between Affiliation to France & Pleasing America
Islam’s Standpoint
The exceptional decisions in Tunisia backed by presidential commands have been in force since 25 July and the President of the Republic, Kais Saied, continues to temporise and dodge the international forces’ demands to restore the state’s institutions, act according to the 2014 constitution and implement the demands of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) which has stipulated the restoring of the institutions before resuming payments of the aid instalments so that the country may surpass its economic crisis. This indicates the international forces’ insistence on the return of parliament, which lends legitimacy to the laws and secures the concluded agreements. The measures of President Kais Saied have led to paralysing parliament, suspending the constitution, and extending the exceptional measures indefinitely, and assigned the overseeing of all the state’s executive, legislative and judiciary institutions to the cabinet, which is answerable to the President of the Republic.
Despite the flocking of international delegations to Tunisia and the various domestic statements by the parties, political figures and the Tunisian General Labour Union, and the foreign statements by the European Parliament, US Congress and a host of countries, with the aim of steering the confused Tunisian President towards executing the foreign dictates and the domestic requirements, he however opted for buying time to achieve several aims according to the vision that is more conformant to French interests in order to secure his continuance in power and work towards purging the security and judicial circles, in addition to other leaderships, and replace them with leaderships and executives loyal to him and with Francophone tendencies.
By monitoring the international interaction with the Tunisian political scene following presidential decree 177 issued on 22 September, which significantly corroborated the competencies of the President, it transpires that America has been exerting pressure on President Kais Saied in order to rectify his behaviour which has deviated due to his dependence on France and the Francophone forces in Tunisia, his narcissism and hunger for absolute power, and his lack of political experience, in addition to his attempt to sit on two chairs, namely the French and the American. This approach has angered America and evoked the apprehensions of her agents within the Free Constitutional Party (PDL), which turned on the measures undertaken by the President after it had been supportive of them. The PDL’s president, Abeer Moussa, announced that she had paved the way for the measures undertaken by the President of the Republic, which was viewed as a message from her and America, designed to remind the President of his political affiliation.
The omens of the American anger towards President Kais Saied emerged during the visit to the region by the Commander of the U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM), Stephen Townsend, where he met Algerian President Abdul Majid Taboun and Libyan interim Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, while his visit to Tunisia was confined to a meeting with the chief of staff at the airport in the presence of US Ambassador Donald Bloom whom President Joe Biden decided to appoint as Ambassador to Pakistan without appointing his successor. The tension between Kais Saied and America was also evident through the complaint he submitted to Donald Bloom regarding US meddling in Tunisian domestic affairs.
Due to the pressures being exerted on him, Kais Saied announced on Thursday 4 November that he had instructed the minister of communications to devise an electronic survey on the amendments he intended to introduce to the constitution which he has been constantly reiterating his commitment to, despite having issued several decisions that curbed it and maintained all competencies in his hand. This was France’s gamble to preserve her economic and Francophone interests in Tunisia; and this explains why Kais Saied has appointed several Francophone officials, headed by Prime Minister Najla Boden, who is notorious for her Francophone tendencies that are vehemently hostile towards Islam, and why he has been hunting down the deputies of the Dignity Coalition, who built their 2019 electoral campaign on curtailing French interests.
It is well known that the reluctance of America’s agents in the Tunisian army to object to the decisions of Kais Saied, and the regional cover he has received from America’s agents in Egypt and the UAE, were designed to contain him, curb his Francophone tendencies, and give him a free rein to liquidate the Islamists and downsize their role, and retune the political forces that had caused a widespread resentment due to the practices of parliament before its dissolution.
According to this mechanism, the US would benefit from venting the anger of the masses and compelling the President to sever his dubious contacts with France. It would also coerce the parties to adapt to their functional role, namely entrenching the secularist liberal approach, and inducing the masses into accepting the reversal in the balance of power, the restructure, and the progress according to its basis.
These measures, which have been undertaken through the French devilish insinuations and an American green light, have led to fragmenting the largest party attributed to “political Islam”, namely al-Nahda Movement; 130 senior operatives have quit the movement and this will impact negatively on the Islamic project embraced by the hearts and minds, weaken its progress on the political scene and public life, and marginalise its campaigners to the advantage of the collaborating secularist political milieu and the Western colonialist projects in the Muslims’ lands, especially as Tunisia has epitomised the approach and the example for the people of the region through the “Arab Spring”.
Hence, our people in Tunisia and the rest of the Muslims’ lands ought to be extremely heedful of the plots being concocted against them within the Western decision-making circles, and very wary of the political milieu that has saturated the country with rottenness and treason, even if their devils were to cling to the curtains of the Kaaba.
The Muslims in Tunisia should beware of siding with either of the parties embroiled in the domestic struggle because they are nothing but dummies controlled by the colonialist powers; they only jostle for serving the colonialists and compete for who would be a plantation slave or a domestic slave, exactly like the slaves used to compete to please the American master.
Hence, we do not expect any good to come from them. And it is imperative to unearth everything they issue since it would be implausible to design a different cloak from the same fabric. The only salvation for our Ummah is to hold on tight to the Book of Allah the Almighty and the guidance of our Prophet ﷺ, and to work towards resuming the Islamic way of life, which would in turn purge the political milieu and annihilate those who attempt to corrupt it. The only change we ought to aspire to is the real change that leads to building an impregnable state which would represent our Aqeedah and our Shari'ah, which prohibits pledging loyalty to the Kuffar and commands holding tight to the strong rope of Allah the Almighty.
“And incline not towards those who do wrong lest the Fire touch you” [Hud-113]
Hizb-ut-Tahrir
The Committee in Charge
Tunisia
5 Rabi’ al-Thani 1443h / 10 November 2021
hizbuttahrir.org