THE VIOLENCE OF SEPTEMBER 14th in TUNIS:

The Tunisian Community Center, an NGO dedicated to the promotion of the enduring Tunisian American friendship, condemns all acts of violence against the US embassy in Tunis and its neighboring American Cooperative School, as well as the similarly threatening violent acts targeting the U.S. embassies elsewhere around the world. The loss of lives and property in this manner is an affront to the values of humanity and tolerance, which are at the core of all major religions.

The real life three stooges who made the offensive film had one thing in common: Islamophobia. They will, undoubtedly, have their hate speech prosecuted to the full extent of the US laws. At the same time, we estimate that the anger displayed in Tunis (and other parts of the Moslem world), though understandable, is mis-directed and that nothing justifies or legitimizes the kind of violence aimed towards innocent U.S. diplomats and embassy personnel whose mission is to assist in building a new era of better relations between the US and their hosting nations.

Noteworthy is the fact that in Tunis, the protest was initially peaceful until a the opportunistic arrival of a group of Islamist supremacists, the Salafis, who, with their ladders climbed the walls of the embassy compound and vandalized it. Those, by the way, are the same gangs who have been terrorizing the Tunisian people with impunity for the last several months.

We feel that this should be a teaching opportunity for the Tunisian government and all members of Civil Society in Tunisia: they need to assume their responsibilities in educating the newly freed Tunisians about the true meaning of free speech and the rule of law. At minimum, the safety of all US diplomats as well as all Americans residing in Tunisia, should be guaranteed by the Tunisian government.