02/06/13
 
The courageous leader of the Unified Democratic Nationalist Party,
Chokri Belaid, a known critic of the Tunisian Islamist party Ennahdha, was murdered today, organized crime style, in front of his home in Tunis.
 
This happened three and a half months after another opposition leader (Nidaa Tounes regional coordinator Lotfi Nagdh) was trampled to death by members of Salafi militias who get increasingly emboldened as a result of the indulgent attitude of the government.
 
The two events are against the backdrop of a two-year long string of violence and vandalism perpetrated by those same Islamo-supremacists who had targeted art galleries, theatres, and even institutions and political meetings. Those gangs, turned into death squads do all that, with impunity, against anything and anyone they feel is not in line with their backward interpretation of Islam.
 
To honor the deaths of those two great patriots, all the democratic forces in
Tunisia, and the world community,  should urge the government (which does
have the capacity to do so) to effectively address the social and religious tensions, as well as for the precarious economic situation in Tunisia, in order to avert an impending social and economic catastrophe.