January 23, 2011
Long before he was driven from power last week, Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was warning American officials about the dangers posed by radical Islam. In an early 2008 meeting at the presidential palace in Carthage, Ben Ali discussed the threat posed by Islamist radicals in the Middle East with Assistant Secretary of State David Welch. According to a March 3, 2008 diplomatic cable released by Wikileaks, Ben Ali was troubled about future prospects for a moderate Islamic Tunisia and the "explosive" situation in the Arab world. He also emphasized the threats posed by internal radicalism to Saudi Arabia and Yemen and predicted that the Muslim Brotherhood will eventually take power in Egypt.
Ben Ali, who had ruled with an iron fist since 1987, fled Tunisia Jan. 14 following weeks of public unrest. (He is currently believed to be in exile in Saudi Arabia.) His ouster came four weeks after Mohamed Bouazizi, a street vendor supporting a family of eight, doused himself with gasoline and set himself on fire after a dispute with municipal authorities. Protests spread across Tunisia in the days following Bouazizi's Dec. 17 suicide in the remote town of Sidi Bouzid. Tens of thousands of people took to the streets to denounce - and eventually overthrow - what they regarded as a corrupt, tyrannical government.
n scores of media interviews since the unrest began, Tunisian protesters have emphasized the importance of democracy and fighting corruption, not a desire for Islamicization of society. But that fact has not stopped radical Islamists from attempting to exploit the situation.
In scores of media interviews since the unrest began, Tunisian protesters have emphasized the importance of democracy and fighting corruption, not a desire for Islamicization of society. But that fact has not stopped radical Islamists from attempting to exploit the situation.
Yusuf al-Qaradawi, an imam who is very popular with Brotherhood members, congratulated the "Tunisian people for toppling the tyrant" and warned against formation of a new Tunisian government that included members of Ben Ali's Constitutional Democratic Rally Party.
"I wish to send my sincerest wishes to the fraternal people of Tunisia, who set the example for the Arab peoples and the other suppressed people and crushed masses of the entire world," Qaradawi said. "What moved them is injustice, suppression and hunger." He added that there are "three to four other countries [which he did not specify] where people are starving and their rulers are stealing public wealth."
Hamas operatives and other radical Islamists have also welcomed the revolution in Tunisia. Hamas web forums are replete with postings praising the overthrow of Tunisia's "corrupt, dictatorial, oppressive" regime through a "blessed popular intifada." Other contributors point to connections between Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Ben Ali and hint that Abbas is "next in line." One Hamas site reprinted an article urging Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to "prepare an island somewhere in the Indian Ocean for many of her friends and allies from the Arab dictatorships."
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