Six Men Sentenced for Attacking Sufi Shrine in Tunisia
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Version 0 of 1. CAIRO — A Tunisian court sentenced six men to five years in prison on Tuesday for attacking visitors to a famous Sufi Muslim shrine in Tunis, the capital, and for setting the shrine on fire. The attack was carried out last October by ultraconservative Salafi Muslims who consider the Sufi practice of visiting and praying at tombs to be heretical. Salafi Muslims in Egypt, Libya and Tunisia have pressed for a larger role in society in the aftermath of the revolutions that toppled longtime rulers in those countries who suppressed their activities. Sufi leaders in Tunisia say that dozens of sites held dear by their sect have been vandalized in the last year. Four of the six men sentenced on Tuesday are in custody; the other two are fugitives and were tried in absentia. |