The Observer view on the Tunisia Bardo museum attack

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/mar/22/observer-view-on-tunisian-attack-bardo-museum

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Tunisia is a small country relative to its north African neighbours but the significance of last week’s dreadful terrorist attack on the Bardo museum in central Tunis, which killed 23 people, including one Briton, is huge. This atrocious act reflected all the varied strains and tensions fuelling one of the most momentous struggles of the modern era – the battle for the heart of Islam.

As is frequently noted, Tunisia is the birthplace and home of the Arab Spring, that great, spontaneous uprising against dictatorship and repression that began in late 2010 and spread across the Arab world. In Egypt, Libya, Syria, Yemen and Bahrain, the rule of unelected, abusive regimes was challenged as never before, but only in Tunisia did democracy take lasting root.

Elections held after the ignominious collapse of the Ben Ali presidency in 2011 have seen power shared and swapped in exemplary fashion between secular-minded parties and the moderate Islamist movement, Ennahda. That favourite canard of hardline Salafists, that western-style democracy is incompatible with Islamic values, is given the lie by Tunisia’s experience. Sadly, this made it a target. Despite shortcomings, Tunisia has broadly maintained its post-revolution adherence to street politics and social and religious tolerance. The gathering of thousands of angry citizens outside the museum immediately after the attack to demonstrate their revulsion was an eloquent and heartening statement of the Muslim majority view.

The fact that Islamic State (Isis) quickly claimed responsibility, without providing evidence, is further proof of its significance in a furious, region-wide propaganda battle. Hailing the two gunmen as “knights of the caliphate”, Isis celebrated “a blessed invasion of one of the dens of infidels and vice in Muslim Tunisia”.

Few Tunisians, Muslim or otherwise, would recognise this absurd description of a world-famous museum. Nor is it certain that the killers came from Isis or belonged to the like-minded, home-grown extremist network known as Ansar al-Sharia. Both were local men from a working-class Tunis neighbourhood. Although nine alleged accomplices have been arrested, it is possible this was a “lone wolf” operation similar to the recent attacks in Paris and Copenhagen. Such unanswered questions raise the issue of the radicalisation of young Muslims. It is estimated that 5,000 Tunisians have joined the fight against the Assad regime in Syria since 2011. While many have been killed, 500 of these battle-hardened jihadis have brought their radical ideas back home. Some may have been previously recruited by Isis in Syria and Iraq with the aim of spreading the Isis brand across north Africa.

Further complicating this phenomenon is the pernicious impact on Tunisia’s security and stability of the collapse of governance in neighbouring Libya, following Muammar Gaddafi’s fall. As with other Arab countries, notably Egypt, the fallout from Libya’s multi-factional civil war, both in terms of ideology and the cross-border penetration of men and arms, is increasingly troubling for Tunisia. Yet Egypt, its elected Muslim Brotherhood government illegally overthrown, is again ruled by a barely disguised military dictatorship that does not hesitate to meet brutality with unfettered brutality. Tunisia is still trying to uphold democratic values. One fear is that hard-won freedoms may be sacrificed in the name of security. It would be a tragedy if, thanks to extremists, the country were to return to the 1990s when tens of thousands of Ennahda supporters were persecuted by the regime.

Like other western leaders, David Cameron condemned the attack. “We will not let terrorists undermine democracy,” he tweeted. But his swift pledge to step up intelligence, policing and security collaboration has been heard before. Britain’s slipshod record of cooperation with Turkey over itinerant, would-be British jihadis does not inspire confidence.

Downing Street sound-bites do not cut it. It would be good to see concrete measures to help Tunisia, including its vital tourist industry, led perhaps by the EU, which should in any case be doing much more to address security, economic, and mass migration issues on Europe’s southern flank. Tunisia’s jasmine revolution is rightly viewed as a success story. That success is now imperilled. Tunisia is an echo chamber for a wider struggle that could shape our world for generations to come.