U.S. media is reporting that Ennahda, the ruling party of Tunisia, has condemned the attack on the U.S. Embassy in Tunis and the neighboring American school. According to an AP report:
Associated Press TUNIS, Tunisia September 15, 2012 (AP) Tunisia’s governing moderate Islamist party condemned the attack on the U.S. Embassy in Tunis and the neighboring American school, saying Saturday that such violence threatens the country’s progress toward democracy after decades of dictatorship. The embassy compound and school were surrounded by Tunisian police and army vehicles and personnel on Saturday, a day after several thousand demonstrators angry over a film that insults the Prophet Muhammad stormed the compound in Tunis. They tore down the American flag and raised an Islamic one, while looting and burning buildings. Four demonstrators died, including two following operations in the hospital, and 49 people were injured, according to Brahim Labassi, spokesman for the Ministry of Health. The attack was part of a wave of demonstrations across the Muslim world on Friday — the Muslim day of prayer — to protest the film, which was made in the United States. The embassy building itself — a fort-like structure — was untouched, but a gym and parking lot within the compound were ransacked and set alight as was the American school. The windows of the small building at the complex’s entrance used to screen visitors were smashed. Several dozen cars in the parking lot were burned, sending up thick, black smoke. A reporter saw looters jimmying open car doors and taking whatever they could find inside before setting them on fire. On Saturday, some smoke was still rising from the smoldering scene.
Read the rest here.
A post from November 2011 reviewed the evidence linking the Ennahda (aka Nahda) Party to the Global Muslim Brotherhood. Ennahda is headed by Rachid Ghannouchi (many spelling variations) who can best be described as an independent Islamist power center who is tied to the global Muslim Brotherhood though his membership in the European Council for Fatwa and Research (ECFR) and his important position in the International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS), both organizations led by Global Muslim Brotherhood Youssef Qaradawi. An Egyptian news report has identified Ghannouchi as a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood “abroad.” Ghannouchi is also one of the founding members of the World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY), a Saudi organization closely linked to the Muslim Brotherhood and dedicated to the propagation of “Wahabist” Islam throughout the world. Ghannouchi is known for his thinking on the issue of Islam and citizenship rights. Earlier posts reported on the return of Mr. Ghannouchi to Tunisia following his long exile in the UK. Other posts have detailed his extremist background.