Tunisia – a Muslim Democracy

[longknife]

Okay, I'll admit that I've had reservations about whether a Muslim country could have a democratic government. Well, according to the story in The Daily Signal, Tunisia is becoming just that. It's economy is improving and women are getting a bigger told in everyday life.


Could this be an example for other Muslim countries to follow? At least in North Africa. Maybe.


Read the story @ We Need Inspirations All Over the World Right Now Why This Small North African Country Might Be It

 

[waltky]

Turmoil in Tunisia over youth unemployment...

Tunisia imposes nationwide curfew amid growing unrest
January 22, 2016 - Tunisia’s president vowed Friday to end the cycle of unrest that has pummeled towns across the country as authorities imposed a nationwide curfew – five years after the nation, convulsed by protests, overthrew its longtime ruler and moved onto the road to democracy.

President Beji Caid Essebsi warned that Tunisia could fall prey to Islamic State group militants in neighboring Libya profiting from the instability. The violent demonstrations over unemployment opened a new front of concern for Tunisia, already struggling from a foundering economy and the threat of terrorism after three major attacks last year. The week of increasingly violent demonstrations was triggered Sunday when a young man who was turned down for a government job climbed a transmission tower in protest and was electrocuted.

Unemployed protestors demonstrate in Tunis, Tunisia, on Friday. Tunisia has imposed a nationwide curfew in response to growing unrest over unemployment, as protests across the country have descended into violence in several cities.​

His death had unsettling resonance: The suicide five years ago of another unemployed youth set off the popular uprising that overthrew Tunisia’s autocratic leader, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, and gave rise to the “Arab Spring” uprisings. This North African country has been the only Arab Spring nation to avoid a chaotic aftermath and take the road to democracy. “We will get out of this ordeal,” the president said in his first address to the nation since the crisis erupted. He pressed the government to put in place a program to address unemployment. About one in three young people remains without work. “One cannot speak of dignity without a job,” he said. “You can’t tell people who are hungry … to be patient.”

Tunisia’s prime minister, Habib Essid, cut short a visit to France to preside over an extraordinary Cabinet meeting on Saturday. A curfew from 8 p.m. until 5 a.m. was declared because the attacks on public and private property “represent a danger to the country and its citizens,” the Interior Ministry said. Weekend sports events were canceled. A tense calm reigned. The unrest began Sunday in the town of Kasserine in central Tunisia where the young man electrocuted himself – not far from the town of Sidi Bouzid where a vegetable seller set himself afire in 2011, triggering Tunisia’s revolution.

Tunisia’s unemployment stands around 15 percent, but is 30 percent among youth and in the Tunisian heartland that has long felt ignored by the powers-that-be in the capital – despite government promises of change. On Friday, hundreds of unemployed graduates filed into Kasserine’s main administrative office demanding jobs. Others screamed from the top of the building before being escorted out by police, and still more held a sit-in inside the lobby.

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Tunisia protest: Clashes as demonstrations spread
21 January 2016 - Protests over youth unemployment have spread to several towns and cities in Tunisia, leading to the death of a policeman in clashes on Thursday.

Demonstrations began in the northern Kasserine region after a man was electrocuted while protesting at being rejected for a government job. In the town of Feriana, a policeman died after his car was overturned. Unemployment has worsened since the 2011 revolution, when President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali was ousted.

Hundreds of people marched in Tunis on Thursday to demand work​

The revolution was triggered by struggling market stall owner Mohamed Bouazizi killing himself in Sidi Bouzid. Some of those demonstrating this week said many of the social problems highlighted in 2011 had not been resolved.

Dozens of police officers were injured on Thursday, the interior ministry said​

More than a third of young people are unemployed, with 62% of Tunisian graduates without work according to the OECD. "We have been waiting for things to get better for five years and nothing has happened," Yassine Kahlaoui, a 30-year-old jobseeker, told the Associated Press in Kasserine, where police fired tear gas at demonstrators near government buildings. "We're tired of broken promises," he added.

Elsewhere in Tunisia

 

[AVG-JOE]

Okay, I'll admit that I've had reservations about whether a Muslim country could have a democratic government. Well, according to the story in The Daily Signal, Tunisia is becoming just that. It's economy is improving and women are getting a bigger told in everyday life.


Could this be an example for other Muslim countries to follow? At least in North Africa. Maybe.


Read the story @ We Need Inspirations All Over the World Right Now Why This Small North African Country Might Be It

A Muslim country can't be a democracy.

By definition, a democracy is a free country, where Islam is as tolerated as every other religion.



Step one in becoming a democracy: Freedom of thought.

Which is a hell of a lot easier to understand and enforce when the population consists of a wide variety of thinking.

 

[AVG-JOE]

Actually, I'm wrong.

A Muslim country might be the perfect example of a true democracy because 88% of the population can agree on how to discriminate against the other 12%. Same could be said for any given Christian, Jewish or Hindu country.

"Democracy" is not the goal.

150 years ago the Republican political party was born to prosecute a Civil War to turn The US away from democracy and make us in to a republic that protects minorities from mob democracy.

Obviously, it's a work in progress, it took 100 years and the opposition party to get the paperwork done.

There is still a lot of work to be done to ensure true freedom of thought and opportunity is available to all Americans, as well as the responsibilities that come with such freedoms.

Baby steps to the stars.​