Thursday, April 12, 2012

Tunisia's President Condemns Violence Against Jews At Ceremony Marking Synagogue Bombing

Moncef Marzouki, a human rights activist who was elected Tunisia's interim president last December following the country's "Arab Spring" demonstrations, yesterday reached out to Tunisia's 2600-year old Jewish community.  According to Tunisia Alive, Marzouki attended a ceremony at the El Ghriba Synagogue in Djerba to commemorate the 2002 Al-Qaeda truck bombing of the synagogue that killed 21 people.  In his remarks at the ceremony, Marzouki said that "any vandalism or violence against the Tunisian Jewish people, their property or their holy sites is totally unacceptable."  In three demonstrations by conservative Salafist Muslims in recent months, demonstrators have called for Muslims to kill or wage war against Jews.