Banned "Islamist" Political Party Says It's Time for Change in Morocco

Here is an article from Reuters Africa about the banned political party, al-Adl wa Ihsaan Justice and Spirituality ( the article translates their name as Justice and Charity), calling for change in Morocco. The article refers to them as "Islamist" but this word has ceased having any significant meaning. Does it mean a practicing Muslim with political ambitions, or something else? This group has always been calling for a change to the monarchy system but seems willing to use current events to bolster their platform.
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Banned Islamists say time for change in Morocco
Mon Feb 7, 2011 4:44pm GMT

Justice and Charity party sets ultimatum for change

* Demands "a democratic constitution"

* Says Morocco is following Ben Ali's policies

RABAT, Feb 7 (Reuters) - The banned Islamist group Justice and Charity, believed to be Morocco's biggest opposition force, has said "autocracy" will be swept away unless the country pursues deep democratic reform.

Authoritarian Arab leaders are watching carefully for signs of unrest spreading through the region after revolts in Tunisia and Egypt. Credit rating agencies Standard & Poor's and Fitch have said Morocco is the least likely Maghreb state to be affected by the wave of popular unrest.

The group of Sufi inspiration is believed to have 200,000 members, most of whom are university students, and is active mainly in the poor districts of some cities. Banned from politics, its avowed aim is to achieve a peaceful transition to a pluralist political system inspired by Islam.

In a statement posted on its website late on Sunday, Justice and Charity said the unrest in Egypt and Tunisia left "no place today for distortions ... and empty, false promises.

"The gap between the ruler and the ruled has widened and confidence is lost.

"The solution is either a deep and urgent democratic reform that ends autocracy and responds to the needs and demands of the people, or the people take the initiative and (it) erupt peacefully ... to sweep autocracy away," it said.

A group on social networking website Facebook has gathered hundreds of followers for a Feb. 20 protest meant to restore "the dignity of the Moroccan people and (press) for democratic and constitutional reform and the dissolution of parliament".

Moroccan officials could not be reached for comment. The government says Morocco is irreversibly committed to democracy and that efforts to alleviate poverty and create jobs have made progress under King Mohammed.

FEB 20 PROTEST

State-controlled television in Morocco has reported the unrest in Tunisia and Egypt with restraint, but many cafes have been tuning in to the Qatar-based satellite channel Al-Jazeera, which has covered the uprisings extensively in real time.

Moroccan media, including the official MAP news agency, have reported few attempts at self-immolation, apparently inspired by the fruit seller public suicide triggered the Tunisian protests. No one was reported to have died in these attempts.

Justice and Charity rose to prominence after its spiritual leader, Abdesslam Yassine, demanded thorough reform in letters sent first to the late King Hassan in 1974 and then to his son and heir King Mohammed after his enthronement in 1999.

Yassine disputes the Moroccan monarchs' eligibility for the religious title of Commander of the Faithful. He was put under house arrest for several years under King Hassan, but King Mohammed lifted the restriction shortly after coming to power.

The monarch, one of the youngest Arab rulers, has shown a greater sense of initiative than his father in trying to address the social and economic needs of the 32 million population.

Official data shows GDP per capita rose 41 percent between his enthronement in 1999 and 2009.

Morocco is officially a constitutional monarchy with an elected parliament. But the constitution empowers the king to dissolve the legislature, impose a state of emergency and have a key say on the appointment of sensitive government portfolios including the prime minister.

Justice and Charity said the constitution should be replaced by "a democratic one to mark a break with all aspects of autocracy ... and monopolization of authority and national wealth and preserves the human dignity of the Moroccan citizen".

It also demanded an end of what it called the "Benalisation" of politics and the economy in Morocco, a reference to the authoritarian rule and nepotism of Tunisian President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, ousted last month after 23 years in power. (Reporting by Souhail Karam; editing by Paul Taylor)

Tunisian Experiece Means Political Evolution in Morocco

Here is an article from the Daily Star newspaper out of Lebanon. It is written by Si Aboubakr Jamai, the rebel Moroccan journalist. He thinks that the events in Tunisia (and now Egypt) are a wake up call to the elites of Morocco,that will lead not necessarily to revolution, but a political evolution.
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The Tunisian experience is likely to mean evolution in Morocco
By Aboubakr Jamai
Commentary by
Thursday, February 03, 2011

Does the ouster of the regime of Zine al-Abedine Ben Ali in Tunisia herald a similar revolution, or perhaps just evolution, in Morocco? Similar evolution maybe not, but changes most probably.

The Tunisian example was a wake-up call for a country, Morocco, whose social problems are even deeper than those of its neighbor to the east. Despite a relatively robust level of economic growth rate during the last 10 years and greater investments in infrastructure, both inequality and poverty rates are still unhealthily high in Morocco. While Tunisia ranked 81 in the last human development index ranking, Morocco stands at a much lower 114. Youth unemployment in urban areas is higher in Morocco than it is in Tunisia. Riots have broken out periodically during the last four years with a whole city, Sidi Ifni, erupting in June 2008.

While it is hard to disentangle the causes of the Ben Ali regime’s downfall, it is safe to say that the near absence of credible social intermediaries led to an unsustainable build-up in pressure that brought about the social, and ultimately the political, explosion that we recently witnessed. There were no sufficiently independent political parties, workers unions, and media or NGOs to channel the anger of the Tunisian people.

One reason why Morocco has not witnessed a Tunisia-like people’s revolution is that despite its social ills, the country still has these security valves. The key word here is “still.” Morocco is considered freer than most other Arab countries. But the kingdom’s independent political and social forces that allow for the modicum of political and civil liberties that Moroccans enjoy are increasingly being battered by the behavior of a hegemonic monarchy.

This process has been dubbed the phenomenon of “Benalization.” Until recently, Ben Ali’s Tunisia seemed to be stable and enjoyed Western support, mainly from the U.S. and France, despite its egregious record on human rights, its harsh authoritarianism and the predatory economic habits of the Tunisian elite. As a consequence, the power elites in Morocco read a particular message in this: Why, they wondered, liberalize when all that was asked of them was to fight Islamists, open up their national markets to Western companies, and promote the rights of women?

Two recent evolutions in Morocco illustrate this trend in “Benalization”: the advent of the Authenticity and Modernity Party and the monarchy’s predatory economic practices. The Authenticity and Modernity Party was formed in August 2008 by Fouad Ali al-Himma, a former deputy interior minister and a close friend of the king, Mohammad VI. One of the State Department cables on Morocco published by WikiLeaks shows how the palace ordered the Interior Ministry to intervene in favor of candidates from the Authenticity and Modernity Party, to the detriment of candidates from the Islamist party, the Party of Justice and Development. While far from exerting the same type of total control over the political scene as Ben Ali’s ruling Constitutional Democratic Rally, Himma’s Authenticity and Modernity Party is on its way to dominating Moroccan politics by exploiting state resources and relying on palace support.

The monarchy’s business voracity bears a striking resemblance to the Ben Ali family’s tight grip on the Tunisian economy. Under the pretext of forming powerful conglomerates to protect the Moroccan economy in an ultra-competitive global environment, the king’s businessmen have gone on an expansion spree. Siger, King Mohammad’s holding company, controls the biggest bank, the biggest insurance company and one of the three telecom operators.

Here again the leaked State Department cables shed a disturbing light on the king’s business practices. The chief executive officer of ONA, another of the king’s holding companies, is quoted as telling American diplomats that “major investment decisions are made by three individuals: Fouad al-Himma, the former deputy interior minister who now heads the Party of Authenticity and Modernity, Mohammad Mounir al-Majidi, who is the head of the king’s private secretariat, and the king himself.”

In the same cable, “one of Morocco’s leading business entrepreneurs” laments “that major institutions and processes of the Moroccan state are being used by the palace to coerce and solicit bribes in the country’s real-estate sector.”

Even more worrying, the king’s business deals sometimes undermine the monarchy’s legitimacy. Being the commander of the faithful is the much vaunted pillar of the king’s legitimacy. It is said to unify Morocco under the same religious authority that keeps the Islamists in check. Yet recent revelations show how the king has invested in casinos in Macao and in Morocco proper, namely in Al-Jadida. He also invested in the brewing company, Brasseries du Maroc. This is hardly likely to ingratiate him to conservative Muslims.

These political blunders worry the social groups usually allied with the monarchy. They expose a lack of acumen that might endanger the country’s stability, especially in light of what happened in Tunisia. Preventing a revolution is a matter of survival for the Tunisian or Moroccan elites. If the people revolt in Morocco, the chances that the country will end up with a much bloodier and more protracted revolutionary period are high given the depth of social and economic inequalities. Accordingly, there is a greater incentive today to reignite an incremental but credible democratization process, leading to a true democratic constitutional monarchy.


Aboubakr Jamai is the former publisher of Le Journal Hebdomadaire in Casablanca. This commentary first appeared at bitterlemons-international.org, an online newsletter that publishes views of Middle Eastern and Islamic issues.

Morocco Takes Measures Against the Tunisian (and now Egpytian) Influence

Here is an article about the reaction of Moroccan authorities to the events in Tunisia (and now Egypt) which might seem to threaten the country's stability.
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Morocco takes measures against Tunisian contagion

By Sinikka Tarvainen and Mohsin el-Hassouni Jan 28, 2011, 20:57 GMT

Rabat - While the unrest in Tunisia has been spreading to other Arab countries, nearby Morocco has remained remarkably calm.

Four cases of people setting themselves ablaze have been reported recently, but they were believed to have been motivated by non-political reasons such mental health, economic or family problems, according to local media.

Morocco does not lack problems, which could spark political trouble. Rural poverty unleashed an exodus into city slums where massive unemployment and lack of perspective has increased the popularity of Islamic fundamentalists.

The country has a long tradition of 'bread riots,' and groups such as university graduates - nearly 30 per cent of whom are unemployed - also stage demonstrations that sometimes turn violent.

There is resentment against the country's privileged elite, which includes people such as King Mohammed VI's influential friend Fouad Ali el-Himma.

If Himma's Authenticity and Modernity Party (PAM) - a rising force on the country's political scene - continues to 'interfere' with other parties, that could lead to Tunisian-style unrest, the Islamist Party of Justice and Development (PJD) warned.

Moroccans do not, however, question the legitimacy of the king, criticism of whom can land journalists in prison.

'There has never been a demonstration against the king, who is seen as guaranteeing stability,' according to observers in Rabat.

Mohammed VI's position is reinforced by the fact that he is the official leader of Moroccan Muslims, a factor which has slowed the rise of Islamic fundamentalism.

Prime Minister Abbas el-Fassi's government, however, is aware that Morocco is not immune to contagion from Tunisia, and is taking preventative measures against it.

Police dealing with demonstrators have been advised to avoid violence. The authorities have also announced new subsidies for basic products such as sugar, oil, wheat, gas and petrol.

The government - which already spent more than 2 billion dollars on subsidies in 2010 - wants to keep prices down, even at the cost of endangering budget stability, observers said.

Government spokesman Khalid Naciri denied that the subsidies were linked to the events in Tunisia. Morocco 'does not act in function of events in other countries,' he said.

Tunisia Revolt: Can it happen in Morocco?

Is Morocco next? This is the question on a lot of people's minds. Who really knows.
Here is a piece by Aida Alami about the prospect of a Tunisian style revolt in Morocco.
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Tunisia Revolt: Can it happen in Morocco?
Morocco has high levels of unemployment and poverty. But few expect a revolt.

By Aida Alami — Special to GlobalPost
Published: January 19, 2011 05:42 ET in Africa

CASABLANCA , Morocco — The fall last week of one of the most dictatorial rulers in the Arab world, Tunisia's President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, has prompted many here to ask who might be overthrown next.

The Tunisian revolt began in the small town of Sidi Bouzid after a street vendor named Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire in despair at the lack of opportunities for educated young Tunisians. His self-immolation ignited protests that began to spread around the country over joblessness, corruption and frustration with the lack of freedoms.

Weeks after the first demonstrations, something no Tunisians dared to dream of happened: Ben Ali, the man who had ruled the country with an iron fist for 23 years, capitulated and fled the country.

Many here call it the “Tunisian Miracle,” and now all eyes are on the other Arab countries — especially those in North Africa. Ben Ali’s downfall electrified the region and many are now exploring what lessons should be learned.

“Let the Tunisian people show the way for the Arab world — no more dictators!” said one tweet by a Moroccan lawyer who blogs under the name Ibn Kafka.

Scholars also expressed hope for future changes.

“A salute to Tunis, which has opened the road to freedom in an Arab world devastated by years of waiting on the curb,” said Burhan Ghalioun, head of the Center for Contemporary Oriental Studies in Paris and a political science professor at the Sorbonne.

But could something similar occur in Morocco?

“Is Tunisia the first domino to fall? Will the Tunisian ‘Jasmine Revolution’ spread through the Maghreb, and perhaps throughout the Middle East?” wonders Dominique Moisi, a senior adviser at the French Institute for International Relations.

He remains doubtful. And many North African analysts agree. Moisi said that although the recent reforms in Morocco seem modest, they are still an important movement in comparison to Morocco’s more static neighbors.

“This is due to two things: ‘monarchy’ and ‘reform,’” writes Moisi in the daily French paper "Les Echos." “Faced with strong opposition, particularly from the Islamists, Morocco's king, ‘the Commander of the Faithful,’ has a legitimacy that is lacking in the military that holds power in Algeria and in Mauritania, and in the Ben Ali family in Tunisia.”

Morocco has some of the same problems faced by Algeria and Tunisia such as unemployment and rising costs. But Morocco also has political stability derived from the uniting symbol of the king. Mohammed VI, who has been in power since 1999, has also worked hard to modernize and develop the country. Besides trying to reform the economy, he has implemented many social reforms: in particular, more legal rights for women. He has also undertaken staunch anti-terrorist measures since the 2003 attacks on Casablanca that left 45 people dead.

But one major problem according to other observers is that the Moroccan regime, like the one in Tunisia, has been repressing individual freedoms, restricting freedom of the press and punishing activists who protest too loudly.

"Tunisia has been famous for a long time for its authoritarian drift,” said Khadija Riyadi, president of the Moroccan Association for Human Rights. “We must not forget that the limitations of freedoms is growing in Morocco. There are lots of examples: trials against journalists, arbitrary detention of human rights activists. All this does not portend anything good."

Unemployment and poverty are also a factor. But even though food prices rocketed last year sparking minor protests in the country, it seems unlikely that they will lead to political instability. The United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization announced this month that the food price index rose 32 percent between June and December 2010. Prices are expected to climb even further in the coming year.

“In Morocco, poverty may be larger and more visible than in Algeria or Tunisia, but stomachs are less likely to go empty,” Moisi said.

How can the Moroccan government avoid the worst-case scenario? By stimulating the country economically, argues Khalid Tritki, editor of the Casablanca-based online business publication "Maroc Eco."

“The events in Tunisia may be an opportunity for the rebirth of politics in Arab countries,” he said. “From now on, practicing politics means saying the truth, acting on it and ensuring that people feel change on a daily basis.”

Joy as Tunisian President Flees, The People of Tunisia are (Almost) Free at Last!

It is beautiful timing that the people of Tunisia were granted the blessing of a reprieve from decades of repression the day before the Martin Luther King Jr.'s Birthday. King said :

... everybody can be great, because everybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve... You don't have to know the second theory of thermodynamics in physics to serve. You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love. And you can be that servant.

We are grateful for all of the servants in Tunisia who have renewed hopes around the world. May God have mercy on those who gave their lives. The biggest hope being that this taste of freedom will "stick" and that we won't have to keep on pretending like everything is okay anymore. wa Alhamdulilah . And yes, the silence and tepid response by Western governments shows us how much of a priority "spreading democracy" really is for them in this part of the world.

Here is an article by Anthony Shadid from the New York Times about the joyous effect of the Tunisian "opening."
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Joy as Tunisian President Flees Offers Lesson to Arab Leaders
By ANTHONY SHADID
Published: January 14, 2011

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Hours after President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali fled Tunisia on Friday, a Lebanese broadcaster, in triumphant tones, ended her report on the first instance of an Arab leader to be overthrown in popular protests by quoting a famous Tunisian poet.

“And the people wanted life,” she said, “and the chains were broken.”

The day’s seismic events in Tunisia, the broadcaster, Abeer Madi al-Halabi, went on, would serve as “a lesson for countries where presidents and kings have rusted on their thrones.”

Tunisia’s uprising electrified the region. The most enthusiastic suggested it was the Arab world’s Gdansk, the birthplace of Solidarity in Poland, which heralded the end to Communist rule in Eastern Europe. That seemed premature, particularly because the contours of the government emerging in Tunisia were still unclear — and because Tunisia is on the periphery of the Arab world, with a relatively affluent and educated population. Yet the street protests erupted when Arabs seemed more frustrated than ever, whether over rising prices and joblessness or resentment of their leaders’ support for American policies or ambivalence about Israeli campaigns in Lebanon in 2006 and Gaza in 2009.

Tunisia’s protests were portrayed as a popular uprising, crossing lines of religion and ideology, offering a new model of dissent in a region where Islamic activists have long been seen as monopolizing opposition. Even if they serve only as inspiration, the protests offer a rare example of success to activists stymied at almost every turn in bringing about change in their own countries.

“A salute to Tunis, which has opened the road to freedom in an Arab world devastated by years of waiting on the curb,” said Burhan Ghalioun, head of the Centre d’Études sur l’Orient Contemporain in Paris and a political science professor at the Sorbonne.

That the events in Tunisia took place far beyond the region’s traditional centers of power did little to diminish the enthusiasm they seemed to generate. In fact, the very spectacle of crowds surging into the streets and overwhelming decades of accumulated power in the hands of a highly centralized, American-backed government seemed an antidote to the despair of past years — carnage in Iraq, divisions among Palestinians and Israeli intransigence and the yawning divide between ruler and ruled on almost every question of foreign policy.

The protests’ success gripped a region whose residents have increasingly complained of governments that seem incapable of meeting their demands and are bereft of any ideology except perpetuating power. The combustible mix that inspired them — economic woes and revulsion at corruption and repression — seemed to echo in so many other countries in the Middle East, American allies like Egypt foremost among them.

Al Jazeera headlined its broadcasts: “Tunisia ... the street creates change.”

Mohammed al-Maskati, a blogger in Bahrain, put it more bluntly on Twitter. “It actually happened in my lifetime!” he wrote. “An Arab nation woke up and said enough.”

Through the eight years of the Bush administration, democratization was at least a rhetorical priority of American policy in the Middle East, even as the United States maintained its support for Egypt, Saudi Arabia and other authoritarian governments in the region. On Thursday, as the protests in Tunisia were escalating, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton issued a scathing critique of Arab leadership and the region’s political and economic stagnation. Her comments seemed one attempt to reposition the United States, which backed Tunisia’s dictatorial leader as a partner against terrorism.

In the end, the most dramatic change in the old Arab order in years was inspired by Mohamed Bouazizi, the 26-year-old university graduate who could find work only as a fruit and vegetable vendor. He set himself on fire in a city square in December when the police seized his cart and mistreated him.

A Facebook page called Tunisians hailed him as “the symbol of the Tunisian revolution.” “God have mercy on you, Tunisia’s martyr, and on the all free martyrs of Tunisia,” it read. “One candle burns to create light and one candle beats all oppression.”

In Egypt, his name came up at a small solidarity protest.

“Egypt needs a man like Mohamed Bouazizi,” said Abdel-Halim Qandil, a journalist and opposition leader who joined dozens of others at the Tunisian Embassy.

The momentum of Tunisia’s street protests overshadowed other instances of dissent in the Arab world. In Egypt, protesters, often lacking in numbers, are occasionally beset by divisions between secular and religious activists. The mass protests in Lebanon that followed the assassination of Rafik Hariri, a former prime minister, in February 2005 ended up deepening divisions in a country almost evenly split over questions of ideology, sectarian loyalty and foreign patrons.

Tunisians’ grievances were as specific as universal: rising food prices, corruption, unemployment and the repression of a state that viewed almost all dissent as subversion.

Smaller protests, many of them over rising prices, have already taken place in countries like Morocco, Egypt, Algeria and Jordan. Egypt, in particular, seems to bear at least a passing resemblance to Tunisia — a heavy-handed security state with diminishing popular support and growing demands from an educated, yet frustrated, population.

In Jordan, hundreds protested the cost of food in several cities, even after the government hastily announced measures to bring the prices down. Libya abolished taxes and customs duties on food products, and Morocco tried to offset a surge in grain prices.

“It’s the creeping realization that more and more people are being marginalized and pauperized and that, increasingly, life is more difficult,” said Rami Khouri, director of the Issam Fares Institute at the American University of Beirut. “You need little events that capture the spirit of the time. Tunisia best captures that in the Arab world.”

Despite the enthusiasm, the scene Friday night in Cairo might serve as caution.

The protesters who gathered at the Tunisian Embassy in the upscale neighborhood of Zamalek chanted slogans into a megaphone and waved red Tunisian flags. They went through a litany of the region’s strongmen — from Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi of Libya to Hosni Mubarak of Egypt — and warned each that his day of reckoning was coming.

“Down, down with Hosni Mubarak!” some chanted.

“Ben Ali, you fraud! Mubarak, you fraud! Qaddafi, you fraud!” others shouted.

They were ringed by police officers in black berets, and outnumbered by them, as well. They had little room to maneuver. And an hour later, the protesters went their way, a Tunisian flag flying from one of the cars, as it ventured down a largely empty street.

Nada Bakri contributed reporting from Beirut, and Liam Stack from Cairo.

Bread, Freedom, Dignity! - The Tunisian Protests Continue

Here is an article from the New York Times about the protests going on in Tunisia right now.
There is also a great blog piece by Robert Mackey of the NYT about how Tunisians are using the internet to document whats going on. Check it out here, it has a lot of good video clips and links straight from Tunisia.
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Mayhem Spreads in Tunisia; Curfew Decreed
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
Published: January 12, 2011

TUNIS — The government of Tunisia scrambled alternately to appease critics and to crush growing unrest on Wednesday as a three-week-old wave of violent demonstrations spread for the first time to the capital, where swarms of protesters called for the ouster of the authoritarian president, Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali.

The protesters came together after circulating calls to rally over social networks like Facebook and Twitter. Many were unemployed college graduates, and they angrily demanded more jobs and denounced what they called the self-enrichment of Tunisia’s ruling family.

Army units and riot police officers were deployed around the city around dawn in anticipation, and they quickly dispersed protesters with billy clubs, tear gas and bullets.

By late in the day, the government decreed a nighttime curfew. And there were reports that some relatives of the president were leaving the country for their own safety.

At one of several demonstrations, witnesses reported that the security forces had shot and killed four protesters. Some said the army had used rooftop snipers to fire on the crowd. Rights groups said they had confirmed more than 30 deaths before the day began, all in skirmishes with the police over the last several days.

“How can you fire on your own people?” said a 30-year-old business owner taking refuge from the police as they broke up a protest near the French Embassy and train station downtown. “If you do that, then there is no return. Now, you are a killer.” He declined to provide his name for fear of reprisals.

Tunisia is in some ways the most European country of North Africa. It boasts a relatively large middle class, liberal social norms, broad gender equality and welcoming Mediterranean beaches. United States officials give it high marks for its aggressive prosecution of terrorism suspects.

But Tunisia also has one of the most repressive governments in a region full of police states. Residents long tolerated extensive surveillance, scant civil liberties and the routine use of torture, at least until the economic malaise that has gripped southern Europe spread here, sending unemployment and public resentment skyrocketing.

The government began the day trying to placate the protesters. The prime minister announced in a televised news conference the replacement of the interior minister — the public face of the crackdown. The government pledged to release prisoners who had been arrested in the demonstrations, and to initiate commissions to investigate excesses by the security forces as well as corruption in the government.

But the sacrifice of the interior minister did nothing to calm the protesters, who took to the streets downtown and in working-class neighborhoods on the outskirts as well.

Even as the prime minister pledged to release prisoners, security forces were apprehending others in their homes. One was a spokesman for the outlawed Communist Party, Hamma Hammémi, who had became a voice of the protests in French news media.

“He explained that the regime has lost all legitimacy,” said his wife, Radhia Nasraoui, a human rights activist. “So we were expecting this.”

By midday, cafes along Tunis’s main tree-lined boulevard were pulling in their tables and chairs to avoid tear-gas fumes, and pedestrians scurried in fear of brigades of riot police officers patrolling the streets.

In Sfax, Tunisia’s second-largest city, word spread that workers had called a general strike, and violence broke out in the cities of Thala and Douz as well.

By late afternoon, the government announced a curfew of 8 p.m., and businesses around Tunis hastily pulled down their gates as employees raced home.

President Ben Ali and other officials have sought to place blame for the unrest on foreign terrorists or Islamic radicals capitalizing on the frustrations of the unemployed. But there was little evidence of any reference to God or Islam around the protests on Wednesday, and some demonstrators called the assertion insulting.

“They say the people are terrorists, but they are the real terrorists, Ben Ali and his family,” said Ala Djebali, an 18-year-old student hiding in the train station after a protest downtown.

Protesters seemed to direct much of their anger at the great wealth and lavish life of President Ben Ali’s second wife, Leila Trabelsi, a former hairdresser, and their extended family, most notably their son-in-law, the billionaire businessman Mohamed Sakher El Materi.

Mr. Materi, whose company Princess El Materi Holdings includes a major “independent” newspaper here, is a member of Parliament and a prominent official in the ruling party. Like heirs to the presidents of Egypt and Libya (and the current presidents of Syria and Lebanon), Mr. Materi is also discussed as a potential successor to President Ben Ali.

A gracious dinner at Mr. Materi’s home was detailed in a cable from the American ambassador to Tunisia that was released by the antisecrecy organization WikiLeaks and fueled at least some of the outrage: a beachfront compound decorated with Roman artifacts; ice cream and frozen yogurt flown from St.-Tropez, France; a Bangladeshi butler and South African nanny; and a pet tiger in a cage.

On Wednesday, however, there were reports that Mr. Materi had fled the country and taken refuge in another mansion he owns, in Montreal.

Mona El-Naggar contributed reporting from Cairo, and J. David Goodman from New York.

Trouble in Tunisia - Riots and Abuse in Another Part of the Maghreb

Morocco and Tunisia have a lot of shared history and culture. So too the culture of high unemployment and frustrated youth, and cencorship. Here is a link to Aljazeera's comprehensive covering of the crisis. Below we have pasted a timeline of events in order to understand how things got to this point.
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Timeline: Tunisia's civil unrest
Chronicle of nationwide demonstrations over the country's unemployment crisis.
Ryan Rifai

December 17: Mohammed Bouazizi, a 26-year-old unemployed graduate in the central town of Sidi Bouzid, sets himself on fire in an attempt to commit suicide.

Police had confiscated fruit and vegetables he was selling because he lacked a permit. He is still being treated for third-degree burns across his entire body at a hospital near Tunis, the capital.

Bouazizi's act of desperation highlights the public's boiling frustration over living standards and a lack of human rights.

His self-immolation sparked demonstrations in which protesters burned tyres and chanted slogans demanding jobs. Protests soon spread to other parts of the country.

December 20: Mohamed Al Nouri Al Juwayni , the Tunisian development minister, travels to Sidi Bouzid to announce a new $10m employment programme. But protests continue unabated.

December 22: Houcine Falhi, a 22-year-old, commits suicide by electrocuting himself in the midst of another demonstration over unemployment in Sidi Bouzid, after shouting out "No to misery, no to unemployment!"

December 24: Mohamed Ammari, an 18-year-old protester, is killed by police bullets during violent demonstrations in the central town of Menzel Bouzaiene.

Chawki Belhoussine El Hadri , a 44-year-old man, is among those shot by police at the same protest.

Hundreds of protesters rally in front of the Tunisian labour union headquarters over rampant unemployment, clashing with Tunisian security forces in the central towns of al-Ragab and Miknassi. Skirmishes break out when security forces stage overnight crackdown campaigns.

December 25: Rallies spread to Kairouan, Sfax and Ben Guerdane.




An interior ministry spokesperson says police were forced to "shoot in self-defence" after shots in the air failed to disperse scores of protesters who were setting police cars and buildings ablaze.

December 27: Police and demonstrators scuffle as 1,000 Tunisians hold a rally in Tunis, calling for jobs in a show of solidarity with those protesting in poorer regions. Demonstrations also break out in Sousse.

December 28: Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, the country's president, warns in a national television broadcast that protests are unacceptable and will have a negative impact on the economy. Ben Ali criticises the "use of violence in the streets by a minority of extremists" and says the law will be applied "in all firmness" to punish protesters.

The Tunisian Federation of Labour Unions holds another rally in Gafsa province, which is squashed by security forces.

At the same time, about 300 lawyers hold a rally near the government's palace in Tunis in solidarity with protesters. Lawyers march in several other cities as well.

The governors of Sidi Bouzid, Jendouba, and Zaghouan provinces are dismissed for unspecified reasons related to the uprising, according to the Pana news agency.

The Tunisian ministers of communication, trade and handicrafts, and religious affairs are all sacked for reasons related to the uprising, Al-Arabiya news channel reports.

Abderrahman Ayedi, a prominent Tunisian lawyer, is allegedly tortured by police after they arrest him for protesting.

December 29: Security forces peacefully break up a demonstration in the northeastern city of Monastir but allegedly use violence in the town of Sbikha. There are also reports of police brutality in the town of Chebba, where one protester is hospitalised.

Nessma TV, a private news channel, becomes the first major Tunisian media outlet to cover the protests, after 12 days of demonstrations.

December 30: El Hadri, shot by police six days prior, dies of his injuries.

France's Socialist Party, the main opposition, condemns the "brutal repression" of the protesters, calling for lawyers and demonstrators to be released.

December 31: Lawyers across Tunisia respond to a call to assemble in protest over the arrested lawyers and in solidarity with the people of Sidi Bouzid.

Authorities react to the protests with force, and lawyers tell Al Jazeera they were "savagely beaten".

January 2: The hacktivist group "Anonymous" announces Operation Tunisia in solidarity with the protests by hacking a number of Tunisian state-run websites, temporarily shutting them down.

Several online activists report on Twitter that their email and Facebook accounts were hacked.

January 3: About 250 demonstrators, mostly students, stage a peaceful marchin the city of Thala. The protest turns violent after police try to stop it by firing tear gas canisters.

At least nine protesters are reportedly injured. In response, protesters set fire to tyres and attack the local offices of the ruling party.

January 4: The Tunisian Bar Association announces a general strike to be staged January 6 in protest over attacks by security forces against its members.

January 5: Mohamed Bouazizi dies of self-inflicted burns. A funeral is later held for him in Sidi Bouzid, his hometown.

January 6: It is reported that 95 per cent of Tunisia's 8,000 lawyers launch a strike, demanding an end to police brutality against peaceful protesters.

January 7: Authorities arrest a group of bloggers, journalists, activists and a rap singer in a crackdown on dissent. Some of them reportedly go missing.

January 8: At least six protesters are reportedly killed and six others wounded in clashes with police in Tala, a provincial town near the border with Algeria. Another three people were killed in similar clashes in the Kasserine region.

In Tala, witnesses said police fired their weapons after using water cannons to try to disperse a crowd which had set fire to a government building. The crowd has also thrown stones and petrol bombs at police.

January 9: Two protesters named Chihab Alibi and Youssef Fitouri are shot dead by police in Miknassi, according to the SBZ news agency.