Springtime! Tunisia's next leader goes full Islamist (updated)

Hang onto your hats; there's a lot in this small article.

From Tunisia Live:

Tunisian Islamist party Ennahda invited Houda Naïm, a Hamas member of the Palestinian Legislative Council based in Gaza, to speak at a rally in Sousse, a coastal Tunisian city, this past Sunday. The event marked the first time in known memory a member of Hamas has addressed the Tunisian public.

Naïm praised the victory of the Tunisian people in establishing democracy, and stated her hope that the “liberation” of Tunisia would lead to the liberation of Palestine.

The event also saw a speech from Ennahda’s general secretary Hammadi Jebali, recently proposed by the party to be the new Prime Minister of Tunisia.

Jebali declared that the occasion was “a divine moment in a new state, and in, hopefully, a 6th caliphate,” referring to the historical system of Islamic monarchies.

The tone of this last comment is in sharp contrast to many of the party’s public statements, where it has denied any intention of instituting Sharia or Islamic law in the nascent democracy.

The general secretary also echoed Naïm’s words, stating, “The liberation of Tunisia will, God willing, bring about the liberation of Jerusalem.”

The Tunisian blogosphere and liberal media are in an uproar over this. One article in English at AllVoices is representative, and it claims that Jebali also was saying he was seeing signs from Allah. A newspaper reportedly placed an illustration on its front page showing Jebali dressed in the robes of a caliph.

And this insane Islamist is the next leader of Tunisia.

(h/t jzaik)

UPDATE: MEMRI now has the video: