Africa

Africa

Tunisia: Attackers set fire to Muslim saint shrine

16 October 2012 20:28 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Tunisian state media reports that five masked men stormed into a 500-year-old shrine to a Muslim saint near the capital Tunis and set it on fire, APA reports quoting AP.
Hardline Islamists are suspected in the attack on the shrine of Sayyeda Manoubia, one of several recent assaults against mausoleums for local saints.
The attacks come as secularists increasingly worry that Tunisia’s moderate Islamist ruling party is kowtowing to extremist elements that have grown more active since the country’s longtime dictator was ousted last year.
Tuesday’s report cited the Interior Ministry as saying the attackers used flammable liquid to quicken the blaze and stole valuables from women in the shrine sanctuary.
Hardline Muslims known as Salafis oppose venerating saints. Salafis have grown more visible in Tunisia, and destroyed several shrines in neighboring Libya.