Tunisia: Thousands rally against Islamic extremists

  Although the party that swept the recent polls Ennahda is described as moderate more radical Islamists have become more assertive in Tunisia. The hard line Salafists disrupted classes at a university just outside Tunis. The group demanded that mixed sex classes cease and that female students wear the full face veil or niqab.
   Several thousand demonstrators protested outside the Bardo Palace. Inside lawmakers are working to draw up a new constitution. The former Ben Ali regime was secularist. In fact the full face veil was banned from the university under his rule.
   Not all the protesters were protesting the new assertiveness of the Salafists, many were protesting their economic situation. There was a contingent of miners who pitched tents in a sort of Occupy Tunis demonstration. Others complained about the lack of transparency about what the government was doing. Some think that the major party Ennahda is trying to concentrate power in the new prime minister Hamadi Jebali. For more see this article.