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Pro-Islamic Tunisian Scholar Seeks Asylum in France
WASHINGTON, Aug 9 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The president of a Tunisian community group in France issued a statement in Paris on July 29th requesting political asylum for a Tunisian whose life is in danger from his own government.
Mondher Sfar, the president of "La-Communauté Tunisienne en Europe", pleaded with French authorities to allow Abdel Majid Najar to stay safely in France, and not to deport him back to Tunisia, where his involvement with an anti-government Islamic group would put him in jail under threat of torture.
Najar is a member of the group Ennahda, or "Renaissance", which opposes the ruling regime of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in Tunisia. The group, formerly known as the Mouvement de La Tendance Islamiste (MTI), a pro-Islamic movement, has been the target of government-sanctioned police abuse for the past decade.
"We just learned that the important scholar and opponent of the Tunisian regime, Dr. Abdel Majid Najar, is being detained by French police close to the Swiss border," the French group's statement said, "and he is awaiting the results of his application for political asylum in France."
Born on May 28, 1945, Najar specializes in Islamic sciences. His activities with the MTI earned him a five-year prison sentence in September 1987 in Tunisia. At that time, many MTI members were beginning to be attacked by police - captured, imprisoned and often tortured.
Only five weeks later, Ben Ali organized a coup d'etat against the previous president, independence leader Habib Bourguiba.
But after the legislative and presidential elections in 1989, the regime, which is comprised of Ben Ali's military and police, declared war against the MTI, which soon became known as Ennahda.
Amnesty International says that Tunisia keeps several thousand political prisoners in jail; one former newspaper editor has served five years because he was found in possession of a cartoon put out by Ennahda, according to the ICL web site.
In January of 1991, Najar left Tunisia right before police were to hunt him down - he saved his own life by leaving at that time, the statement said. In May 1994, while he was residing in the United Arab Emirates, he went to the Tunisian consulate to renew his passport, but Tunisian authorities there immediately confiscated his passport.
Najar's family is in Morocco, but he cannot return there for fear of extradition back to Tunisia. An accord between Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco allows for each of the countries to extradite any individual who is wanted by either of the other two countries.
The French group's statement reminded French authorities of the case of another Tunisian, Haroun Mbarek, whose request for political asylum in Canada was denied. Mbarek was sent back to Tunisia, where he was immediately imprisoned in the holding cells of the interior ministry and subjected to torture.
"It's because of an international campaign on his behalf that he was saved and released," the statement said.
"That's why we are appealing to French authorities to grant [Najar] political asylum," it added. Najar is still a member of Ennahda and has met with their leaders abroad, but he hasn't been to his home country in over a decade.
"We are certain that if Dr. Najar goes back to Tunisia, or even to Morocco, where his family is, his life is going to be in danger," the statement continued.
"Because of the reasons above, we are asking that no decision… to send Dr. Najar to Tunisia or return him to Morocco [be made]… that he should be granted asylum in France and be able to stay there."
Ben Ali was re-elected with more than 99% of the vote in both 1994 and 1999, according to the ICL web site.
On Wednesday, August 1st, pro-government groups in Tunisia launched a campaign in support of Ben Ali running for a fourth term in 2004 - beyond his constitutional limit. Ben Ali himself changed the constitution when he came into power to set the limit at three five-year terms.
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