Tunisian intellectuals support "No To Terrorism" petition

2009-01-06

A new petition calling for action against terrorism is receiving public attention in Tunisia, with many notable scholars and celebrities joining the ranks of signatories.

By Jamel Arfaoui for Magharebia in Tunis – 06/01/09

[File] An international petition condemning terrorism is winning the support of many secularists in Tunisia.

Scores of intellectuals from around the world are signing a petition to express their opposition to terrorism, launched in September by the International Alliance against Terrorism. Among the notable signatories are more than 200 politicians, writers, journalists, academics and artists.

Many in Tunisia, such as Samia Abidi, president of pro-secularism association AIME (D'ailleurs ou d'ici mais ensemble) and secularism advocate Salah Zghidi have signed the petition.

"We affirm that terrorism must be condemned," the petition reads. "Its condemnation must be clear and universal without any conditions. We affirm that attacks on civilians, hostage-takings and assassinations can't be considered acts of resistance."

The document echoes statements in the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy of 2006, which pledges that the organisation will "consistently, unequivocally and strongly condemn terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, committed by whomever, wherever and for whatever purposes, as it constitutes one of the most serious threats to international peace and security".

The International Alliance against Terrorism was formed on the sidelines of the International Anti-Terrorism Conference held in Paris on September 11th, 2007. It includes associations from Europe, the Americas and elsewhere. The alliance receives core support from French civil society organisations, including associations that defend immigrants' and women's rights.

"The aim behind the launch of the petition is to enable civil society to say 'no' to terrorism," said Huguette Chomski-Magnis, president of the France-based Movement for Peace and against Terrorism. "This is an expression that the global conscience rejects these acts anywhere and under any circumstances."

Chomski-Magnis told Magharebia: "We should not forget previous petitions, such as the petition by Arab intellectuals demanding that the United Nations try before international courts all those responsible for bombings, including those who issue fatwas calling for murder or those who justify suicide operations."

After securing as many signatures as possible, she continued, the petition will be sent to heads of state and to the Secretary-General of the United Nations. "Yet, we are still looking for a bigger and broader movement for the rejection of terrorism."

Salah Zghidi, co-ordinator of the Association for the Defence of Secularism in Tunisia, said he signed the petition because he was fully convinced that "terrorism carries and disseminates a culture of death, the death of the terrorist and his victim".

"This is a culture that I reject and resist with all the powers in my hands," he said.

Zghidi called suicide attacks acts of cowardice. The perpetrators often believe they are carrying out a social or political agenda, he said, but instead they are simply "carriers of death".

"We should be careful, however, because there are no terrorists who became terrorists out of nowhere; they are just the military arm of ideologues or leaders of political organisations that call for the establishment of theocracies and want to drag society backwards," he said. "These people are no less criminal than those who detonate the car bombs and kill people."

According to a May 2008 report, the number of victims of terrorist acts had dropped by 40%, due to a decrease in support of extremism in the Islamic world. Author Andrew Mack, Director of the Human Security Report Project at Simon Fraser University, asserted that the decrease stems from "people's anger over the targeting of citizens of the same faith by these terrorist groups".

In November 2007, Tunisia hosted an international conference on terrorism that stressed the importance of respecting international treaties on human rights. Most Maghreb states have enacted local anti-terrorism laws, but have been criticised by human rights organisations for eroding public and individual freedoms.