Linguistic Purism by Tunisian Islamist Party Underscores Tensions with the West

Edit: Tunisia's Islamist party's preoccupation with the linguistic purity of its Arab has caused some to suggest that Tunisia's new rulers are out of touch with the present realities facing Tunisia.

These types of programs underscore the continuing tension between the Cosmopolitan and Liberal agendas of the modern West and the growing fervor of Revolutionary Islamism.

The story was covered by SlateAfrique and here's a google translation:

We are Arabs and our language is Arabic. It became French and Arabic which is the language of pollution" said Rached Ghannouchi, leader of the religious party.

Update November 15: France congratulated the Islamist party Ennahda for his victory in Tunisia, following the publication of the final official results of the elections of October 23, said today the spokesman of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Bernard Valero.

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Update November 14: The final official results of the first free elections of 23 October in Tunisia have been published so far. The Islamist party Ennahda leads with 89 seats out of 217 of the Constituent Assembly, followed by the left-wing nationalist CRP (Congress for the Republic) with 29 seats, and the movement of billionaire Hechmi Haamdi "People's Petition," 26 elected officials. The participation rate was 54.1%, or 4 million voters in an electorate estimated at 7.5 million. The Constituent Assembly will meet for the first time on November 22 in the premises of the old Parliament in Tunis.

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Very cautious, if not too reassuring about his intentions regarding a challenge to the current lifestyle of Tunisians, and especially of Tunisian, the party Ennahdha nevertheless set the tone for a French language taught from During the primary, which he criticized the omnipresence .

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