Tunisian minister sacked for anti-Saudi remarks

Tunisia’s prime minister sacked the minister of religious affairs today after he accused Saudi Arabia of exporting a brand of Islam that he claimed was behind “terrorism and extremism.”

“Prime Minister Youssef Chahed decided to dismiss Abdeljalil Ben Salem, minister of religious affairs, from his duties due to the lack of respect for government work and his statements that touched principles of Tunisian diplomacy,” the premier’s office said in a statement.

Tunisian media quoted Salem yesterday as saying in parliament: “I told the Saudi ambassador in Tunisia that terrorism and extremism historically came from you…You should reform your school [of thought].”

Tunisia, one of the Arab world’s most secular countries, has turned to Western and Gulf allies for financing since its 2011 uprising ousted autocrat Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali, who fled into exile in Saudi Arabia.

The North African state has become a major source of recruits for extremist organisations fighting in Iraq, Syria and neighbouring Libya. More than 3,000 Tunisians are believed to be involved in unregulated combat overseas, and some critics say foreign recruiters are partly to blame.

Saudi officials reject criticism that their country’s austere school of Islam fuels extremism. They point to the country’s detention of thousands of suspected militants and intelligence-sharing with allies.

Saudi Arabia itself has been a victim of extremist groups conducting acts of terror on Saudi soil, killing civilians and security personnel. In a high profile bombing last summer, a man blew himself up near the Prophet’s Mosque in the city of Medina, Islam’s second holiest site after Makkah.