Saudi media is reporting that the Tunisian Parliament has rejected a draft law blacklisting the Muslim Brotherhood. According to the Saudi owned daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat:
Tunisia’s parliament bureau has rejected a draft-law submitted by the opposition Free Destourian Party (PDL) to blacklist the Muslim Brotherhood…PDL is a staunch critic of political Islam and Islamist organizations. Its head, Abir Moussi, accuses Ennahda movement of having solid ties with the Muslim Brotherhood despite its denial.
The Ennahda Party of Tunisia is headed by Global Muslim Brotherhood leader Rachid Ghannouchi (many spelling variations) who was elected speaker of the Tunisian parliament on November 13, 2019. In May 2016, Ennahda claimed it has separated itself from any association with political Islam after being considered “moderate” Islamists for 30 years.
Rachid Ghannouchi can best be described as an independent Islamist power center who is strongly tied to the Global Muslim Brotherhood. Ghannouchi was a member of the European Council for Fatwa and Research (ECFR) and served as the Assistant Secretary-General of the International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS), both organizations previously led by Global Muslim Brotherhood Youssef Qaradawi. In 2009, an Egyptian news report referred to Ghannouchi as a leader of the MB “abroad.” Ghannouchi is also one of the founding members of the World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY), a Saudi organization closely linked to the Muslim Brotherhood and that was historically dedicated to the propagation of “Wahabist” Islam throughout the world.
Despite frequent descriptions of Ghannouchi as a moderate, a report by the GMBRC notes that in 2011, shortly after Ennahda gained power in Tunis after the ‘Arab Spring’ revolution, Ghannouchi opened a conference in Tunis sponsored by the Global Anti-Aggression Campaign (GAAC), a Salafi-led international umbrella organization that brings under its wings Salafi, Salafi-Jihadi, Global Muslim Brotherhood, and Hamas leaders. The report also reveals that at least seven leading GAAC figures and/or their organizations have been designated as terrorists by the United States, the EU, and/or the United Nations for their support of Al-Qaeda and related groups – with some of these leaders known to have been close to Osama Bin Laden himself.
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