Tunisian Pledges a New Caliphate
http://www.investigativeproject.org/3290/tunisian-pledges-a-new-caliphate
Secular Tunisians are expressing concerns after a leader of the country’s Islamist Al-Nahda movement said Tunisia’s emerging government marks “the Sixth Righteous Caliphate.”
The fifth caliphate, an Islamic imperial governing system, was abolished by Turkish secular Kemal Ataturk in 1924. In a speech posted on YouTube Sunday, Hamadi Jbeli also pledged that “we shall set forth with God’s help to conquer Jerusalem, if Allah wills… From here is conquest with the help of Allah Almighty.”
Al-Nahda won 98 of 217 parliamentary seats in the nation’s first free elections and Jbeli may be its candidate for prime minister. The group’s electoral success won international praise as a “moderate” movement promoting a democratic form of political Islam. Headlines in mainstream media outlets like theNew York Times, Los Angeles Times, and CNN called Al-Nahda moderate.