Tunisia: Who’s to Blame for the Murder of the Polish Priest? · Global Voices
Afef Abrougui

News of the murder of a Polish priest near the capital Tunis on February 18 was received with shock and grief by Tunisians. The Polish foreign ministry have said they are treating the murder as “an individual criminal case” without connection to the current state of affairs in Tunisia, but in Tunisian blogs and social media, many theories prevail of who could be responsible and what the motive would be.
The internal state of affairs in Tunisia is still fragile, since the popular uprising that led the fall of a longtime dictatorship. Demonstrations were called today in the capital city Tunis, in support of a secular, free and tolerant Tunisia.
Polish Priest Marek Rybinski was murdered on February 18, in Manouba, near the capital Tunis
Nour (@ZoneInterdite) tweets:
L'assassinat d'un père chrétien… pays de tolérance, c'est inacceptable!!
Mourad (@deepreal) adds:
toutes mes condoléances pour tous les chrétien de la Tunisie suite à l’assassinat du père Marek Rybinskisalésien
However, when it comes to who are responsible for this, Tunisians have taken different positions. Usually, with a crime like this, the first suspects are the Islamists.
On its Facebook page, the Interior Ministry condemned the murder and put the blame on “terrorist Fascists”:
Abdrabbah Yassine (@ayassinov) tweets:
Et voilà que les extrémistes font de la bonne pub pour le tourisme en #tunisie
Ahlem HachichaChaker (@Ahlem_Hachicha) is not happy either:
à kan 1 réaction officielle contre ces débiles d'intégristes? assassinat d'1 père chrétien à la Manouba hier!!!!
Others consider the murder a political game involving religion to demonize the Islamists and damage the image of the country in a post-Ben Ali era. Here, the former ruling party; the RCD ( Le Rassemblement constitutionnel démocratique) is at the centre of the accusations.
Abdallah Belakhoua (@Abdallah__B) tweets:
SCENARIO DEVOILE DES exRCD: CLASH DE CIVILISATIONS POUR COMPTER SUR L'EXTERIEUR ET LE BON VIEUX SLOGAN: ANTI TERRORISME
He adds:
An anti-Islamist (@ilyasTunis) goes even further to accuse Leila Ben Ali, the wife of the former Tunisian president of implication:
Jsuis contre les islamistes (Jsuis musulman) ms c vrai ke c facile de les impliquer. Je pence ke c les milices de Leila
Fadhel (@_fadhel) says:
les mots: integriste, islamiste, barbue. D mots de colons pour tt justifier (guerre:irak,afganistan..)
Nad tupac (@gasscheb) notes:
un prêtre égorgé, pkoi on accuse direct les islamistes? on a des preuves? ça pourrait pas un de ces milliers de prisonnier évadés?