Tunisian Ennahda Leader Urges Young People To “Join Jihad” In Palestine

Arabic language media is reporting that Tunisian Muslim Brotherhood leader Rachid Ghannouchi has called for young people to realize that “Jihad belongs in Palestine.” IslamToday has posted Mr. Ghannouchi’s remarks on the subject taken from his Facebook page. According to the article, over the past week, Tunisian army and police have been tracking down jihadists in the Mount Chaambi border area with Algeria. On Monday Mr. Ghannouchi urged young people not to join the ranks of the jihadists, stating that “there is no jihad against a Muslim army, therefore whoever wants jihads should realize it belongs in Palestine and not in Tunis.” In 2011, Mr. Ghannouchi gave anArabic-language interview in which he predicts the end of Israel, a viewpoint which is not surprising given that he has had a long history of ties to Palestinian extremism and calls for terrorism.

Rachid Ghannouchi (many spelling variations) is the head of the Tunisian Ennahda Party, essentially the Muslim Brotherhood in Tunisia. Mr. Ghannouchi has been a member of the European Council for Fatwa and Research (ECFR) and is currently and Assistant Secretary-General of the International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS), both organizations led by Global Muslim BrotherhoodYoussef 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 dedicated to the propagation of “Wahabist” Islam throughout the world. Ghannouchi is known for his thinking on the issue of Islam and citizenship rights. In January 2011, Ghannouchi returned to Tunisia after a long exile in the U.K and two weeks after the Tunisian leader Zine El Abidine Ben was forced from power in the events which triggered the “Arab Spring.”