View source for Ansar al-Sharia (Tunisia)

{{other uses|Ansar al-Sharia (disambiguation)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2023}} 
{{Infobox war faction
| name             = Ansar al-Sharia in Tunisia
| native_name      = 
| caption          = 
| active           = 2011–present
| war              = 
| designated_as_terror_group_by = {{flag|Tunisia}}<br>{{flag|Iraq}}<br>{{flag|United Arab Emirates}}<br>{{flag|United States}}<br>{{flag|United Kingdom}}<br>{{flag|United Nations}}
| image            = [[File:Ansar al-Sharia Tunisia Logo.jpg|250px]]
| ideology         = [[Islamism]]<br>[[Salafi jihadism]]<br>[[Islamic fundamentalism]]
| leaders          = [[Seifallah Ben Hassine|Abu Ayyad al-Tunisi]]{{KIA}}
| headquarters     = 
| area             = [[Tunisia]]
| size             = 10,000 (2013)<ref name="Tunisia's Ansar al-Sharia">{{cite web|url=http://mideast.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2013/03/08/meeting_tunisias_ansar_al_sharia|title=Meeting Tunisia's Ansar al-Sharia|publisher=Foreign Policy|date=8 March 2013|access-date=10 January 2014|archive-date=3 December 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131203113853/http://mideast.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2013/03/08/meeting_tunisias_ansar_al_sharia|url-status=dead}}</ref><br/>120–140 (2024)<ref>{{cite web |title=S/2024/92 |url=https://undocs.org/Home/Mobile?FinalSymbol=S%2F2024%2F92&Language=E&DeviceType=Desktop&LangRequested=False |website=UN |access-date=1 February 2024}}</ref><ref name="Tunisia's Ansar al-Sharia" />
| partof           = {{flagicon|Al-Qaeda}} [[Al-Qaeda]]<ref name="longwarjournal.org">{{Cite web|url=https://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2013/09/ansar_al_sharia_tuni_6.php|title = Ansar al Sharia responds to Tunisian government &#124; FDD's Long War Journal|date = 3 September 2013}}</ref>
| allies           = {{flagicon|Al-Qaeda}} [[Ansar al-Sharia (Libya)]]<br />{{flagicon|Al-Qaeda}} [[Ansar al-Sharia (Mali)]]
| international    = 
| website          = 
| status           = 
}}

'''Ansar al-Sharia in Tunisia''' ({{langx|ar|أنصار الشريعة في تونس|translit=Supporters of [[Sharia]] in [[Tunisia]]}})<ref>[http://www.eurasiareview.com/09102015-tunisian-salafism-the-rise-and-fall-of-ansar-al-sharia-analysis/ Eurasia Review: "Tunisian Salafism: The Rise And Fall Of Ansar Al-Sharia – Analysis" By Christine Petré] October 9, 2015</ref> is a [[Salafi jihadism|Salafi Jihadist]] group that operates in [[Tunisia]]. In 2013, the group was estimated to have roughly 10,000 members.<ref name="Tunisia's Ansar al-Sharia"/> It has been listed as a [[terrorist group]] by the Tunisian government,<ref>{{cite web|title=Tunisia declares Ansar al-Sharia a terrorist group|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-23853241|publisher=BBC News|date=27 August 2012|access-date=10 January 2014}}</ref> [[Iraq]], the [[United Nations]], the [[United Arab Emirates]], the [[United Kingdom]],<ref name="Home Office">{{cite web |url=https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/proscribed-terror-groups-or-organisations--2 |title=Proscribed terrorist groups or organisations |date=15 July 2016 |publisher=[[Home Office]] |format=PDF |access-date=27 September 2016}}</ref> and the [[United States]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.tunisia-live.net/2014/01/10/us-declares-ansar-al-sharia-a-terrorist-organization/|title=US Declares Ansar al-Sharia a Terrorist Organization|publisher=BBC News|date=10 January 2014|access-date=10 January 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140110205813/http://www.tunisia-live.net/2014/01/10/us-declares-ansar-al-sharia-a-terrorist-organization/|archive-date=2014-01-10|url-status=dead}}</ref> Some of its members may be linked to the [[2015 Sousse attacks]].<ref name=ajnad>[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/terrorism-in-the-uk/11707325/Tunisia-beach-massacre-gunmans-links-to-Britain.html telegraph.co.uk: "Tunisia attack: gunman's links to Britain"], 30 Jun 2015</ref> In 2013, the group declared allegiance to [[Al-Qaeda]].<ref name="longwarjournal.org"/>   

== Background ==
Following the [[Tunisian Revolution|Tunisian revolution]], many [[Islamist]] political prisoners held by the regime of President [[Zine El Abidine Ben Ali]] were released, including [[Seifallah Ben Hassine]], who had previously co-founded the [[Tunisian Combatant Group|Tunisian Combat Group]] with [[Tunisian Combatant Group|Tarek Maaroufi]] in June 2000.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.tunisia-live.net/2012/04/01/tarek-maaroufi-tunisia%E2%80%99s-most-notorious-jihadist-returns-home/ |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130222080100/http://www.tunisia-live.net/2012/04/01/tarek-maaroufi-tunisia%E2%80%99s-most-notorious-jihadist-returns-home/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=22 February 2013 |title=Tarek Maaroufi: Tunisia's Most Notorious Jihadist, Returns Home |publisher=Tunisia Live |date=1 April 2012 |access-date=10 January 2014 }}</ref>  

Abu Ayadh, aka ben Hassine, founded Ansar al-Sharia in late April 2011. The group quickly established a media branch, al-Qairawan Media Foundation, and developed different media outlets including a [[blog]], [[Facebook]] page, and a magazine.<ref name=WI>{{cite web|url=http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/the-salafi-challenge-to-tunisias-nascent-democracy|title=The Salafi Challenge to Tunisia's Nascent Democracy|publisher=Washington Institute|date=8 December 2011|access-date=10 January 2014}}</ref> Ansar al-Sharia held a national conference at [[Kairouan]] in 2012 in which Ben Hassine called for the [[Islamization]] of Tunisia's media, education, tourism and commercial sectors, and the establishment of an Islamic [[trade union]] to confront the secular [[Tunisian General Labour Union]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://in.reuters.com/article/tunisia-salafis-idINDEE84K03420120521|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305084631/http://in.reuters.com/article/tunisia-salafis-idINDEE84K03420120521|url-status=dead|archive-date=5 March 2016|title=Radical Islamists urge bigger role for Islam in Tunisia|publisher=Reuters|date=21 May 2012|access-date=10 January 2014}}</ref> The group also campaigned for the release of Islamist prisoners, such as [[Omar Abdel-Rahman]], [[Abu Qatada al-Filistini|Abu Qatada]] and Tunisians who had fought with [[al-Qaeda in Iraq]] and are held in Iraqi jails.<ref name=WI/> 

Members of Ansar al-Sharia have regularly taken part in protests in Tunisia against perceived [[blasphemy]] and have been suspected of involvement in a number of violent incidents. The Tunisian Interior Ministry accused the group of masterminding the 2013 wave of political assassinations in Tunisia.<ref>{{cite news|title=Tunisia: New Details in Opposition Assassination Point to Libyan Islamist|url=http://english.al-akhbar.com/node/17223|author=Noureddine Baltayeb|publisher=[[Al Akhbar (Egypt)|Al Akhbar]]|date=3 October 2013|access-date=10 January 2014}}</ref> Violent incidents attributed to members of the group include attacks on a television station that [[Persepolis (film)#Islamist attack on TV station in Tunisia|showed the movie Persepolis]] in October 2011, attacks on a controversial art exhibit in June 2012,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/13/world/africa/tunisia-conservative-islamists-riot-over-art-exhibit.html|title=Tunisia: Conservative Islamists Riot Over Art Exhibit|work=New York Times|date=12 June 2012|access-date=10 January 2014}}</ref> [[2012 diplomatic missions attacks|a deadly attack in September 2012 on the US embassy]] in Tunisia<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-protests-tunisia-school-idUSBRE88D18020120914|title=Two dead as protesters attack U.S. embassy in Tunisia|publisher=Reuters|date=14 September 2012|access-date=10 January 2014}}</ref> and the assassination of politicians [[Chokri Belaid]] (February 2013) and [[Mohamed Brahmi]] (July 2013).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2013/10/tunisia-leaders-evicted-from-police-memorial-20131018135840923875.html|title=Tunisia leaders evicted from police memorial|publisher=Al Jazeera English|date=18 October 2013|access-date=8 April 2015}}</ref>

The group was designated as a terrorist organisation by the Tunisian government in August 2013.<ref name=designation/> The group was damaged by the widespread arrests that followed this designation, and many of its members left Tunisia, traveling to Libya and joining the local [[Ansar al-Sharia (Libya)|Ansar al-Sharia]], or going to Syria and joining the [[Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant]].<ref name=ASLdecline>{{cite web|title=The Rise and Decline of Ansar al-Sharia in Libya|url=http://www.hudson.org/research/11197-the-rise-and-decline-of-ansar-al-sharia-in-libya|work=[[Hudson Institute]]|date=6 April 2015|access-date=8 April 2015}}</ref>

An interview conducted over the course of three different meetings between January and March 2013 with a young leader of Ansar al-Sharia based in [[Tunis]] describes the intellectual basis for the [[Salafist]] movement:<ref>[http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/11166/salafism-in-tunisia_an-interview-with-a-member-of- jadaliyya.com: "Salafism in Tunisia: An Interview with a Member of Ansar al-Sharia"], 11 Apr 2013</ref> 

{{blockquote|From the perspective of the development of our group’s theoretical framework/worldview, some of the most influential Salafi activists include: [[Abu Qatada al-Filistini|Abu Quttada al-Falestini]], [[Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi|Abu Mohammed al-Maqdassi]], [[Abu Basir al-Tartusi|Abu Basir Tartusi]], [[Hani al-Sibai|Hani Sabahi]], and [[Anwar al-Awlaki|al-Aulaki]]. [[Abu Qatada al-Filistini|Abu Kottada al-Falestini]] is probably the most influential among them--our brothers that were in Europe over the past years all flocked to listen to his lessons. It is not strange then that Abu Yadh [aka ben Hassine] himself or Abdallah al-Tunsi [aka ben Hassine?] went to him as well. Sheikh Hani Sabahi is also respected in our movement. We have a steady contact with him and he is very sympathetic to our experience.}}

Ben Hassine was reportedly killed in a US airstrike in Libya in June 2015.<ref>[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/tunisia/11715933/Senior-Tunisian-jihadist-and-Osama-bin-Laden-associate-killed-by-US-strike-in-Libya.html "Senior Tunisian jihadist and Osama bin Laden associate 'killed by US strike in Libya'"], 3 Jul 2015</ref> In March 2020, [[al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb]] leader [[Abdelmalek Droukdel]] announced Ben Hassine's death but did not say when he died.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.em.com.br/app/noticia/internacional/2020/03/03/interna_internacional,1125892/al-qaeda-confirma-morte-do-fundador-de-grupo-extremista-da-tunisia.shtml|title = Al Qaeda confirma morte do fundador de grupo extremista da Tunísia|date = 3 March 2020}}</ref>

==Criticism==

In its weekly newspaper al-Naba, in an article eulogizing Shaykh Abu Layla Kamal Zarruq al-Tunisi al-Qurashi, a Tunisian leader in the [[Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant]], the Islamic State severely criticized Ansar al-Sharia in Tunisia and its leader Abu Iyad, saying:  
<blockquote>The Ansar ash-Shari’ah organization, which was at the forefront, suffered from several problems, the most important being the misguidance of its leader, Abu ‘Iyad, and his promotion of [[Ayman al-Zawahiri]] ideas regarding their intention to make Tunisia an ’ard da’wah" (land of invitation) and not an "ard jihad" (land of waging jihad), which reassured the taghut so-called "post-Arab revolutions governments" that they would not fight them, instead asking them to give them room to simply "invite". It also suffered from Abu ‘Iyad’s ideas that were restricted to the country, focused on limiting the work to Tunisia, and based on his desire to lead the global jihad, despite his lack of experience and his weakness, which in turn led his organization in to the abyss when the new taghut revealed to them its new face.
Thus, those connected to him experienced the worst of torture, many of them being leaders of the organization, and only a few people survived this holocaust to which they were led by Abu ‘Iyad and his foolishness, frailty, and preferring his own opinions and those of his shaykh [[Abu Qatada al-Filistini|Abu Qatada al-Filastini]] and his "emir" Ayman adh-Dhawahiri. Those few who survived were they whom Allah guided to hijrah and jihad for the cause of Allah by opposing Abu Ayadh, who refused that the youth should emerge onto the battlefields of jihad, and specifically in Sham, wanting to keep them under his control, to use them in his failed projects and hand them over with his foolishness, to the [[taghut|tawaghit]].<ref>https://halummu.files.wordpress.com/2016/06/shaykh-kamal-zarruq-at-tunisi.pdf {{dead link|date=July 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref></blockquote>

==Foreign relations==

===Designation as a terrorist organization===
Countries and organizations below have officially listed the Ansar al-Sharia in Tunisia as a terrorist organization. 

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
|-
|Country/Organisation
|Date
|References
|-
||{{flagcountry|Tunisia}}
|August 2013
|<ref name=designation>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-23853241|title=Tunisia declares Ansar al-Sharia a terrorist group|work=BBC News|date=27 August 2013|access-date=20 May 2015}}</ref>
|-
||{{flagcountry|United States}}
|23 September 2014
|<ref>{{cite web|url=https://2009-2017.state.gov/j/ct/rls/other/des/123085.htm|title=Foreign Terrorist Organizations|work=U.S. Department of State|access-date=20 May 2015}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.police.govt.nz/sites/default/files/publications/designated-entities-26-11-2014.pdf|title=Designates Entities-26-11-2014}}</ref>
|-
||{{flagcountry|United Kingdom}}
|April 2014
|<ref name="Home Office" />
|-
||{{flagcountry|United Arab Emirates}}
|November 2014
|<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.wam.ae/en/news/emirates-international/1395272478814.html|title= UAE Cabinet approves list of designated terrorist organisations, groups|publisher= [[WAM (Emirates News Agency)|WAM]]|date= November 15, 2014|access-date= September 22, 2014|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20161224100916/http://www.wam.ae/en/news/emirates-international/1395272478814.html|archive-date= 2016-12-24|url-status= dead}}</ref>
|-
||{{flag|United Nations}}
|23 September 2014
|<ref>{{cite web|url= https://www.un.org/press/en/2014/sc11575.doc.htm|title= Security Council Al-Qaida Sanctions Committee Adds Fourteen Individuals and Two Entities to Its Sanctions List|publisher = [[United Nations]]|date= 23 September 2014|access-date= September 22, 2015}}</ref>
|-
|{{IRQ}}
|?
|<ref>[https://moj.gov.iq/upload/pdf/4580.pdf الموضوع] moj.gov.iq (in Arabic)</ref>
|}

==See also==

* [[List of terrorist incidents in Tunisia]]

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==Further reading==
* [[Daveed Gartenstein-Ross]], Bridget Moreng & Kathleen Soucy, [http://www.icct.nl/download/file/ICCT-Gartenstein-Ross-Moreng-Soucy-Raising-the-Stakes-ASTs-Shift-to-Jihad-Feb-2014.pdf ''Raising the Stakes: Ansar Al-Sharia in Tunisia's Shift to Jihad'' (International Centre for Counter-Terrorism - The Hague, 2014)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151210210914/http://www.icct.nl/download/file/ICCT-Gartenstein-Ross-Moreng-Soucy-Raising-the-Stakes-ASTs-Shift-to-Jihad-Feb-2014.pdf |date=10 December 2015 }}
* [[Daveed Gartenstein-Ross]],  [http://www.icct.nl/download/file/Gartenstein-Ross-Ansar-al-Sharia-Tunisia's-Long-Game-May-2013.pdf ''Ansar al-Sharia Tunisia's Long Game: Dawa, Hisba and Jihad'' (International Centre for Counter-Terrorism - The Hague, 2013)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924032518/http://www.icct.nl/download/file/Gartenstein-Ross-Ansar-al-Sharia-Tunisia%27s-Long-Game-May-2013.pdf |date=24 September 2015 }}

{{Militant Islamism in the Middle East}}

[[Category:Rebel groups in Tunisia]]
[[Category:Organizations based in Africa designated as terrorist]]
[[Category:Jihadist groups]]
[[Category:Salafi Jihadist groups]]
[[Category:Qutbist organisations]]
[[Category:Islamism in Tunisia]]
[[Category:Islamist groups]]
[[Category:Organizations designated as terrorist by Iraq]]
[[Category:Organisations designated as terrorist by the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Organizations designated as terrorist by the United States]]