Arab-spring

Salafists have been tugging the rope towards a theocratic government, whereas most political forces are tugging towards a 'civil state', which accepts the status quo with regards to the recognition of Islam in the Constitution and would replace the de facto military rule with a civilian one.

Sufi leaders, who tend to favour religious tolerance and generally abstain from politics, were alarmed after hundreds of thousands of Islamists organised mass protests around the country on 29 July to call for the establishment of an Islamic state in Egypt.

at least six million people - or one in every three young men - belong to one or another of the more than 40 Sufi orders

The idea of revolution has arrived, among the minority of youths with access to social media but also among the masses via the poor man’s Facebook: FM radio. And their geriatric presidents and prime ministers are nervous.

Do you see yourself mobilizing through a specific political party? HBA: Absolutely not. I say to these parties: where were you before the 14 of January? What were you doing? They just came up after the revolution. They're stealing it for their political interests. And I'm Muslim, but El-Nahda doesn't represent me. I'm against people who use religion to realize their political goals. Politics has a lot of dirty games. Religion needs to be away from these games. I'm very scared that Islam will be manipulated by El-Nahda. So, I'm not participating in elections in November. No one is convincing me. And I will not participate because I want to criticize all the mistakes of the people in power. If I vote, then I will not be able to criticize them. Right now my main political activity is working on a song about the Palestinian peace process. Many young men in Sfax want to rap now. So I'm working with my friends.

I'm normal Tunisian youth. But, you can tell the American people, I'm dangerous to governments. So if they need my service, I'm ready

Ghassan Michel Rubeiz, a social scientist and political commentator, is the former secretary of the Middle East for the Geneva-based World Council of Churches.

So far pundits and even lay commentators have rushed to sound warnings to Sub-Sahara African governments of the possibility of an Arab revolution-like events happening within their borders

The Arab Spring revolutions may have their moments of self-doubt or seem stalled at times, but they are authentic expressions for change and, to use an overused phrase, on the right side of history