Tunisian Exceptionalism

A few days ago I took a trip south to the small poor Tunisian town of Sidi Bouzid where the revolution against Ben Ali began. While I was out, thousands of Salafists descended on Tunis, waved their black flag, demanded an Islamic state, and incited "war" against "the Jews." Roughly 1,500 Jews live in Tunisia. Most are in the capital and on the island of Djerba.

A Tunisian journalist I've been working with was appalled by these people. That doesn't surprise me. He's an educated liberal-minded...