Free Republic

The rich heritage of Tunisia, maybe the only place where the Arab Spring stands a chance Modern-day Tunisians, more Westernized than most Arabs, see themselves as descendants of the great Carthaginian general who invaded Italy. The Arab Spring began in Sidi Bouzid, a small Tunisian town, at the end of 2010. In a desperate protest against the corrupt and oppressive government that had made it impossible for him to earn a living, food-cart vendor Mohamed Bouazizi stood before City Hall, doused himself with gasoline, and lit a match. His suicide seeded a revolutionary storm that swept the countryside and eventually...

Rabat, Morocco - Some years ago, a visitor to the Moroccan capital Rabat was unlikely to be reminded of the nation's Amazigh (Berber) component by other than touristic details such as water sellers in colourful costumes, with their brass cups and jangling bells. Today, however, researchers interested in the Amazigh people can visit the imposing building housing the Royal Institute of Amazigh Culture (IRCAM) in a sign that the authorities' traditional lack of interest is giving way to a more inclusive attitude. "Amazigh culture is part of the Moroccan national heritage," IRCAM director Ahmed Boukouss says in his large office...

The mountains of northern Algeria have long sheltered outlaws, but it's not just rugged terrain that draws Al-Qaeda to ravines and forests. The local Berber people's alienation from the Arab-dominated government of the OPEC member makes the steep slopes of Kabylie a congenial base for the toughest rebel force in north Africa. That reality means blind eyes are sometimes turned to the guerrilla outsiders' presence by a population that shares little of their religious fundamentalist ideology. Diplomats say the resulting denial of intelligence to the state poses a transnational security threat that extends from Kabylie, just 90 minutes' drive east...

BERIANE, Algeria (Reuters) - Hundreds of Algerian security forces were deployed in the town of Beriane on Sunday to try to end three nights of clashes between Arabs and minority Berbers, the worst urban unrest in the OPEC producer in months. Residents said two people, including a 67-year-old, man have been killed and dozens made homeless since the disturbances involving rival gangs of hooded young men broke out in this north Saharan town of about 35,000 on Thursday evening. "They burn our houses, steal and kill. The hatred has made them blind," Slimane Baaziz, 51, a member of the Mozabite...

Rabat - A Moroccan court Thursday banned an Amazigh party on the grounds that the law did not allow parties based on religion, language or ethnicity, judicial sources said Thursday. The court in Rabat confirmed the earlier decision of the Interior Ministry, which had refused to recognize the Democratic Amazigh Moroccan Party (PDAM), which had been established in July. None of the other parties showed solidarity towards the PDAM, largely because the party had championed the full normalization of Morocco's relations with Israel. The founder of the PDAM, Ahmed Dgharni, sparked a scandal in December by visiting Tel Aviv for...