Government official who triggered riots over ‘un-Islamic’ art is arrested

AL ARABIYA NEWS
By AFP

Mohamed Ben Slama's naked woman with bearded men standing behind her.
Image courtesy of Le Figaro

TUNISIA --- Tunisian authorities have detained the court officer who denounced an art exhibition as offensive to Islam last week and triggered a wave of riots by hardline Islamists, the official TAP news agency said. Mohamed Ali Bouaziz was arrested late Tuesday on charges of disrupting public order, the agency said, quoting a justice ministry official. He is accused of posting pictures of the paintings on Facebook and “breaching professional secrecy by declaring them an insult to Islam, triggering acts of vandalism and violence in several parts of the country.” [link]