Students clash with Salafist Muslims in Tunisia over Harlem Shake
Salafists brand Harlem Shake indecent and try to stop young fans from filming their version
Salafist Muslims in socially divided Tunisia tried to prevent the filming of a Harlem Shake at a school yesterday but were driven off after coming to blows with students.
At another school, south of the capital, the principal called police to stop a filming there, the interior ministry said. Students reacted by hurling stones at the police, who responded with tear gas.
When about a dozen ultra-conservative Muslims, some of them women in veils, showed up at the Bourguiba Language Institute in the El Khadra neighbourhood of Tunis, a Salafist bastion, students shouted, "Get out, get out!"
Our brothers in Palestine are being killed by Israelis, and you are dancing
One of the Salafists yelled back: "Our brothers in Palestine are being killed by Israelis, and you are dancing," while saying he wanted to make the students understand the difference in Islam between behaviour that is "haram" (prohibited) and "halal" (permitted).
Another, bearded and wearing military gear, carried a petrol bomb, which he did not use.
The Salafists eventually withdrew, and the students were able to film their production.
A number of social media sites belonging to Salafists and other Islamist groups have denounced the Harlem Shake as indecent.
In Sousse, 120 kilometres south of Tunis, students tried to stage a Harlem Shake but their principal called the police, interior ministry spokesman Khaled Tarrouche said.