The only Islamist Jew in the Tunisian village

MORE OBSERVERS than usual will be watching May’s local election in Tunisia because, for the first time, there will be a Jewish candidate running for office.

Simon Slama and his family are the only Jews left in Monastir, south of the capital Tunis, even though the city was once home to a thriving community.

But 56-year-old Mr Slama — who owns a sewing machine repair shop in the town — is reported to have caused a sensation in Tunisia by running for office as a candidate of the Ennahda Movement, the country’s main Islamist party.

“I chose Ennahdha because I found that because of the crisis the country is going through, everyone is turning toward this party,” he told AP in his workshop.

“I see no difference between the Islamic and Judaic religions. We are all one family and we are all Tunisian citizens and we should go hand in hand to build the Tunisia of tomorrow,” he said.

There are an estimated 1,500 Jews living in Tunisia today with a significant number concentrated on the southern island of Djerba, near the border with Libya.

Most members of the community have moved to France but Mr Slama — who studied in Strasbourg — said he and his family returned because “we love the city and it has the spirit of my ancestors”.

Ennahdha was initially successful after President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was toppled in a 2011 revolution that unleashed uprisings across the Arab world, but it had to abandon power two years later following a spate of political assassinations and rising Islamic fundamentalism.

Its members have since voted to transform the party into a more secular operation by separating religion from its political ideology.

Mr Slamla’s candidacy thus “conforms with the positions of Ennahdha, which is a civilian party that opted during its last congress to separate its political action from ideological action,” local leader Adel Messaoud said.

Party leaders say they want to use May’s local polls — in which 57,000 candidates will compete for more than 7,000 council seats across the country — to generate momentum for national elections next year to choose a new parliament and president.

But critics say Mr Slama’s nomination is little more than a stunt in Monastir, where Ennahdha is not considered electorally strong.

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