On March 18, two gunmen stormed the Bardo National Museum, taking 10 hostages and killing nine people. The death count would climb to more than 20 after security forces retook the building four hours later. Most of the casualties were European tourists. Both gunmen died in the assault, and the next day the Tunisian government announced it had arrested nine people suspected of helping the terrorists. Authorities have not said who they believe is behind the attack, though the Islamic State — which, although based in Iraq and Syria, has affiliates in neighboring Libya — has claimed responsibility.
The attack came at a particularly unstable time in Tunisia’s recent history. While the country is the only success story to come out of the Arab Spring, its democratic institutions are fragile. It had its first free election in recent memory last year, and the relaxed restrictions on freedom of speech that accompanied the transition to representative government have given radical Islamists a more prominent stage — indeed, Tunisia has proven to be one of the most fertile grounds for ISIS recruiters. The shooting also seems to have been calculated to hit one of the Tunisian government’s vulnerabilities. Tourism has become a vital industry for Tunisia, and Tunis is a major stop for European cruise liners. In the wake of the attacks, two major cruise lines have halted all service to Tunisia until further notice — dealing an immediate economic blow, and giving the government an incentive to react with more force than necessary.
So far, several prominent Tunisian politicians have urged restraint. This is encouraging, and Prime Minister Habib Essid should follow their lead. Tunisia is sandwiched between Libya, which is rapidly unraveling into civil war, and Algeria, which is struggling with an upsurge of the terror group Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. This is all the more reason that a stable, democratic Tunisia is of vital importance. It’s also worth noting how a Tunisian government crackdown would look to the ISIS terrorists who supposedly masterminded the museum attack. The Islamic State believes that democracy is an illegitimate form of government because elected leaders implement their own laws as opposed to ones handed down from Allah. If Tunisia can’t weather one attack without slipping back into authoritarian rule, it would only seem to support ISIS’s thesis and attract more fighters to its cause.
The Tunisian government must track down everyone involved in this heinous attack — and the West should provide assistance if the local authorities request it. But the attack shouldn’t become an excuse for the government to crack down on some of the inconvenient freedoms that come with the democratic process. Doing that would hand ISIS a far bigger victory than the museum assault gave them.
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