PARIS/TUNIS: A noted Tunisian Islamic thinker urged the world’s Muslims Monday to reject extremism and restore the true nature of Islam.

Rachid Ghanouchi, a founder of Tunisia’s once-banned Ennahdha, or Renaissance, party, gave the closing speech at an annual Muslim gathering outside Paris in his first visit to France in more than two decades.
Extremism takes root in injustice, but must be fought, he said.

“Today, Islam is associated with violence, terrorism … with refusing religious and political diversity, [being] against women’s rights. Today, it is presented as a plague,” Ghanouchi said.
But, he insisted, extremism “isn’t a legitimate child of Islam … Our challenge is to respond to restore the image of Islam.”

He spoke in Arabic through a translator to a crowd of several thousand at the annual meeting of the Union of Islamic Organizations of France, which brings together Muslim fundamentalist associations.
Ghanouchi’s Ennahdha party was branded a terrorist group by Tunisia’s autocratic leader Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali who was toppled in an uprising and fled to Saudi Arabia on Jan. 14.

Ghanouchi, 69, himself spent two decades in exile in London after being convicted twice of terrorism-related offenses. Today, scholars consider him a moderate.
He was the star speaker at the four-day gathering and his speech drew cheers from a crowd that feels unfairly targeted by French authorities enforcing the nation’s secular foundations, including the recent ban on veils. Only a tiny minority of Muslims wear them, and few were seen at Monday’s meeting.

Ennahdha, legalized on March 1, is now among more than 50 political parties formed since Ben Ali fled.
Ghanouchi said the Tunisian revolution, which has sparked uprisings in the Arab world, succeeded because values were shared by an entire population, underscoring the importance of social cohesion. The same case applies to Egypt, which ousted President Hosni Mubarak, he said.

On the other hand, “One cannot imagine that an entire people or nation” follows extremist thought, he said, adding that Islam “insists on balance” and “finding the middle path.”
There are abiding concerns that Islamists in Tunisia could undo women’s rights in the North African country or impose a strict Islamic code. However, Ghanouchi insisted that “Islam marries well with democracy” and respect for equality between men and women.

Meanwhile, the Tunisian League for Human Rights (LTDH) denounced Monday “repeated assaults, questioning of religious beliefs and opinions of individuals and groups by adopting a religious discourse,” state news agency TAP reported.
The LTDH called on authorities to “put an end to torture, arbitrary arrests and violation of criminal proceedings,” and emphasized the need to “respect the physical integrity and ensure fair trials.”

Referring to arrests during peaceful protests, the LTDH warned against “the continuous physical assaults committed by security forces” and the “arbitrary arrests” of some people accused of attacking public and private property.
“It is necessary to stop the aggressions that hinder the establishment of a democratic system respecting fundamental human rights and the rule of law and institutions,” the LTDH added.

The Organization for the Defense of Human Rights criticized the use of mosques for “political ends, rather than places of prayer,” TAP reported.
In another development, thousands of Tunisians demonstrated Sunday in the capital Tunis calling to overthrow the government of interim Prime Minister Beji Caid Essebsi.