TUNISIA: DEATH SENTENCE IN SUFI SHRINE KILLING

the leader of a group of Takfiri Salafists was sentenced to death for his part in the killing of a guard at a Sufi shrine. Others within the group received sentences varying from life imprisonment to five years for their part in the murder.
The unnamed victim had been on duty at the Sufi, Zaouia Sidi Abdelkader shrine at Menzel Bouzelfa in February 2015 when the group of 13 hooded men approached and stabbed him to death.
Sufism is sometimes regarded as the mystical dimension of Islam, cantering upon the internal spirituality of the individual. Given its strong focus upon the internal, as well as the building of shrines to prominent Sufists, conservative and radical preachers tend to claim the sect is heretical and opposed to the fundamental teachings of the Qu’ran.