Tunisian police stop hardline attack on TV station

Tunisian police on Sunday arrested dozens of Islamist demonstrators set on attacking the offices of a television channel that had shown the award-winning film "Persepolis," officials said. The assault is the latest in a rise in attacks against perceived symbols of secularism or insults to Islam by hardcore Muslims in Tunisia ahead of October's election. Interior Ministry spokesman Hichem Meddeb said police blocked the attackers before they could reach the offices of the Nessma private television channel in the center of Tunis and arrested 30 of them. The head of Nessma, Nabil Karoui, said on radio Mosaique FM that the attackers were angered by the channel's recent showing of "Persepolis," Marjane Satrapi's moving and humorous adaptation of her graphic novels about growing up during and after Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution. He said they consider it hostile to their religious convictions. The film won the jury prize at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival. Tunisians are set to hold landmark elections for a constitutional assembly in just two weeks after overthrowing their long-serving dictator in a popular uprising in January.