A mob attacked the home of a Tunisian television stationowner with firebombs on Friday, following protests against a film his channelaired.
The channel Nessma reported that around 100 people attackedthe home of station owner Nabil Karoui at night, hurling firebombs and forcinghis wife and children to flee out the back.
Karoui, who has apologized for airing the movie"Persepolis," which religious conservatives deem blasphemous, was notat home at the time.
Earlier in the day, Tunisian police used tear gas todisperse thousands in the capital protesting against the film following weeklyprayers.
The demonstrations and home assault represent an escalationsin tensions liberals and religious conservatives ahead Tunisia's landmark Oct.23 election for a constitutional body that will determine the future of thisNorth African nation that overthrew its longtime dictator in January.
Worshippers poured out of al-Fatah mosque in downtown Tunisin the afternoon and began protesting after the imam preached against"Persepolis," calling it a "serious attack on the religiousbeliefs of Muslims."
Marjane Satrapi's award-winning adaptation of her graphicnovels about growing up during Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution contains a sceneshowing a character representing God. Depictions of God are consideredsacrilege in Islam.
The film won the jury prize at the 2007 Cannes FilmFestival.
The preacher in Tunis questioned the timing of the broadcastby a private TV station during such a sensitive period before the election,describing it as an attempt to divide Tunisians at a time when national unitywas needed.
Police stopped the marchers with tear gas Friday as theyheaded toward the Nessma TV station.
Karoui has since apologized for airing the film earlier thisweek, calling it a "mistake."
There have been other protests against the TV station in thecities of Sousse, Monastir, Sidi Bouzid and Beja. Police arrested 50demonstrators in Tunis on Sunday after they tried to attack the station.
There have been a rise in attacks against perceived symbolsof secularism by hardcore Muslims in Tunisia ahead of the elections. Oncesuppressed by the former regime, conservative Muslims are increasingly makingthemselves heard in the country's politics.
Since the government was overthrown in January, Tunisia hasbeen filled with unrest and demonstrations as well as the rise of a newultraconservative group of Muslims that had kept a low profile under thelargely secular regime of former President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
Salafists, as the conservatives are known, attacked a movietheater in June that was showing a film they deemed insulting to Islam and lastweek there were attacks on university that refused to enroll a student wearingthe conservative Islamic face veil.
The front-runner in the election is expected to be theEnnahda Party, a moderate Islamist movement that had been severely repressedunder the previous regime.