An academic who has contributed extensively to studies about the Maltese community in Tunisia has refused to give in to requests made by extreme Islamists who besieged a Tunisian university holding students and staff hostage.

I arrived at the faculty at about 8 a.m., only to find out, to my shock, that the faculty had been invaded by foreigners wearing clothing that identified them as Salafists

Last Monday, a group of some 50 men wearing tribal clothing, identified as Salafists, blocked student access to some Manouba University departments, demanding segregated lessons and full-face veils for women.

However, the head of the Humanities and Literature Faculty, Habib Kazdaghli, put his foot down and did not give in to their requests.

When contacted, Prof. Kazdaghli said he had been held hostage in his office last Monday.

“I arrived at the faculty at about 8 a.m., only to find out, to my shock, that the ­faculty had been invaded by foreigners wearing clothing that identified them as Salafist, a religious extremist group.”

He said they were blocking access to the departments of the faculty, preventing students from joining the classes. Initially, he did not understand what was going on, and the group refused to discuss their requests, threatening anybody who got too close to the departments. They have since been stationed in the Dean’s office and around the administration buildings.

Things took a turn for the worse last Thursday, when administration staff members were “attacked violently by the extremists”.

Although earlier this month Islamists stormed a university in Sousse, Prof. Kazdaghli said the incident was not of the same magnitude, and did not last more than one day.

Tunisians last month elected a coalition government, led by the moderate Islamist Anahdha party, which insisted it would not impose strict Islamic rules.

Prof. Kazdaghli said the Salafists’ requests were illegitimate, “as they undermine the very premises of the pedagogic process at work in the academic institution.

“The uprisal of these groups presents a real cause for concern, more so if their practices are not clearly condemned by all political parties especially the party which has won the majority, Anahdha,” he added.

Dean Kasdeli has published several studies on the Maltese community of Tunisia, which he considers “part and parcel of the historical and cultural texture of Tunisia”.