What was so bad about it? I've heard quite the opposite from others who've been there. That while it is a Muslim country, it was incredibly open and safe for Jews and Christians. As well as being like Morroco, an incredibly Western Friendly country that was mostly developed and civilized. It is almost as large of a Euro tourist destination as Morroco, no?
I don't know about the tourist aspect of either place, so I can't comment toward that. Let me put it this way, though - there weren't a lot of people on our aircraft other than the band and there weren't a lot of people at the airport.
To be sure, I was never accosted or otherwise assaulted. But I cannot in clear conscience call Tunis "open and safe for Jews and Christians" only because I saw the looks that many of these people gave us. It wasn't a friendly atmosphere at all. The best I could call it would be "barely tolerated".
I'm going largely on the vibes I felt while I was there. They were negative and they were directed toward us. We were not made to feel welcome and we were not "embraced".
Now, since we were NOT tourists and NOT there to spend scads of money, that could very well be the reason why we were looked upon the way we were.
No, we were there to support the embassy. That's what we did. Then we got the hell out of there.