Rached ghannouchi, head of the moderate islamist ennahda party, casts his vote at a polling station for the municipal election in tunis, tunisia, may 6, 2018. Ennahda has moved beyond its origins as an islamist party and has fully embraced a new identity as a. For many, the subsequent headline secularist party. Political transition in tunisia federation of american. Democratic transition in the muslim world captures part of the story, as it puts too much emphasis on ennahda s positive attitudes and leaves little analysis or space to its secular foes. Arab democracy depends on normalizing islamist parties. In three weeks, the ennahdaled government is to hand over power to an independent caretaker government. Political islam in tunisia uncovers the secret history of tunisias main islamist movement, ennahda, from its origins in the 1960s to the present. Alfred stepans democratic transition in the muslim. Businessman mehdi jomaa will replace larayedh as a caretaker prime minister. Despite this, after the 2011 revolution, there is still the tendency among a range of analysts to consider ennahda as simply the tunisian branch of the muslim brotherhood.
Tunisian leader steps aside, setting path to new elections. Ennahda s relatively liberal political stance and commitment to pluralism have raised hopes among some western observers that it will provide the arab world with a strong example of an islamist party that is committed to democracy and human rights. In addition to placing the movement at the heart of tunisias democratic transition, anne wolfs study of ennahda the countrys muslim democrat party has. Tunisias postrevolutionary politics are being profoundly shaped by the meteoric rise of the longbanned islamist movement alnahda.
The ennahda party, which has suffered over decades didnt call for revenge. Are rached ghannouchi and his ennahda party in tunisia true democrats or merely tactical ones. The first muslim democrat party, a phrase which represents ennahdhas commitment to a democratic tunisia and its use of islam as a reference point for its politics. Ennahda has played a major role in the countrys transition and now will now piece together a ruling coalition that must address a deeply disaffected citizenry, a withering social contract and a lackluster economy. Tunisias democratic transition benefits the world, party leader says tunisia is often considered democracys success story in the middle east. Instead, they are demanding accountability and transitional justice. Tunisias democratic transition benefits the world, party. Mccarthy is the author of a book about tunisias ennahda party oct.
Ennahda is a religiously rooted party with origins in the ikhwaninspired sahwa, or spiritual revivalism that swept the mena region during the 1970s. Although opponents are now calling for the exclusion of ennahda, he said the party has not done so of others. Ennahdas figurehead is rachid ghannouchi, one of a group of intellectuals who founded the party in 1981. From political islam to muslim democracy foreign affairs. Ennahda was first democratically elected islamist party to hand over power after the arab uprisings, which was also launched in tunisia in december 2010. The glaring exception is the case of the ennahda party in tunisia.
Ennahdas options in post sheikhs agreement phase al. Ennahda shaped this uneven process of democratization and in turn has been shaped by it. How tunisias ennahda party turned from its islamist roots. The powerful islamist party ennahda is a top favorite. Ennahdas role in tunisias transition proves that there is no contradiction between islam and democracy, ghannouchi emphasized. Ennahda president ghannouchi praises tunisias transition. Since then, tunisia has taken key steps toward democracy. The islamists is a book and website on the origins, evolution, and positions of. What makes these events even more puzzling is that the driving democratizing force was tunisias most prominent islamist party, ennahda. Tunisias ennahda party, the first islamist movement to secure power after the 2011 arab spring revolts, has conceded defeat in elections that are expected to make its main secular rival the strongest force in parliament. Ennahdas shifting role in tunisias transition wilson. The islamist party has acted democratically and has stood at the forefront of the fight for freedom and equality in tunisia, he said. Banned until the popular uprisings of 201011 and the overthrow of ben alis dictatorship, ennahda has until now been impossible to investigate. Since the assassination of chokri belaid, tunisia is living the most difficult stage of its revolutionary transition.
Wolf spent four years and conducted 400 interviews trying to answer that question. Decades of fierce repression during the regime of former. The last of a series of troika governments led by the movement had to resign in january 2014 and give way to a government of technocrats. It is slightly unbalanced for a book claiming to cover democratisation in the entire islamic world, as tunisia and egypt receive most of the attention. Eight years later ennahda came second to the ruling party. Campaigning in tunisia is set to get underway for elections later in the month. Overall, ennahda party, by far the largest, most popular, and most wellorganized party in tunisia, is entering its eighth democratic year exhausted by the plethora of distortion and obstruction campaigns mounted against it since it won the first transparent and democratic elections in tunisias modern history back in 2011. A selfstyled, secular, modernist party called nidaa tounes won against the islamist ennahda party in the tunisian election this week. Tunisia, a model in arab uprisings, scrambles to get back. The book is also slightly biased towards ennahda, credited with most of tunisias success. Leader of ennahda party to stand for parliamentary. Ghannouchi is at the liberal end of the ennahda spectrum, and the party s rank and file. A few years down the line, however, the impact they have on democratic politics in the region appears to be quite limited.
Ennahdas shifting role in tunisias transition wilson center. Egypt and libya have been mired in constant violence and political turmoil since their uprisings, but tunisias transition was relatively smooth until yesterdays shooting of an opposition leader. This has led to a misinterpretation of the path the party has taken since 2011. Ennahda party leader ghannouchi to stand for tunisian parliament the 78yearolds candidacy reinforces speculation that he is looking to play a crucial role in tunisias politics. Ennahda has moved beyond its origins as an islamist party and has fully embraced a new identity as a party of muslim democrats. Tunisias islamists and the turkish model journal of. However, the 2016 decision to redirect exclusively toward electoral politics, though approved by most delegates to the party. She declines to give a definitive judgment but hints that the commitment to democracy may be more opportunistic than doctrinal. The last section rethinks how we label a party like ennahda, and asks whether muslim democrat might be a more accurate description of the party s. The term was adopted formally in may 2016, at the same time the party ceased conducting religious activities to allow its leadership to focus on its role as a political party. Anne wolf political islam in tunisia uncovers the secret history of tunisias main islamist movement, ennahda, from its origins in the 1960s to the present.
How tunisias ennahda found its path between islam and. Ennahda, one of the most influential political parties in the arab world and a major force in tunisias emergence as a democracy, recently announced a historic transition. Try searching on jstor for other items related to this book. Ennahda s leadership insisted that tunisias transition to democracy, along with the complex domestic and regional political environments, required the party to adapt. Authoritarian regimes in the middle east and north africa mena region have historically excluded islamist parties from the political process, making it difficult to assess assumptions about how they would behave in power, let alone about their potential to stimulate and steward a democratic transition. It has managed to survive as an active political movement thanks to its lifelong leader, rached ghannouchi. Essebsis nidaa tounes party won the 2014 elections, but this year 20 of his partys politicians resigned amid internal disputes, and ennahda now has a majority in parliament. My political party, ennahdaone of the most influential in the arab world and a. After the revolution, tunisias ennahda managed to transition from decades of opposition to secular autocracy, finding the middle ground. Ennahdas ghannouchi to stand for national elections in.
Abstract at its tenth national congress, the ennahda movement declared that they would separate politics from preaching and to transform itself into a national democratic party. The movement has changed from a religious opposition movement that once staged months of mass. Tunisias struggle for political pluralism after ennahda. Islamist party in tunisia to step down the new york times.
Others, however, worry that ennahda is not as moderate as it claims to be, and. He was for it, and now he is against it, and hes doing this she flipped through a book. Is ennahda heralding the future of muslim democracy and. Rached ghannouchi, the influential leader of tunisias moderate ennahda party, will stand in the next parliamentary elections in october, a move widely seen as an attempt to seek a. Tunis tunisias governing islamist party, ennahda, thrust into power by the arab spring, has agreed to step down after months of political wrangling with a hardbargaining opposition.
The ennahda is a political party based on islamic values resembling the christian democratic political parties in europe. Tunisias ennahda party to not allow the return of single. Rached ghannouchi, head of the ennahda party, casts his vote at a polling station for the municipal election in tunis, tunisia, may 6, 2018. Mouvement ennahdh a, also known as renaissance part y or simply ennahd a, is a selfdefined muslim democratic political part y in tunisi a. Ennahda party leader ghannouchi to stand for tunisian. Transformation of the ennahda movement from islamic jama. Anne wolfs book, political islam in tunisia, offers a comprehensive overview of the history of ennahda, examining not only the origins and evolution of this islamist party but also the way the country has dealt with the highly contentious issue of what role religion should play in politics. In 2012 he received the chatham house prize for the successful compromises each achieved during tunisias democratic transition and in 2016 he received the jamnalal. The tunisian election result isnt simply a victory for. Wolfs book provides a comprehensive account of the evolution of ennahda, by disentangling the complex process of transformation from movement to party, that began in the 1960s as a diffuse sociocultural trend, into one of the countrys most influential political actors. In tunisia, the ennahda movement, which advocated compromise in the countrys transition to democracy, could not escape the secularist pressures either.
781 276 835 167 1411 761 387 1416 971 809 1139 1330 1061 1134 357 1128 867 10 1113 1479 693 728 1292 477 139 950 1109 20 433 275 1322 656 505 408 235 806 1003 206 294 945 76