Ennahda

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For moderate Islamist political party of Algeria Harakat al-Nahda al-Islamiyya, see Islamic Renaissance Movement.
Ennahda
LeaderRashid Al-Ghannushi and others
Secretary-GeneralHamadi Jebali
Founded1989
IdeologyIslamic democracy
Economic liberalism
Moderate Islamism[1][2][3]
Political positionCentre-right[citation needed]
International affiliationMuslim Brotherhood
ColoursDark blue, Light blue and Red
Website
http://www.nahdha.info

The Renaissance Party or Nahda (Arabic: النهضة Hizb al-Nahda, also Hizb Ennahda, Ennahdha; French: Parti de la Renaissance) is a moderate Islamist[1][2][3] opposition political party in Tunisia. On 1 March 2011, after the government of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali collapsed in the wake of the 2011 Tunisian revolution, Tunisia's interim government granted the group permission to form a political party.[4] Since then it has become the biggest and best organised party in Tunisia, so far outdistancing its more secular competitors as to create some polarization among the country's political class.[5]

First years

Originally known as Islamic Action, the party changed its name to Movement of the Islamic Tendency, and then in 1989 Hizb al-Nahda.[6] The party has been described as one of many parties/movements in Muslim states "that grew up alongside the Iranian revolution".[7] The group supported the 1979 takeover of the U.S. embassy in Tehran. "It was not an embassy, but a spy centre,"[8] Their influence in 1984 was such that according to a British journalist[who?] living in Tunisia, the Islamic Tendency was "the single most threatening opposition force in Tunis. One word from the fundamentalists will close down the campus or start a demonstration."[9] The group, or members of it, were also responsible for the bombing of some tourist hotels in the 1980s.[10]

Rashid Al-Ghannushi speaking on an Islamist rally around 1980.

Although traditionally shaped by the thinking of Sayyid Qutb and Maududi, the party began to be described as "moderate Islamist" in the 1980s when it advocated democracy and a "Tunisian" form of Islamism recognizing political pluralism and a "dialogue" with the West. Critics charge that one of their main leaders, named Rashid Al-Ghannushi, had a history of violence yet in courts he was accused by the ruling party of organizing a non authorized political party. Others say he supports any form multi-party democracy that offers a minimum of freedom for his party and followers.[citation needed]

In the 1989 elections, the party was banned from participating. However some members ran as independents, and received between 10% and 17% of the vote nationally according to official figures of the Ben Ali regime.[11] Two years later President Ben Ali turned against Ennahda, jailing 25,000 activists. Ennahda militants attacked the ruling party headquarters killing one person and splashing acid in the faces of several others.[10]

Al Nahda's newspaper Al-Fajr was banned in Tunisia and its editor, Hamadi Jebali, was sentenced to sixteen years imprisonment in 1992 for membership of the un-authorized organisation and for "aggression with the intention of changing the nature of the state". The Arabic language television station El Zeitouna is believed to be connected with Al Nahda. The party was strongly repressed in the late 1980s and early 1990s and almost completely absent from Tunisia from 1992 until the post-revolutionary period.[12] "Tens of thousands" of Islamists were imprisoned or exiled during this time.[5]

Tunisian revolution and legalisation

In the wake of the Tunisian Revolution, about 1,000 people welcomed Rachid Ghanouchi on his return to Tunis. The party has been described as moving "quickly to carve out a place" in the Tunisian political scene, "taking part in demonstrations and meeting with the prime minister."[13] Earlier Al-Ghannushi announced that the party had "signed a shared statement of principles with the other Tunisian opposition groups".[14] The New York Times reported mixed predictions among Tunisians for the party's success, with some believing the party would enjoy support in the inland part of Tunisia, but others saying Tunisia was too secular for the Renaissance Party to gain broad support.[14] On 22 January 2011, in an interview with Al Jazeera TV, Rashid Al-Ghannushi confirmed that he is against an Islamic Caliphate, and supports democracy instead, unlike Hizb ut-Tahrir, (whom Al-Ghannushi accuses of exporting a distorted understanding of Islam).[15]

The party was legalised on 1 March 2011.[16] A March 2011 opinion poll found the Renaissance Party ranked first among political parties in Tunisia with 29%, followed by the Progressive Democratic Party at 12.3% and the Ettajdid Movement at 7.1%.[17] It was also found that 61.4% of Tunisians "ignore political parties in the country."[17] This success has caused some secularists to endorse the postponing of elections, and "frightening many secularists and women who fear for their place in the new Tunisia."[5]

In May 2011 En Nahda's General Secretary Hamadi Jebali traveled to Washington, D.C. on the invitation of the Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy[18] He also met U.S. Senators John McCain and Joe Lieberman.[19]

Al-Nahda's leaders have been described as "highly sensitive to the fears among other Tunisians and in the West about Islamist movements", conscious of the bloody Algerian Civil War between Islamists and the government and the divisions in Palestine between Hamas and secularists.[5] On 18 May spokesman Samir Dilou stated again in an interview: "We do not want a theocracy. We want a democratic state, that is characterised by the idea of liberty. The people are to decide themselves how they live. ... We are not an Islamist party, we are an Islamic party, that also gets its bearings by the principles of the Koran." Moreover he named Turkey a model, regarding the relation of state and religion, and compared the party's Islamic democratic ideology to Christian democracy in Italy and Germany.[20] A foreign journalist attending Al-Nahda rallies in Tunisia noted enthusiasm for the Palestinian cause and the slogan "no to American military bases, no to foreign interventions."[5]

On a press conference in June 2011 the Renaissance Party presented itself as modern and democratic and introduced a female member who wore a headscarf and a member who didn't, and announced the launching of a youth wing. Süddeutsche Zeitung noted that, unlike leftist parties of Tunisia, the moderately Islamist party is not against a market economy.[21]

Ahead of the Constituent Assembly election on 23 October 2011, the party conducted a costly electoral campaign, extensively providing potential voters, especially from the lower class, with promotional gifts, meals for the end of Ramadan feasts, and sponsoring events.[22] Therefore, it has been accused of receiving considerable financial contributions from abroad, namely from the Arab states of the Gulf.[22]

Political positions

The party is generally described as socially centrist with mild support for economic liberalism. The party wishes to revise the strong secular, Arab nationalist, and socialist principles that predominate among the other parties, and instead allow Islam into public life and be more accommodating to other viewpoints such as closer relations with the West and greater economic freedom. The party currently rejects radical Islamism as a form of governance appropriate for Tunisia; in a debate with a secular opponent Al-Ghannushi stated, “Why are we put in the same place as a model that is far from our thought, like the Taliban or the Saudi model, while there are other successful Islamic models that are close to us, like the Turkish, the Malaysian and the Indonesian models; models that combine Islam and modernity?”[23]

Ennahda's leader Rachid Ghannouchi has denounced Sayyid Qutb, supported worker's rights and women's education and stated Sharia law has "no place in Tunisia."[10] Other sources question the sincerity of Ennahda. Ahmed Ibrahim of the Tunisian Pole Democratique Moderniste political bloc complained to a foreign journalist that Ennahda appears "soft" on television, "but in the mosques, it is completely different. Some of them are calling for jihad."[10] The general manager of Al Arabiya wrote an editorial expressing the opinion that Nahda is fundamentally a conservative Islamist party with a moderate leadership.[24]

Although the party has expressed support for women's rights and equality of civil rights between men and women, the party chose to place only two women at first position out of 33 regional lists for the Tunisian Constituent Assembly election, 2011. Al-Ghannushi noted that women have not held any de facto leadership positions under Ben Ali's governments and that it is a "reality" that only a few women are suited to leadership posts.[25]

The party, notably, is more moderate in urbanized areas such as Tunis, where secular and socially liberal beliefs predominate. Tunisia is one of the only Arab countries with a large secular community.[26]

References

  1. ^ a b Tunisia legalises Islamist group Ennahda, BBC News Online, 1 March 2011, retrieved 24 June 2011
  2. ^ a b Khalaf, Roula (27 Apr 2011), "Tunisian Islamists seek poll majority", Financial Times, FT.com, retrieved 24 June 2011
  3. ^ a b "Tunisian leader returns from exile", Al Jazeera English, 20 January 2011, retrieved 24 June 2011
  4. ^ "Tunisia's Islamists to form party". Al Jazeera English. 1 March 2011. Retrieved 1 March 2011.
  5. ^ a b c d e Tunisia's New al-Nahda Marc Lynch 29 June 2011
  6. ^ Columbia World Dictionary of Islamism, Olivier Roy and Antoine Sfeir, editors, 2007, p.354-5
  7. ^ Wright, Robin, Sacred Rage, Simon and Schuster, (2001), p.194
  8. ^ Wright, Robin, Sacred Rage, Simon and Schuster, (2001), p.194, The New York Times, 9 January 1984
  9. ^ Wright, Robin, Sacred Rage, Simon and Schuster, (2001), p.194. author interview 29 November 1984, (Author Wright did not identify the British journalist.)
  10. ^ a b c d In a Worried Corner of Tunis Joshua Hammer NYRoB 27 October 2011. Joshua Hammer. (text not available for free on internet)
  11. ^ Leveau, Rémy, ‘La Tunisie du Président Ben Ali: Equilibre interne et environnement arabe,’ Maghreb-Machrek No. 124 (1989), p10
  12. ^ future of al nahda in tunisia, carnegie endowment 20 April 2011
  13. ^ As Tunisians Cheer Egypt, Islamist Leader Returns, NPR, 30 January 2011
  14. ^ a b David Kirkpatrick; Kareem Fahim (18 January 2011). "More Officials Quit in Tunisia Amid Protests". The New York Times. Retrieved 19 January 2011.
  15. ^ Rashid Al-Ghannushi against Islamic Caliphate and against Hizb ut-Tahrir but supports democracy
  16. ^ http://www.zawya.com/story.cfm/sidZW20110301000110
  17. ^ a b http://www.ansamed.info/en/news/ME.XEF02959.html
  18. ^ "The Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy Holds a Discussion on "What Kind of Democracy for the New Tunisia: Islamic or Secular?"". BNET CBS Business Network. 9 May 2011. Retrieved 21 June 2011.
  19. ^ Washington ready to play soft Islam card, Maghreb Confidential, 26 May 2011, retrieved 21 June 2011
  20. ^ "We do not want a theocracy" (Wir wollen keinen Gottesstaat), Deutschlandradio Kultur (in German), 18 May 2011, retrieved 21 June 2011
  21. ^ Chimelli, Rudolph (4 June 2011), "Cosmopolitan Islamists (Weltoffene Islamisten)", Süddeutsche Zeitung (German), retrieved 21 June 2011
  22. ^ a b Kirkpatrick, David D. (22 October 2011). "Financing Questions Shadow Tunisian Vote, First of Arab Spring". The New York Times. Retrieved 23 October 2011.
  23. ^ From Arab Spring to post-Islamist summer thehindu.com 12 October 2011
  24. ^ http://www.alarabiya.net/views/2011/07/23/158916.html
  25. ^ Chrisafis, Angelique (20 October 2011). "Tunisia's women fear veil over Islamist intentions in first vote of Arab spring". The Guardian. Retrieved 22 October 2011.
  26. ^ http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/22/us-tunisia-election-idUSTRE79L28820111022

External links

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