Moderates or

Manipulators?
Tunisia’s Ennahda Islamists
By Oren Kessler
Moderates or Manipulators? Tunisia’s Ennahda Islamists

2
Moderates or Manipulators? Tunisia’s Ennahda Islamists

Moderates or
Manipulators?
Tunisia’s Ennahda Islamists

By Oren Kessler

www.henryjacksonsociety.org

This paper is written in the author’s personal capacity and the views expressed are his alone.

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Moderates or Manipulators? Tunisia’s Ennahda Islamists

About the Author

Oren Kessler is a nonresident associate research fellow at the Henry Jackson Society. A Tel Aviv-based journalist,
he was formerly Middle East affairs correspondent for The Jerusalem Post and an editor at Haaretz English
Edition. Kessler’s articles have appeared in publications including Foreign Policy, the Forward, Middle East
Quarterly, the Journal of International Security Affairs and The Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs.

4
Moderates or Manipulators? Tunisia’s Ennahda Islamists

Contents
Executive summary 6

Introduction 8

An Arab anomaly 10

Revolution and “Renaissance” 11

“The sixth caliphate” 14

An awkward dance 16

Conclusion 18

Endnotes 19

5
Moderates or Manipulators? Tunisia’s Ennahda Islamists

Executive summary
The Ennahda party, which heads a coalition in Tunisia’s first freely elected government, is
described by most international observers as being a “moderate Islamist” party despite
its ideologically extreme origins, the recorded statements of founder Rachid Ghannouchi
and the party’s worrying recent activities.
Appeasing ultra-extreme Salafists
Since assuming the mantle of government, Ennahda is engaged in an awkward double
balancing act of appeasing both Tunisians and the West and secularists and ultra-extreme
Salafists.
• Ennahda has tolerated but distanced itself from often-violent Salafist rallies in Tunisia,
but it has also ruled out basing the country’s new constitution on sharia law.
• Ennahda officials have also given implicit support to extremists by denouncing the
award-winning animated film Persopolis as “prostitution” after the home of film’s
Tunisian exhibitor was firebombed by Salafists.
Support for Hamas
• Tunisian Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali, an Ennahda member, hosted a high-ranking
Hamas official in November 2011 at which the official declared “The conquest of
Jerusalem will set out from here. You are witnessing a divine, historic moment -- a
new era in civilization, God willing: the sixth caliphate.”
Support for extremist group Hizb ut-Tahrir
• Ennahda has given a license to Hizb ut-Tahrir, an Islamist party that is banned in several
Muslim-majority countries and in some European countries. Hizb ut-Tahrir’s express
aim is to establish an Islamic caliphate.
Restricting religious freedom
• In June 2012, a 30 year-old man was sentenced to seven years in prison for posting
caricatures of Mohammed on Facebook.
• In August 2012, Ennahda introduced a blasphemy proscription in a draft bill to the
Constituent Assembly; if accepted, this bill would make “...insults, profanity, derision
and representation of Allah and Mohammed” punishable by two years in prison, and
four years for repeat offences.
Restricting women’s rights
• In August 2012, Ennahda incurred the anger of many Tunisian feminists by introducing
language into the draft constitution which suggests that women are “complementary”
to men.

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Moderates or Manipulators? Tunisia’s Ennahda Islamists

RACHID GHANNOUCHI
Since Ennahda’s ascent to power, Ghannouchi has been celebrated for his stewardship
of a transitional government. In July 2012, he shared the prestigious Chatham House
Prize in part for promoting “a culture of tolerance and bridge-building across the political
spectrum.”
Scrutiny of Ghannouchi’s documented views have been largely absent from the media
and policy discussions about Tunisia. During his 23 years in exile in London, however,
he demonstrated ideological support for jihad and jihadist movements, anti-Israeli and
anti-Semitic views, denial of religious freedom and support for Islamist subversion of
democracy
Support for jihad
• During the First Gulf War, Ghannouchi called for “unceasing war against the Americans
until they leave the land of Islam or we will burn and destroy all their interests across
the entire Islamic world.”
• Ghannouchi excoriated the Saudi regime for its “colossal crime” in allowing “Crusader
America” on Islamic soil.
Support for jihadist movements
• In 1990, Ghannouchi assured the leaders of Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad that
“the greatest danger to civilization, religion and world peace is the United States
Administration. It is the Great Satan.”
Support for Saddam Hussein
• In 1990 Ghannouchi lauded Saddam Hussein as a unifier of Muslim lands
Denial of religious freedoms
• Ghannouchi has in recent years issued fatwas against secular Tunisian writers such
as Lafif Lakhdar -- for writing a supposedly blasphemous book he did not write -- and
Mongia Souahi, who wrote a book that given a theological refutation of the Islamic
veil for women. Ghannouchi charged Souahi with takfir, the allegation of unbelief,
which carries severe punishment – in some cases the death penalty
Anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic statements
• In 1994, Ghannouchi described the State of Israel as an “alien polity [inserted] into
the very heart of the Islamic world, which would exhaust its resources and obstruct
any attempt at re-forging Muslim unity.” The idea of Israel’s doing so, he said, “proved
immediately appealing to European policymakers and served well the new Western
orientation which was materialistic, secular, and obsessed with the idea of territorial
expansion.”
• Ghannouchi described the Oslo Accords as “a Jewish-American plan encompassing the
entire region, which would cleanse it of all resistance and open it to Jewish economy
and cultural activity, culminating in complete Jewish hegemony from Marrakesh to
Kazakhstan.”
Support for Islamist subversion of democracy
• In 1998, Ghannouchi declared that Islamists could abide by secular democracy, but
only to postpone “the long-term objective of establishing an Islamic government.”

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Moderates or Manipulators? Tunisia’s Ennahda Islamists

Introduction
In December 2010, Tunisians lit the spark that set the Arab world ablaze. Six weeks of
protests overturned President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali’s 25-year autocracy, and subsequent
parliamentary elections gave a plurality to Ennahda, a long-banned Islamist party seen
as the Tunisian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood. At the same time, hard-line Salafists
emerged to challenge Ennahda for the title of standard bearers of political Islam.
Ennahda had waited out the Ben Ali era in the shadows – its followers silenced, its leaders
exiled. For more than two decades the movement’s co-founder and chief ideologue,
Rachid Ghannouchi, had lived in London, where as a writer and activist he exhorted
Muslims to return to a faith-centered life, while at the same time insisting Islam and
democracy need not be mutually exclusive. Since his triumphant return to Tunisia last
year, Ghannouchi has promised an Ennahda-led government would promote a tolerant
society and opposed proposals to base its new constitution on Islamic sharia law. As a
result, Western media now almost universally depict Ennahda as ‘moderate Islamists’,
ignoring its history of domestic violence and the new Tunisia constitution’s troubling
language about women.
Moreover, since its electoral success, Ennahda’s relations with Tunisia’s Salafists have
been decidedly fraught. Where Ennahda has not indulged the Salafists’ uncompromising
agenda, it has denouncing that agenda as “un-Islamic.” But Ennahda’s own record
suggests its objectives – ridding society of Western influence and returning it to Islam
– and those of the Salafists are broadly congruent, even if the former group’s methods
demonstrate greater pragmatism, nuance and political sophistication. Western decision-
makers must remain vigilant in keeping the onus on Ennahda to prove it has forsaken its
extremist origins, and that its putative moderation is more than ideological repackaging
aimed at winning over skeptics at home and abroad.

8
Moderates or Manipulators? Tunisia’s Ennahda Islamists Bear Trap: Russia’s self-defeating foreign policy in the Middle East

Western
decision-makers
must remain
vigilant in
keeping the onus
on Ennahda to
prove it has
forsaken its
extremist origins
Moderates or Manipulators? Tunisia’s Ennahda Islamists

An Arab anomaly
Tunisia remains – even now, with its than France. Female literacy is 71 per
Islamists emboldened – the Arab world’s cent – more than any other Arab nation
best hope for governance approximating – and women outnumber men among
liberal democracy. For one, Tunisia is the university graduates. Polygamy is banned
most secular Arab state – the product of and marriage conditional on a woman’s
the traditionally accommodating Islam consent. Prostitution is legal and regulated
practiced in much of North Africa, the by the state.3
republican legacy of 65 years of French
colonial rule and the militantly anti- Many outside observers were therefore
religious dictatorships of Habib Bourguiba stunned when, as a consequence, Tunisians
and Ben Ali that followed. It is is also handed Ennahda the largest share of votes
arguably the most Westernised of the Arab in the first free elections in the country’s
states, with two-thirds of its population history, held in October 2011. The Islamist
proficient in French (like Paris, Tunis is movement won approximately 40 per cent
split into arrondissements), a language of the popular vote (giving it 89 seats in
that remains a status marker in business, the 217-seat Constituent Assembly), far
media, science, education and the arts. ahead of the second-place Congress for
Tunisia’s people, moreover, are almost all the Republic (CPR), a center-left secular
Sunni Muslim (at least nominally), with party. Ennahda’s victory, however, was
none of the sectarian hatreds bedeviling attributable primarily to highly factional
Lebanon, Syria or Iraq. and disorganised nature of Tunisia’s
secular parties, which (unlike their far
Tunisia is also small – 163,000 square miles, smaller counterparts in Egypt and most
only slightly larger than England and Wales other Arab states) have considerable
– with almost a quarter of its population support in Tunisia – perhaps up to half of
of 10.7 million in and around the outward- the electorate.
looking capital Tunis. With a per-capita GDP
of nearly $10,000, Tunisia’s economy is In December 2011, Ennahda struck a
one of the most robust and diverse in the coalition deal with CPR and Ettakatol
(another secularist party) to appoint a
Middle East. Key sectors include agriculture,
mining, fuel, manufacturing and tourism.1 member from Ennahda, Hamadi Jebali, as
As recently as 2010, the World Economic prime minister and CPR’s Moncef Marzouki
Forum named Tunisia’s economy the most as president. The new constitution, the
competitive in Africa.2 first draft of which is expected to be
produced by April 2013, will delineate the
Tunisia is also a regional leader on relative powers of premier and president.
women’s rights. It was the first Arab Unsurprisingly, Ennahda is pushing a
state to grant women the right to vote; parliamentary model with a strong prime
it legalised abortion in the same year as minister,4 while the CPR seeks a French-
the United States; and, under Ben Ali, style system in which the president wields
had proportionally more female MPs more clout.5

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Moderates or Manipulators? Tunisia’s Ennahda Islamists

Revolution and
“Renaissance”
Ennahda has its roots in the Islamist told Al Jazeera that, unlike more hard-
groups that proliferated in universities line Islamists, he opposes the forceful
throughout the Muslim world after the reinstitution of the Islamic caliphate.7
1979 Revolution. Ennahda’s leaders
supported the siege of the US Embassy Even before Ben Ali’s January 2011 ouster,
in Tehran by Iranian militants and, in the Western media had designated Ennahda
1980s, Ennahda members were blamed “moderate Islamists” and, a year and a
for the terrorist attacks on four hotels in half later, the party is rarely referred to
Tunisia.6 as anything else. Leading news agencies
such as the Associated Press and Reuters,
In 1989 the group, originally known as well as broadcast and print outlets
as the “Movement of the Islamic involving the BBC and the New York
Tendency, changed its name to Ennahda Times regularly describe Ennadha as
(“Renaissance”), and was promptly “moderate.”8
banned by the government. Party
operatives struck back by attacking the A characteristic assessment of Ennahda’s
headquarters of the president’s party, supposed moderation was offered by
killing one person and throwing acid in Noah Feldman, a Harvard Law professor
the faces of several others. who helped draft the post-Saddam
Iraqi constitution, who argued: “From
Ben Ali jailed tens of thousands of the the standpoint of the global ideal of
group’s members over the course of his democracy, this is a victory of historic
reign, and sent most of its leadership proportions.”9
into exile. Ghannouchi was expelled
from Tunisia in 1989, and spent the next In an article entitled “How Islamists
23 years in London. Ghannouchi spent Can Save Tunisia’s Revolution,” The
his time in exile writing essays on topics Atlantic’s Max Fisher wrote that a
including social justice and women’s coalition between Ennahda, liberals and
rights, which he argued could be secularists would prove that Tunisia’s
achieved within the Muslim tradition, and Western and Islamic identities “...are
posited ways to achieve these modern not irreconcilable, that the country does
priorities within that tradition. As a young not have to choose. If this day comes,
man, Ghannouchi drew inspiration from Tunisia will have accomplished something
Sayyid Qutb, the intellectual godfather truly revolutionary.”10 Only a handful of
of the Muslim Brotherhood, but later pundits have been consistently skeptical
distanced himself from the Qutb’s more of Ennahda’s claim to moderation.11
obscure theories about the West’s moral In his “Participation in Non-Islamic
degeneracy and eternal enmity for Government”, released by Oxford
Islam. In later life Ghannouchi affirmed University Press in its 1998 anthology,
the possibility of non-Muslim rule in Liberal Islam, Ghannouchi wrote that
Muslim-majority countries, and last year Islam requires believers to “implement

11
Moderates or Manipulators? Tunisia’s Ennahda Islamists

the law of God, and not to resort to laws alleged offence was having authored a
other than His.”12 book Ghannouchi deemed irreverent
toward Mohammed.17 In fact, Lakhdar
“However, such a transition may incite authored no such book. Fearing that the
hostility towards them from within their fatwa would lead to a violence against him,
own countries or from other countries, a host of Muslim human rights activists
render the newly-formed Islamic started a defense campaign for Lakhar.
government susceptible to oppression This was followed by an online petition
and other forms of pressure that may end to end all fatwas against secularists, in
with its collapse. light of Ghannouchi’s edict, which was
“Is there any reason that why such circulated to then-British Prime Minister
groups cannot agree or coordinate with Tony Blair. 18
secular groups in order to isolate the In 2007, the now-deceased British
existing oppressive power and establish a journalist Christopher Hitchens visited
secular democracy, postponing the long- Tunisia and met with Mongia Souahi, the
term objective of establishing an Islamic author of a book which contends that
government until circumstances permit? the Koran does not command women
Certainly, there is nothing against that.”13 to wear the Islamic veil.19 Souahi drew
Ghannouchi here clearly identifies a the inevitable censure of Islamists,
tactical alliance with secularists in the including Ghannouchi who charged her
service of a long-term strategy for total with takfir – the allegation of unbelief.
Islamist rule, a fact that ought to be borne “This, as everybody knows, is the prelude
in mind when assessing his contemporary to declaring her life to be forfeit as an
policy recommendations. apostate”, Hitchens recalled last year. “I
was slightly alarmed to see Ghannouchi
Ghannouchi’s writing is also laden with and his organisation, Hizb al-Nahda,
the same anti-Western themes that typify described in Sunday’s New York Times as
mainstream Islamist discourse. During the ‘progressive,’ and to learn that he is on his
first Gulf War, Ghannouchi proclaimed: way home from London.” 20
“We must wage unceasing war against
the Americans until they leave the land of Since emerging as a political beneficiary
Islam,” he proclaimed during the First Gulf of Ben Ali’s ouster, Ghannouchi
War, “or we will burn and destroy all their has presented himself to Western
interests across the entire Islamic world.”14 audiences as an opponent of Islamic
Ghannouchi lauded Saddam Hussein as a fundamentalism. In an interview with
unifier of Muslim lands, and excoriated Foreign Policy magazine’s Marc Lynch
the Saudi regime for its “colossal crime”15 last year, Ghannouchi said, “There are no
of allowing “Crusader America” on Islamic people in al-Nahda who are takfiri; there
soil. At the 1990 “Islamic Conference on is no one in al-Nahda that believes that
Palestine” in Tehran, he assured leaders violence is a means of change or to keep
of Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad that “the power; there is no one in al-Nahda that
greatest danger to civilization, religion does not believe in equality between men
and world peace is the United States and women; no one in al-Nahda believes
Administration. It is the Great Satan.”16 that jihad is a way to impose Islam on the
world.”21
In 2005, Ghannouchi issued a fatwa via
Nahda.net, Ennahda’s website, against Ghannouchi’s own associations render
prominent Tunisian writer and secularist these assertions suspect. He is tied
Lafif Lakhdar, then 71 years old. Lakhdar’s to Saudi Arabia’s puritanical Wahhabi

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Moderates or Manipulators? Tunisia’s Ennahda Islamists

Salafists22 through his founding Like Ghannouchi, the Qatar-based

membership in the World Assembly Qaradawi is widely rendered in the
of Muslim Youth,23 and to the Muslim West as a “moderate,” despite having
Brotherhood through his membership issued fatwas condemning women’s
in the European Council for Fatwa and rights as “misguided” and secularism as
Research24 and the International Union of “apostasy,” and upholding the traditional
Muslim Scholars.25 The latter two groups death sentence for leaving Islam. He has
are based in Dublin26 and presided over also endorsed attacks against US troops
by the Brotherhood’s chief ideologue and Iraqi and Israeli civilians, and praised
Yusuf al-Qaradawi. Hitler for “putting the Jews in their
place.”27

Ghannouchi’s writing is also

laden with the same anti-
Western themes that typify
mainstream Islamist discourse.
During the first Gulf War,
Ghannouchi proclaimed:
“We must wage unceasing war
against the Americans until
they leave the land of Islam”

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Moderates or Manipulators? Tunisia’s Ennahda Islamists

“The sixth caliphate”

Ghannouchi’s own attitudes toward Jews support for Hamas, and confidence that
and Israel demonstrates the bigotry and the Ummah, or global Islamic community,
conspiracy-mongering that typifies much will one day eliminate the Zionist “cancer”.
of contemporary Islamist discourse. As In an interview last year, he concurred
Ghannouchi wrote in 1994, “The idea with slain Hamas leader Ahmed Yassin’s
of inserting an alien polity into the very prediction that the Jewish state would
heart of the Islamic world, which would disappear by 2027.29 
exhaust its resources and obstruct any
attempt at re-forging Muslim unity, Zionism, Ghannouchi said, “...spreads
proved immediately appealing to octopus-like over the whole planet,
European policymakers and served well embracing and transforming every aspect
the new Western orientation which was of existence by means of its economics,
materialistic, secular, and obsessed with communication, arts and literature…
the idea of territorial expansion.” 28 Any attempt to liberate Palestine must,
therefore, seek to operate on the same
The Israel-based Middle East analyst global and all-encompassing level.”30
Martin Kramer wrote that Ghannouchi’s
rejection of the Oslo Accords has been Last November, Hamadi Jebali – the
even shriller than that of mainstream Ennahda figure later appointed prime
Muslim Brotherhood leaders. Ghannouchi minister – hosted a high-ranking Hamas
described the Israeli-Palestinian agreement official at a rally in the coastal city of
as “...a Jewish-American plan encompassing Sousse. “The conquest of Jerusalem will
the entire region, which would cleanse set out from here,” Jebali said. “You are
it of all resistance and open it to Jewish witnessing a divine, historic moment – a
economic and cultural activity, culminating new era in civilization, God willing: the
in complete Jewish hegemony from sixth caliphate.”31
Marrakesh to Kazakhstan.”  Since then, Earlier this year, Ismail Haniyeh, the
Ghannouchi has expressed unwavering Hamas prime minister of Gaza, landed

Earlier this year, Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas

prime minister of Gaza, landed at Tunis
Airport to a hero’s welcome: thousands
of supporters chanted “Kill the Jews – it is
our duty.” Ghannouchi – who, along with
Jebali, later hosted Haniyeh – attributed
the slogans to a fringe of provocateurs
seeking to undermine his party’s image, but
issued no apology for having welcomed the
Hamas leader.

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Moderates or Manipulators? Tunisia’s Ennahda Islamists

at Tunis Airport to a hero’s welcome and on Tunisia,” he said. “Others are focused
thousands of supporters chanting “Kill the on Palestine”. But welcoming Haniyeh
Jews – it is our duty.” Ghannouchi – who, two months later, he affirmed, “The
along with Jebali, later hosted Haniyeh Palestinians problem is not the problem
– attributed the slogans to a fringe of of a Palestinian people but a problem of
provocateurs seeking to undermine his the Islamic nation, and Tunisia is part of
party’s image, but issued no apology for that nation.” 33
having welcomed the Hamas leader.32
“Ennahda condemns these slogans Caught in the middle is Tunisia’s tiny Jewish
which do not represent Islam’s spirit population – 1,500 people, compared
or teachings,” Ghannouchi said in a to its pre-1948 population of 120,000.
statement to the Associated Press. “There are no Zionists in Tunisia and we
don’t want to be mixed into the problems
Speaking at the Washington Institute of the Middle East,” Peres Trabelsi, a
for Near East Policy last November, Jewish community representative, said
Ghannouchi assured his hosts Ennahda after Haniyeh’s visit.34 According to
does not view the US as the “Great Satan,” community president, Roger Bismuth, the
and that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict crowd welcoming the Hamas leader had
is a local one that concerns the involved included not only Salafists, but Ennahda
parties alone. “My energy and focus are supporters as well.35

15
Moderates or Manipulators? Tunisia’s Ennahda Islamists

An awkward dance
Ennahda’s two balancing acts – appeasing sheikhdoms of the Gulf. It is an Islam upon
both Salafists and secularists, Tunisians request, that permits gambling clubs,
and the West – are proving increasingly nudist beaches, usury and secular laws.”38
awkward to execute. Some of its positions
may be taken as inevitable compromises However, Ennahda’s calculations have
for a ruling political party, though others often run the other way, adopting the
indicate how Ennahda’s triangulation in same unbending dogmatism which it
effect underwrites the very extremism it accuses its Salafist rivals of espousing.
claims to safeguard against. In May 2011, a Tunisian court fined a
Ennahda has alienated Salafists on private television station for airing the
occasion, to the seeming benefit of award-winning animated film Persepolis,
secularists and liberal Western onlookers. claiming it violated Islamic strictures in
In May 2012, thousands of Salafists its frank portrayal of sex and depiction
marched on the Great Mosque of Kairouan of a white-bearded God. After protesters
(generally considered to be Islam’s fourth threatened violence outside the office
holiest site) in Tunisia’s hinterland, of the offending channel (its owner’s
chanting slogans including “We are all home was later firebombed), the head
the children of Osama,” “The revolution of Ennahda’s political office condemned
was made for sharia” and “Jews, Jews, the the threats, but also the “provocation” of
army of Mohammed is back.”36 having aired the film, which he likened to
“prostitution”.39 And in June of this year, a
Ennahda distanced itself from the 30-year-old man was sentenced to seven
rallies but did nothing to rein in their years in prison for posting caricatures of
organisers. Amer Al-Arayedh, a member Mohammad on Facebook.40
of the Ennahda executive, said there was
“no correlation” between the Salafist The Tunisian government has also
movement and his own. “It is the right granted a license to Hizb ut-Tahrir, an
of the Salafists in Tunisia to organise extremist pan-Islamic movement that has
meetings and forums like any other been banned in several other Muslim-
movement,” he told the US government- majority countries and some non-
sponsored website Magharebia. “The Muslim-majority countries such as Russia
important thing is maintaining public and Germany.41 Hizb ut-Tahrir’s Tunisian
safety and not sparking riots and civil leader has described said their aim was
strife.”37 to “...establish an Islamic Caliphate, raise
Islamic awareness and lead the country
Salafists were also livid when in March to achieve radical change and the unity
Ennahda buckled to secularist pressure of the Islamic nation.”42 The decision
and said it would not seek to base came a month after the government
Tunisia’s new constitution on sharia.41 legalised the Salafist “Islah Front” party,
The al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri whose inaugural conference Ghannouchi
weighed in, calling on Tunisians to attended.43
overthrow the Ennahda government:
“They are inventing an Islam that pleases In early August, Ennahda proposed a
the US State Department, the EU, and the draft bill to the Constituent Assembly

16
Moderates or Manipulators? Tunisia’s Ennahda Islamists

to criminalise blasphemy. If accepted, satellite channel, wrote last year that while
the bill would make “...insults, profanity, Ennahda may have reformist elements at
derision and representation of Allah the top, it continues to play to a base that
and Mohammed” punishable by two is fundamentally conservative. “Were the
years in prison, and four years for repeat Nahda Party leaders truthful when saying
offences.44 Later that same month, it ‘we aspire to establish a free, open and
incurred the outrage of Tunisian women, modern society, in which every citizen
thousands of whom rallied in Tunis, enjoys equal rights?’ No one knows. Yet
over Ennahda’s suggested language for the experiences of Iran, Sudan, Hamas and
the draft constitution in which women Hezbollah would suggest otherwise.”46
are described as “complementary to The University of Denver’s Rob Prince,
men.” Farida al-Obeidi, the chair of the writing for the progressive Institute for
Constituent Assembly’s Human Rights Policy Studies, noted that Ennahda’s base
and Public Freedoms panel, said that such has a distinctly fundamentalist tilt. “To
a turn of phrase was no sign of implied date, the leadership has hardly reined
inequality; rather, it meant the “sharing in the base,” he wrote, “nor is it clear it
of roles and does not mean that women wants to.”47
are worth less than men.”45 Tunisia’s
Democratic Women’s Association begged “Ennahda is not moderate,” said the
to differ. director of Tunisia’s national theater.
“Nobody at the United States Embassy in
Abdul Rahman al-Rashed, the general Tunisia was informed” about Ennahda’s
manager of the Saudi-owned Al Arabiya true nature, she said. “Nobody.”48

Ennahda’s two balancing

acts – appeasing both
Salafists and secularists,
Tunisians and the West –
are proving increasingly
awkward to execute.

17
Moderates or Manipulators? Tunisia’s Ennahda Islamists

Conclusion
The Islamist parties now ascendant revival of the caliphate costs Ennahda
across the Middle East have for the most little in a contemporary context although,
part pledged to uphold minority rights, by Ghannouchi’s own standard, this
civilian government and the rule of law. is a long-term goal that ought not to
In response, Western policymakers, preclude short-term dealmaking with
led by the Obama administration, have secularists. More significant is the party’s
consistently given Ennahda and their endorsement of the right of non-Muslims
Arab Spring counterparts the benefit to achieve high office, although this must
of the doubt. “I found in Washington a be enshrined in the Tunisian constitution
great optimism about the Arab Spring, if it is to mean anything at all. The recent
especially in Tunisia,” Ghannouchi told objection to the draft constitution’s
Marc Lynch last year. “The official positions definition of women should be instructive
by President Obama, by Secretary of as to how linguistic sleights-of-hand can
State Clinton and the ambassadors in the mask darker ideological agendas.
region in general are positive.”49
Because Tunisia’s government is still
In March, Washington announced a $100 only a Constituent Assembly, policy
million grant for Tunisia, and $400 million recommendations at this stage would
in loan guarantees to help manage its be premature. But rough guidelines for
democratic transition.50 The funds were engagement and financial support are
provided without strings attached. not. Moreover, it would do justice to
history and to Tunisia’s electorate for both
In July, Ghannouchi and President the US State Department and Western
Marzouki were jointly awarded the commentators to take the full measure of
prestigious Chatham House Prize “...for the Rachid Ghannouchi and of how much of
successful compromises each achieved Tunisia’s still-active opposition views his
during Tunisia’s democratic transition.” In ruling party.
awarding the prize, the organisers said:
“Sheikh Ghannouchi has been widely As the United States waits to see what kind
praised for his contribution to promoting of constitution emerges from an Ennahda-
the idea of compatibility between Islam led coalition, the very least it can do is put
and democracy and modernity which has a higher premium on democratic norms
been translated into the promotion of a and the absolute protection of ethnic
culture of tolerance and bridge-building and religious minorities, women, civil
across the political spectrum.”51 society, a free press and an independent
judiciary. Washington should make clear
As this report has shown, there is a welter that future aid disbursals for helping with
of contradictory evidence that ought to Tunisia’s transition must be contingent on
stop such encomiums until Ennahda’s Ennahda’s performance rather than its
more recent rhetoric is translated into promise.
concrete policies. Opposition to the

18
Moderates or Manipulators? Tunisia’s Ennahda Islamists

Endnotes
1. “Tunisia,” CIA World Factbook, https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ts.html
(accessed 4 July 2002)
2.  “ The Global Competitiveness Index 2009-2010,” World Economic Forum https://members.weforum.org/pdf/
GCR09/GCR20092010fullrankings.pdf (accessed 4 July 2002)
3.  Katrin Bennhold, “Women’s Rights a Strong Point in Tunisia,” International Herald Tribune, 22 February 2011,
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/23/world/middleeast/23iht-letter23.html (accessed 4 July 2012)
4.  “ Tunisia’s election: The Islamist conundrum,” The Economist, 22 October 2011. http://www.economist.com/
node/21533411 (accessed 6 July 2012)
5.  “Congress for the Republic – Congres Pour la Republique,: Tunisia Live, 27 September 2011, http://www.tunisia-
live.net/2011/09/27/party-profile-congres-pour-la-republique/ (accessed 6 July 2012)
6.  Emma Hayward, “Assessing Ennahda, Tunisia’s Winning Islamist Party,” The Washington Institute for Near East
Policy, November 18, 2011, http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/assessing-ennahda-
tunisias-winning-islamist-party (accessed July 1, 2012)
7.  “Rached Ghannouchi from Ennahda slanders Hizb ut-Tahrir and calls them ‘suspicious,’” YouTube, 26 March 2012,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YyycFnJNo0 (accessed 4 July 2012)
8.  See, for example, David Kirkpatrick, “Moderate Islamist Party Heads Toward Victory in Tunisia,” The New York
Times, 24 October 2011; “Moderate Islamist party claims election win in Tunisia,” BBC News, 24 October
2011, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-15438945 (accessed 19 May 2012); Andrew Hammond, “Tunisia’s
moderate Islamists win vote, leader says rights are assured,” Reuters, 28 October 2011, http://blogs.reuters.com/
faithworld/2011/10/28/tunisias-moderate-islamists-win-vote-leader-says-rights-are-assured  (accessed 19 May
2012)
9.  Noah Feldman, “Islamists Win in Tunisia a Win for Democracy,” Bloomberg News, 30 October 2011, http://
www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-10-30/islamists-victory-in-tunisia-a-win-for-democracy-noah-feldman.html
(accessed 2 July 2012)
10. Max Fisher, “How Islamists Can Save Tunisia’s Revolution,” The Atlantic, 27 July 2011, http://www.theatlantic.
com/international/archive/2011/07/how-islamists-can-save-tunisias-revolution/242559/ (accessed 2 July 2012)
11. See, for example, Michael J. Totten, “Arab Spring or Islamist Winter,” World Affairs, January/February 2012.
12. Rachid Ghannouchi, “Participation in Non-Islamic Government,” in Kurzman, ed., Liberal Islam, Oxford University
Press, 1998. PP 89-94.
13. Ibid.
14. Rachid Ghannouchi, “Ila Filastin,” November 1990. Cited in Martin Kramer, “A U.S. Visa for Rachid Ghannouchi?”
Policywatch, The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, no. 121, June 29, 1994.
15. Ibid.
16. Ibid.
17. “Lafif Lakhdar International Defense Committee,” 16 June 2005 http://www.metransparent.com/old/texts/lafif_
lakhdar_international_defense_committee.htm (accessed 14 August 2012)
18. “Help Save Secularists and Put an End to Fatwas”, http://www.petitiononline.com/23sl82/petition.html (Accessed
August 16, 2012)
19. Christopher Hitchens, “At the Desert’s Edge,” Vanity Fair, July 2007, http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/
features/2007/07/hitchens200707 (accessed 29 July 20129
20. Christopher Hitchens, “Tunisia Grows Up,” Slate, 17 January 2011, http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_
politics/fighting_words/2011/01/tunisia_grows_up.html (accessed 29 July 2012)
21. Marc Lynch, “Rached Ghannouchi: The FP interview,” 5 December 2011 http://lynch.foreignpolicy.com/
posts/2011/12/05/ghannouchis_advice (accessed 29 July 2012)
22. Stephen Schwartz, “Wahhabism in the War,” 27 March 2003, http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/
Articles/000/000/002/439iinbi.asp (accessed 29 July 2012)
23. “2006 U.S.-Islamic World Forum,” www.qatarconferences.org/new-us-islamic/bios.pdf (accessed 29 July 2012)
24. Global Muslim Brotherhood Daily Report, “Rachid Ghannouchi Identified As Muslim Brotherhood Foreign Leader,”
27 October 2009, http://globalmbreport.org/?p=1685 (accessed 28 July 2012)
25. International Union of Muslim Scholars, “Members of the Board of Trustees” (Arabic), http://www.iumsonline.
net/ar/default.asp?MenuID=3 (accessed 28 July 2012)
26. Andrew C. McCarthy, “Inventing Moderate Islam,” National Review Online, 24 August 2010, http://www.
nationalreview.com/articles/244545/inventing-moderate-islam-andrew-c-mccarthy (accessed 28 July 2012)
27. Rachid Ghannouchi, “Palestine as a Global Agenda,” published 1994, quoted in Palestine Internationalist, 2005
http://www.palint.org/article.php?articleid=18 (accessed 2 July 2012)
28. Ghannouchi, cited in Kramer
29. Ibid.

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30. Middle East Media Research Institute (via YouTube), “Tunisian PM Candidate and Secretary-General of Al-Nahda
Party: The Sixth Caliphate Is Coming,”17 November 2011, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDxmQ6L5jfw
(accessed 21 May 2012)
31. “ Tunisian Jewish Community Horrified, Demanding Quick Government Response in Aftermath of Haniyeh Visit,”
Tunisia Live, 11 January, 2012, http://www.tunisia-live.net/2012/01/11/tunisian-jewish-community-horrified-
demanding-quick-government-response-in-aftermath-of-haniyeh-visit/ (accessed 21 May 2012)
32. Y. Yehoshua, “On Tunisian Al-Nahda Party Leader Rached Ghannouchi’s Conflicting Statements in the U.S.,” Middle
East Media Research Institute, 10 January 2012, http://www.memri.org/report/en/0/0/0/0/254/0/5983.htm#_
edn10 (accessed 3 July 2012)
33. AFP, “Gaza leader promises difficult days for Israel,” 8 January 2012, http://www.google.com/hostednews/
afp/article/ALeqM5hCH-8LI0oT-qtJws7Z-ICzRrM3ZQ?docId=CNG.befd8261ddab57b82fa93d007250aad6.581
(accessed 4 July 2012)
34. Mohshin Habib, “Tunisia: Kill the Jews,” Gatestone Institute, 6 February 2012, http://www.gatestoneinstitute.
org/2820/tunisia-kill-the-jews (accessed 2 July 2012)
35. AFP, “Radical Islamic rally marches in central Tunisia amid anti-Semitic chants,” 21 May 2012, http://www.ejpress.
org/article/58207 (accessed 2 July 2012)
36. Magharebia, “Tunisia: Salafist Congress In Kairouan Draws Thousands”, 24 May 2012, http://www.eurasiareview.
com/24052012-tunisia-salafist-congress-kairouan-draws-thousands/ (accessed 2 July 2012)
37. Reuters, “Tunisia’s Ennahda party attempting to convince Salafists to pursue agenda legally” 2 April 2012, http://
af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFJOE83201W20120403 (accessed 2 July 2012)
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com.lb/News/Middle-East/2012/Jun-10/176335-al-zawahri-incites-tunisians-against-ruling-party.
ashx#ixzz1zg3pOwaL (accessed 4 July 2012)
39. Tunisia Live, “Ennahda: Nessma crossed the line,” 10 October 2011, http://www.tunisia-live.net/2011/10/10/
ennahda-nessma-crossed-the-line/ (accessed 29 July 2012)
40. Reuters, Tunisian loses jail appeal over Facebook cartoons of Prophet Mohammad.” 26 June 2012 http://blogs.
reuters.com/faithworld/2012/06/26/tunisian-loses-jail-appeal-over-facebook-cartoons-of-prophet-mohammad
(accessed 2 July 2012)
41. Robert S. Leiken and Steven Brooke, “The Moderate Muslim Brotherhood, Foreign Affairs, March/April 2007 http://
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(accessed 29 July 2012)
42. Reuters, “Tunisia legalizes second hardline Islamist group,” 18 July 2012 , http://english.alarabiya.net/
articles/2012/07/18/227113.html (accessed 29 July 2012)
43. Kapitalis, “Le parti salafiste Jibhat Al-Islah déclare la guerre à la laïcité,” 9 July 2012 http://www.kapitalis.com/
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July 2012)
44. AFP, “Tunisia blasphemy bill threatens free speech: HRW,” 3 August 2012 http://news.yahoo.com/tunisia-
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45. BBC News, “Tunisian women protest to demand equality”, 14 August 2012 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-
africa-19253289 (accessed 30 August 2012)
46. Abdul Rahman Al-Rashed, 23 July 2011 “Al Ghannushi , alcohol and the bikini,” http://www.alarabiya.net/
views/2011/07/23/158916.html (accessed 2 July 2012)
47. Rob Prince, “Tunisia at a Crossroads,” 12 February 2012 http://www.fpif.org/articles/tunisia_at_a_crossroads
(accessed 2 July 2012)
48. Ibid.
49. Marc Lynch, “Rached Ghannouchi: The FP interview,” 5 December 2011 http://lynch.foreignpolicy.com/
posts/2011/12/05/ghannouchis_advice (accessed 29 July 2012)
50. Reuters, “U.S. to give $100 million to boost Tunisia finances: Clinton,” 29 March 2012, http://www.reuters.com/
article/2012/03/29/us-tunisia-usa-aid-idUSBRE82S0PB20120329 (accessed 29 July 2012)
51. Chatham House, “Chatham House Prize 2012,” 18 July 2012, http://www.chathamhouse.org/events/chatham-
house-prize/2012 (accessed 29 July 2012)

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Moderates or Manipulators? Tunisia’s Ennahda Islamists

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Moderates or Manipulators? Tunisia’s Ennahda Islamists

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Moderates or Manipulators? Tunisia’s Ennahda Islamists Bear Trap: Russia’s self-defeating foreign policy in the Middle East
First published in 2012 by The Henry Jackson Society
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