Banned by Ben Ali it may have been, but the Islamic Ennahda party insists it is a benign, democratic force
SO LARGE is the congregation at El Fatah mosque that the rows of faithful spill halfway across Avenue de la Liberté, slowing the busy lunchtime traffic to a crawl.
Loudspeakers project the imam’s politely insistent voice on to the street, where men stand with bowed heads and dozens of passersby stop to listen.
“The revolution is great, but Islam is greater still,” the voice intones. “Religion is the base of economic life, of education. Without religion, life is not balanced. The press was not free, but neither was religion.”
A murmur signals the congregation’s agreement. “We must preserve this revolution . . . We must look out for one another . . . show solidarity.”
When prayers have ended, a few dozen men gather in small groups to swap stories from the tumultuous days since Ben Ali succumbed to street protests and fled the country.
“Everyone supports what has happened,” says Youssef Fekir, a middle-aged man who describes himself as a supporter of Ennahda, or Renaissance, Tunisia’s largest Islamist movement. “We’re Muslim people, but whether Islamist or not . . . we hope the revolution will prevail and go all the way. We’re all united – Islamists, leftists – we’re united.”
Although Islamist slogans did not feature in the protest movement that toppled Ben Ali, the demise of Tunisia’s police state and the dawn of multi-party politics would make Ennahda one of the chief political beneficiaries.
Secularism has been strictly enforced in Tunisia since before its independence from France in 1956. Habib Bourguiba, the independence leader and long-time president, was a nationalist who considered Islam a threat to the state. Indeed, in 1987, when Ben Ali pushed aside the ageing Bourguiba, he briefly released Islamists from jail and allowed them to run in the 1989 elections. The results surprised and worried Ben Ali. Ennahda officially won 17 per cent of the vote, coming second to the ruling party and far ahead of the secular opposition. Ben Ali responded by reversing his policy, banning Ennahda, jailing hundreds of its supporters and forcing its leader Rachid Ghannouchi into exile.
Among the faithful at El Fatah mosque, there is strong support for Ennahda’s return to the political fray, but the tone is resolutely moderate. Pride in Tunisian exceptionalism, notably the equality of women, is a recurrent theme.
“We believe in the Koran. It’s a social code,” says Souissi Raouf, an elderly man. “It’s the Koran that safeguards human rights, it’s the Koran that allows for women’s freedom.” When someone raises Turkish-style secularism as a model, others groan. “But even if we arrived at a system like Turkey’s, it would be extraordinary compared to what we lived through here for so long,” Raouf remarks.
While many in Tunisia’s secular cosmopolitan elite may be wary of Ennahda’s reincarnation, others see it as a benign force that should be incorporated into the mainstream. As we speak outside El Fatah mosque, Noura Landolsi, a well-dressed middle-aged woman wearing designer sunglasses, overhears the discussion and interjects. “We’re a moderate people. We accept the Islamists,” she says. “We have to let everyone express themselves – the Islamists, the socialists, everyone.”
Ennahda’s likely influence in post-Ben Ali Tunisia is impossible to estimate. Some believe that, having been invisible for so long – many of those at El Fatah say they have no memory of Ghannouchi, who has lived in London for more than two decades – Ennahda will be slow to rebuild. Others believe the party’s true vote in the 1989 election was 30-35 per cent and think its effect could be large.
The party itself has sought since Ben Ali’s fall to assuage secularists’ concerns. Ghannouchi himself described Ennahda this week as “a democratic movement based on democratic ideals” and said the West had nothing to fear.
But not everyone is convinced of Ennahda’s liberal credentials and point out that, during the Gulf War in 1991, Ghannouchi called for attacks on American interests in the region. Senior party figures have recently reiterated their objection to US interference in the Muslim world. Asked this week about those who call for the creation of an Islamic state, Ghannouchi said: “Our position is very far from this idea . . . which we think has no place within the moderate Islamist tendency. It is extremist and . . . not based on a correct interpretation of Islam.”