تونس من الثورة إلى الجمهورية

Abstract EN

Although the transformations of the “Arab Spring” were linked to social and political expectations centered on fighting corruption and achieving individual and collective freedoms and welfare, they pushed the forces of political Islam and its formations to the forefront of the societal scene, and even enabled some of them to ascend power and decision centers in what looks like an unprecedented Islamist outburst for many analysts.

Therefore, this article seeks to understand Tunisian political Islam in relation to the project of the national state: the state of independence that was formed by Bourguiba in the first stage and continued by his successor, Ben Ali.

The secular-oriented modernization process failed to meet societal needs, generated popular discontent and was accompanied by tyranny and corruption.

This allowed political Islam movements, particularly the Ennahda Movement – the former Islamic Tendency Movement – to turn into a polarizing force and a political alternative.

The “January 14 Revolution” was a historical entry point for the Ennahda movement to monopolize the keys to the political game and to engage in power and management of the state in a stormy atmosphere of clashes, violence, setbacks and violent confrontations with civil society forces of all kinds.

However, the text is not devoid of a permissive and sympathetic reading of the local Islamist experiences, in line with the Anglo-Saxon vision, which downplays the contradictions of discourse and paradoxes of practice and does not care about the political fallacies promoted by Islamist ideology.