Reason for optimism in Tunisia

[Zevico]

Just kidding.

Ever wondered what the head of the "moderate Islamist" party in Tunisia thinks? Why, let him speak for himself:

Ghannouchi visited the United States in December 1989, when he attended Islamic conferences in Chicago and Kansas City. At the time, he impressed some as a “moderate” Islamist, amenable to dialogue. But this reading of Ghannouchi was completely overturned by his reaction to Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait.

Ghannouchi not only denounced King Fahd of Saudi Arabia for the “colossal crime” of inviting the U.S. to deploy forces, he also fully justified Saddam’s invasion and annexation of Kuwait. Ghannouchi compared Saddam to Yusuf Ibn Tashfin, the 11th-century Almoravid ruler who forcibly unified the Muslim principalities of Spain in order to wrest them from Christian domination. According to Ghannouchi, the Muslims now faced “Crusader America,” the “enemy of Islam,” and Saddam had taken a necessary step toward unity, “joining together two Arab states out of twenty-two, praise be to God.”1 Although other Islamists criticized Saudi Arabia, none embraced Saddam as fervently as Ghannouchi.

Ghannouchi also threatened the United States. Speaking in Khartoum during the crisis, he said, “There must be no doubt that we will strike anywhere against whoever strikes Iraq … We must wage 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… Muslim youth must be serious in their warning to the Americans that a blow to Iraq will be a license to strike American and Western interests throughout the Islamic world.” He also called for a Muslim boycott of American goods, planes and ships.2

After the war, Ghannouchi requested a U.S. visa. His request was denied. Since then, he has angled for a review of his application by praising former Assistant Secretary of State Edward Djerejian’s speech on Islam, made at Meridian House in June 1992. He also wrote to Djerejian, professing his willingness for dialogue. The U.S. is not the enemy of Islam, he now argues. It is the hapless victim of a “Jewish strategy” for “waging war against Islam.”3

Ghannouchi has been a supporter of the Iranian revolution ever since his first visit to the Islamic Republic in 1979. More recently, he worked to thaw relations between Sunni Islamist movements and Iran, visiting Teheran twice for this purpose in 1990. During the second of these visits, he was the most prominent Sunni Islamist at an “Islamic Conference on Palestine,” which included the leaders of Lebanon’s Hezbollah and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Addressing the conference, Ghannouchi said “the greatest danger to civilization, religion and world peace is the United States Administration. It is the Great Satan.”5 Ghannouchi did not hide his disappointment with Iran’s restrained reaction to the “American occupation” of the Gulf in 1990. (“Has no one succeeded Khomeini?” he asked.)5 But Ghannouchi still maintains contacts with Iran, and last October he received a Hezbollah parliamentary delegation visiting Britain.6

Ghannouchi also has many links to Sudan and its Islamist guide, Hasan al-Turabi, whom he has known and admired for fifteen years.After Ghannouchi went into exile, he visited Sudan, which provided him with a passport. (Tunisia lodged an official protest with Sudan, and Ghannouchi finally returned the passport in December 1991). Ghannouchi included Turabi among the dedicatees of his latest book, and Turabi vouches for Ghannouchi, assuring the West that Ghannouchi “can be trusted to draw up a program for Tunisia.”

Sudan later participated in a genocide that apologists for Islamism never like to mention.


Moving on:

Ghannouchi also has been one of the most vocal Islamist opponents of the Arab-Israeli peace process. He believes that “any organization, any voice, any state that extends a hand to the Zionist enemy warrants complete condemnation, isolation and the waging of war against it.” Ghannouchi urges Palestinians not to compromise:

I think that the approach of Palestinian Islamists must be the liberation of Palestine from the Jordan river to the Mediterranean sea. Any part that is liberated is a gain, provided the price is not the sale of the rest of Palestine. Palestine belongs to the Muslims and must be liberated in its entirety. The truth cannot be divided.9

Ghannouchi has called the Israel-PLO accord “a Jewish-American plan encompassing the entire region, which would cleanse it of all resistance and open it to Jewish economic and cultural activity, culminating in complete Jewish hegemony from Marrakesh to Kazakhstan.”10 Since the accord, Ghannouchi has reiterated his support for Hamas, “which we believe has taken the right stand,” expressing his confidence that “the Muslim nation will get rid of the Zionist cancer.”11 Ghannouchi’s rejection of the Israel-PLO accord has been shriller than even that of most other Muslim Brotherhood leaders.

Ghannouchi's party has won a large holding in Tunisia's fresh election. It expects to lead a governinng coalition. This is clearly just another step forward for Tunisia and the Arab Spring.

Source for the above quoted article:http://www.martinkramer.org/sandbox/...id-ghannouchi/

For more "peace and love in the Middle East" read this piece from 2001 featuring gannouchi: http://www.memri.org/report/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/483.htm

And on an unrelated note, read that bit at the end--

The last speaker on the program was the PA Minister of Supplies, Abu Ali Shahin, who addressed the issue of political negotiations and the Intifada. Shahin admitted that "accepting the Oslo accords was for the Palestinians, a betrayal of the historical legitimacy of the Arab right to Palestine." However, he explained, Oslo becomes legitimate when one takes into consideration that it was done "in order to gain a better position and to continue in the liberation of the land."

A PA Minister openly admitting (in Arabic) that the entire two-sate solution is a part of a strategy to simply get more concessions and 'continue in the liberation of the land'? Classic!

[Sava]

In 1989, I thought Jose Canseco was a great baseball player.

[C0ckney]

i opened this thread expecting it to be about tunisia and instead got some irrelevant, sometimes decades old, quotes and some blah blah blah about israel.

i should have known really when i saw the poster.

[dannubis]

Yeah, a combination of you and zevico always makes for interesting reads...

[C0ckney]

i should also point out that this polemic against rachid ghannouchi is made even more irrelevant by the fact that he will not be prime minister (hamadi jebali will fill that role) and has said that he has no government ambitions.

the reality is that tunisia has had a free and fair election and a moderate islamic party has won the support of the people. it's a great thing that the people, after years of dictatorship have been able to vote and choose their government. in terms of the politics, ennahda is likely to go into coalition with a centre-left party secularist party, to provide a broad based government. all sounds pretty positive to me.

because i'm feeling really charitable today, i'm going to do z a favour and provide a decent article on tunisia, so that we might have a discussion on tunisia itself, rather than the usual laughing at the israel first ****wits that zevico uses to make his arguments for him.

Tunisia Islamists to form new government within a month

Tunisia's moderate Islamist party Ennahda, has said it will form a new government within a month.

Preliminary results for Sunday's election give it a commanding lead, but not an overall majority, in the first democratic elections prompted by the Arab Spring uprisings.

Ennahda has put forward its number two, Secretary General Hamadi Jebali, as the next prime minister.

Coalition talks with secular parties have begun.

Mr Jebali, 62, is an engineer by training and a former journalist. He was a co-founder of Ennahda.

A vehement opponent of the ousted president, Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, Mr Jebali spent 16 years in jail - 10 in isolation - for his political activities.

Party leader Rachid Ghannouchi was not an election candidate and has said he had no government ambitions.

He has pledged not to set up an Islamist state and to respect multi-party democracy.

Ennahda, which was banned under the former regime, said it modelled itself on the governing AKP party in Turkey, another Muslim-majority country which has remained a secular state.

No bikini ban

It sought to reassure secularists and investors, nervous about the prospect of Islamists holding power in one of the Arab world's most liberal countries, by saying it would not stop tourists wearing bikinis on the beaches nor impose Islamic banking.

"The tourism sector is among the achievements which we cannot touch. Is it logical to handicap a strategic sector like tourism by forbidding wine or wearing bathing costumes?" Mr Jebali said.

"These are individual liberties granted for foreigners and Tunisians alike."

Referring to the finance sector, Mr Jebali said: "Islamic banks will not be established across the country, the banking system in Tunisia will not be changed and the activity of businessmen will not be limited. On the contrary, they will be backed for attracting Arab and foreign investments."

"These fears are unwarranted," he said.

Leftist partners

Ennahda's possible coalition partners are on the leftist, liberal side of the political spectrum.

The biggest secular party, Congress for the Republic (CPR), has defended its negotiations with Ennahda, saying the Islamist party was neither the devil nor the Taliban.

"No, no, no it is not the devil and we do not make pacts with the devil," CPR leader Moncef Marzouki said.

"One must not take them for the Taliban of Tunisia. It is a moderate part of Islam," he said.

Mustapha Ben Jafaar, leader of Ettakatol, another centre-left party, has said coalition talks have already started.

He told the AFP new agency that a broad-based executive was required, to avoid "polarisation between Islamists and modernists".

The polls were Tunisia's first democratic elections, and followed the fall of President Ben Ali, who was overthrown in January after mass demonstrations. He had been in power for 23 years.

However, unlike its eastern neighbour Libya, Tunisia's transition from authoritarian rule has been largely peaceful.

those terrible islamists etc...

[MOBIUS]

It's funny how the biggest proponents of democracy only like democracy when the people voting agree with them...

[Elok]

Self-determination

[dannubis]

To practice that concept is only allowed for people of Jewish descent, didn't you know ?

[Lorizael]

In 1989, I thought Jose Canseco was a great baseball player.

In 1989 I thought hyperspace was a legitimate method of FTL.

[OneFootInTheGrave]

will be interesting to watch how it turns out... views from a Tunisian journo...

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/global_economy/mj27dj02.html

The moderately Islamist party Ennahda, which was banned for 10 years, captured a quarter of the votes but fell short of a majority in a new assembly that will rewrite the constitution and appoint a president to form a caretaker government.

Though the results had been widely expected by observers, many Tunisians, especially women, were fearful of such an outcome.

Tunisia, one of the more liberal countries in the Arab world, has managed to remain secular and modern since its independence. Women have enjoyed a greater degree of equality than almost anywhere else in the region and their rights were guaranteed in the constitution.

An Islamic majority in a new parliament and government would only reverse their unique status, they fear.

Ennhada leader Rachid Gannouchi, who returned to Tunis from exile in the United Kingdom after more than 20 years, has been keen to allay those fears by promising to respect Tunisia's strong secular tradition and preserve the liberties of everyone.

Gannouchi has even reassured Western countries that under an Islamic government, Tunisia will continue to welcome foreign investment and foreign tourists.

He has promised that he will not ban alcohol or force women to wear the veil. He likes to compare his party to Turkey's ruling moderate Islamist Justice and Development Party and insists that his party is not dogmatic, but pragmatic and will restore law and order and rebuild the country's economy.

Not everyone is convinced though, and many say that these are just pre-election promises.

all in all... it's wait and see mode...

the issue with democracy is that it requires an underlying culture which needs to be in place with total majority in order for it to succeed (I think that min requirement is 75%+ of eligible voters )

If there is even a plurality of those who want to impose non democratic values via democratic means, that equals trouble and another xyz years, until support for such direction dissapears in the population... Iran is a good example, it was a revolution mostly lead by moderates, but the fanatics took the power, as they are the most organized and have a clearly defined set of goals and "vision" on what to do once in power.

For Tunisia I am moderately optimistic, and think they have a good chance to end up like Turkey, which would be great... for Libya, I am a lot less enthusiastic that they will be "moderate", and virtually no chance they will be individually as well off as they were under Gadaffi for decades to come... as for Egypt, I expect slaughter of Copts if structure of military changes... so let's wait and see.

[Sava]

In 1989 I thought hyperspace was a legitimate method of FTL.

fruit of the loom?

[Elok]

Yes. Thankfully he now realizes that transdimensional underwear is just plain wrong.

[Lorizael]

I stick to NAFAL these days.

[DaShi]

Yeah, a combination of you and zevico always makes for interesting reads...

I'm moving to Brazil to marry C0ckney.

[Zevico]

http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=242871

Western media routinely describe Tunisia’s Ennahda party as “moderately Islamist.” The once-banned movement’s own past, however, reveals a tendency to violence, and its current platform raises serious questions about the role of Islam in arguably the Arab world’s most secular state.

Ennahda, or “Renaissance” has its roots in the Islamist university groups that proliferated in the Muslim world’s universities following the 1979 Iranian Revolution. The party was officially founded in 1989, two years into the 14-year reign of president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.Two years later Ben Ali banned the party, and over the course of his term jailed tens of thousands of its leaders.

Ennahda was legalized in January of this year, following Ben Ali’s ouster in a month-long popular revolt. One thousand supporters welcomed back the party’s founder and leader, 70-yearold Rachid Ghannouchi, on his return to Tunis from European exile in January.

The Islamist party now appears set to take a majority, or at least a plurality, in the Arab world’s first post-revolutionary elections. Ballots were held Sunday and results are expected the following day.

Ennahda presents itself to outsiders as nonviolent, but the movement’s members have been implicated in both incitement and violent actions against Tunisian and foreign targets.

The party supported the 1979 embassy takeover in Iran, and evidence suggests it was responsible for bombing four tourist hotels in the 1980s. In 1991 its operatives attacked the headquarters of Ben Ali’s party, killing one person and throwing acid in the faces of several others, and that same year Ghannouchi called for attacks on US interests in the Middle East in response to America’s invasion of Iraq in the Gulf War.

Ennahda’s founding ideology was largely shaped by that of Sayyid Qutb, a leading ideologue of the grandfather of all Islamist groups, Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood. Ennahda still maintains ties with the Brotherhood, but the Tunisian party prefers to compare itself with another political model: Turkey’s ruling AK party, which though religious in its founding and nature, has stopped short of calling for the imposition of Shari’a.

In an interview this month, however, Ghannouchi said he supports a “moderate” form of Shari’a that would combine “democracy, which is a Western product, with Islam, which is our own heritage.”

“Shari’a is not something that is alien or strange to our societies... For example, in Britain we have Islamic finance and Islamic banking, and Islamic family law can be applied for marriage and divorce,” he said. “We don’t see Shari’a interfering in people’s private lives or in their freedom to wear what they want. Personal freedom is very important for us.”

An opinion poll conducted in March found Ennahda enjoyed the support of 29 percent of Tunisians, far ahead of its closest rival, the secular Progressive Democratic Party, at 12%.

Tunisia is arguably the most gender- equal country in the Arab world and one of the only Arab states with a large non-religious community. During the era of Ben Ali, and his predecessor, Habib Bourguiba, Tunisia was the first Arab country to allow women to vote, and later banned polygamy, legalized abortion and made marriage condition on female consent.

Since Ben Ali’s ouster, however, Tunisian secularists have pointed to a disconcerting trend toward xenophobia and religious extremism.

In February, footage uploaded to YouTube showed hundreds of protesters converged on Tunis’ Grand Synagogue after Friday prayers shouting “Allahu akbar” and “Khaybar, Khaybar, oh Jews! The army of Muhammad will return!” Khaybar was a Jewish oasis in Arabia conquered by the Muslims in the seventh century.

Jews were forced to pay tribute and later expelled. Tunisia’s Jewish population – more than 100,000 in 1948 – is now less than 2,000.

In July, a draft constitution compiled by the country’s interim authorities included a clause banning normalization with Israel. Some constitutional committee members from secularist parties called to remove the clause, but Ennahda – along with Arab nationalist and extreme left factions – supported its inclusion.

This month, police used tear gas to disperse thousands protesting an animated film, Persepolis, they deemed blasphemous. The film shows an Iranian girl’s coming of age story after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, and angered Islamists for its representation of God and its protagonist’s supposedly un-Islamic lifestyle.

The house of the owner of the station that broadcast the film was later firebombed. It was unclear whether the assailants belonged to Ennahda or even more extreme Salafi Islamist groups.

There is no reason to worry. A country that unapologetically expelled almost its entire Jewish population is not anti-Jewish, but merely anti-Zionist.

The rise of Islamism in Tunisia is merely a symptom of a sick society.

And really, just because the Islamist's leader declared a holy war against the United States, is that any reason for the West to oppose him? Like Obama's favourite preacher, Jeremiah Wright, said--anti-Americanism is merely America's chickens "coming home to roost." It is perfectly natural, therefore, to ally with our enemies and forswear our former allies. Totalitarian Islamist racism is the new liberal humanitarianism.

In any case, he's promised not to run for office, which means that all the people who bought into his politics will be running in his stead and possibly taking his orders. This is, of course, a drastic improvement.