Renaissance Party
Encyclopedia
The Ennahda Movement, Renaissance Party or Nahda ( or ; ) is a moderate Islamist 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. Since then it has become the biggest and best-organised party in Tunisia, so far outdistancing its more secular competitors. In the 24 October 2011 Tunisian Constituent Assembly election, the first elections since the Tunisian Revolution, the party won 40% of the vote, and 89 of the 217 assembly seats, far more than any other party.
", and it was originally inspired by the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood
. The group supported the 1979 takeover
of the U.S. embassy in Tehran, claiming that "It was not an embassy, but a spy centre". Their influence in 1984 was such that, according to Robin Wright, an unnamed British journalist living in Tunisia stated that 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." The group, or members of it, were also responsible for the bombing of some tourist hotels in the 1980s.
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 of multi-party democracy that offers a minimum of freedom for his party and followers.
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. 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.
Ennahda's newspaper
Al-Fajr was banned in Tunisia and its editor
, Hamadi Jebali, was sentenced to sixteen years imprisonment in 1992 for membership in 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 Ennahda. 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 . "Tens of thousands" of Islamists were imprisoned or exiled during this time.
, 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." Earlier Al-Ghannushi announced that the party had "signed a shared statement of principles with the other Tunisian opposition groups". 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 Ennahda Movement to gain broad support.
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).
The party was legalised on 1 March 2011. A March 2011 opinion poll found the Ennahda Movement 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%. It was also found that 61.4% of Tunisians "ignore political parties in the country." 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."
In May 2011 Ennahda's General Secretary Hamadi Jebali
traveled to Washington, D.C.
on the invitation of the Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy He also met U.S. Senators John McCain
and Joe Lieberman
.
Ennahda'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. 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. A foreign journalist attending Ennahda rallies in Tunisia noted enthusiasm for the Palestinian cause and the slogan "no to American military bases, no to foreign interventions."
On a press conference in June 2011 the Ennahda Movement 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.
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. Therefore, it has been accused of receiving considerable financial contributions from abroad, namely from the Arab states of the Gulf
.
, 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?”
Ghannushi has denounced Sayyid Qutb
, supported worker's rights and women's education, and stated Sharia law has "no place in Tunisia." 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." The general manager of Al Arabiya
wrote an editorial expressing the opinion that Ennahda is fundamentally a conservative Islamist party with a moderate leadership.
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.
The party, notably, is more moderate in urbanized areas such as Tunis
, where secular and socially liberal beliefs predominate. Tunisia is the only Arab country with a large secular community.
, rather than being a "puzzling disappointment for the forces of democracy", the Ennahdha victory is a natural outcome of inevitable differences between revolution's leaders and the fact that "Tunisians see Islam as a defining feature of their personal and political identities." Rashid Ghannouchi, the party's leader was one of the few "voices of resistance to the regime in the last 20 years."
Political scientist Riadh Sidaoui explain that the Ennahdha leader models his approach on the moderate Islamism
of Turkey
; he says : "The leadership was forced into exile in London
for a long time [because of harassment by Tunisian police] and understood about the need to have a balanced outlook... No one wants a repeat of the 1991 Algerian scenario.”
On 13 November 2011, the party's general secretary Hamadi Jebali
held a joint rally in Sousse
together with a parliamentary deputy of the Palestinian Hamas
party. In a tone sharply in contrast to official statements of the party, Jebali referred to the occasion as "a divine moment in a new state, and in, hopefully, a 6th caliphate," and that "the liberation of Tunisia will, God willing, bring about the liberation of Jerusalem."
Political party
A political party is a political organization that typically seeks to influence government policy, usually by nominating their own candidates and trying to seat them in political office. Parties participate in electoral campaigns, educational outreach or protest actions...
in Tunisia
Tunisia
Tunisia , officially the Tunisian RepublicThe long name of Tunisia in other languages used in the country is: , is the northernmost country in Africa. It is a Maghreb country and is bordered by Algeria to the west, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Its area...
. On 1 March 2011, after the government of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali
Zine El Abidine Ben Ali
Zine El Abidine Ben Ali is a Tunisian political figure who was the second President of Tunisia from 1987 to 2011. Ben Ali was appointed Prime Minister in October 1987, and he assumed the Presidency on 7 November 1987 in a bloodless coup d'état that ousted President Habib Bourguiba, who was...
collapsed in the wake of the 2011 Tunisian revolution, Tunisia's interim government granted the group permission to form a political party. Since then it has become the biggest and best-organised party in Tunisia, so far outdistancing its more secular competitors. In the 24 October 2011 Tunisian Constituent Assembly election, the first elections since the Tunisian Revolution, the party won 40% of the vote, and 89 of the 217 assembly seats, far more than any other party.
Early years
Succeeding a group known as Islamic Action, the party was founded under the name of Movement of the Islamic Tendency in 1981. In 1989, it changed it name to Hizb al-Nahda. The party has been described as one of many parties/movements in Muslim states "that grew up alongside the Iranian revolutionIranian Revolution
The Iranian Revolution refers to events involving the overthrow of Iran's monarchy under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and its replacement with an Islamic republic under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of the...
", and it was originally inspired by the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood
Muslim Brotherhood
The Society of the Muslim Brothers is the world's oldest and one of the largest Islamist parties, and is the largest political opposition organization in many Arab states. It was founded in 1928 in Egypt by the Islamic scholar and schoolteacher Hassan al-Banna and by the late 1940s had an...
. The group supported the 1979 takeover
Iran hostage crisis
The Iran hostage crisis was a diplomatic crisis between Iran and the United States where 52 Americans were held hostage for 444 days from November 4, 1979 to January 20, 1981, after a group of Islamist students and militants took over the American Embassy in Tehran in support of the Iranian...
of the U.S. embassy in Tehran, claiming that "It was not an embassy, but a spy centre". Their influence in 1984 was such that, according to Robin Wright, an unnamed British journalist living in Tunisia stated that 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." The group, or members of it, were also responsible for the bombing of some tourist hotels in the 1980s.
Sayyid Qutb
Sayyid Qutb was an Egyptian author, educator, Islamist theorist, poet, and the leading member of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood in the 1950s and '60s....
and Maududi, the party began to be described as "moderate Islamist" in the 1980s when it advocated democracy and a "Tunisian" form of Islamism
Islamism
Islamism also , lit., "Political Islam" is set of ideologies holding that Islam is not only a religion but also a political system. Islamism is a controversial term, and definitions of it sometimes vary...
recognizing political pluralism and a "dialogue" with the West. Critics charge that one of their main leaders, named Rashid Al-Ghannushi
Rashid Al-Ghannushi
Rashid al-Ghannushi or Rached Ghannouchi is a Tunisian Islamist who co-founded the Ennahda Movement, currently the largest party in Tunisia. He has been called the party's "intellectual leader".-Biography:...
, 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 of multi-party democracy that offers a minimum of freedom for his party and followers.
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. 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.
Ennahda's newspaper
Newspaper
A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...
Al-Fajr was banned in Tunisia and its editor
Editing
Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, visual, audible, and film media used to convey information through the processes of correction, condensation, organization, and other modifications performed with an intention of producing a correct, consistent, accurate, and complete...
, Hamadi Jebali, was sentenced to sixteen years imprisonment in 1992 for membership in the un-authorized organisation and for "aggression with the intention of changing the nature of the state". The Arabic language
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
television station El Zeitouna is believed to be connected with Ennahda. 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 . "Tens of thousands" of Islamists were imprisoned or exiled during this time.
Tunisian revolution and legalisation
In the wake of the Tunisian RevolutionTunisian revolution
The Tunisian Revolution is an intensive campaign of civil resistance, including a series of street demonstrations taking place in Tunisia. The events began in December 2010 and led to the ousting of longtime President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in January 2011...
, 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." Earlier Al-Ghannushi announced that the party had "signed a shared statement of principles with the other Tunisian opposition groups". The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
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 Ennahda Movement to gain broad support.
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
Hizb ut-Tahrir
Hizb ut-Tahrir is an international Sunni. pan-Islamic political organisation but keeps it open for all including shias,some of its beliefs are against sunni school of thought, whose goal is for all Muslim countries to unify as an Islamic state or caliphate ruled by Islamic law and with a caliph...
, (whom Al-Ghannushi accuses of exporting a distorted understanding of Islam).
The party was legalised on 1 March 2011. A March 2011 opinion poll found the Ennahda Movement ranked first among political parties in Tunisia with 29%, followed by the Progressive Democratic Party
Progressive Democratic Party (Tunisia)
The Progressive Democratic Party , also referred to by its acronym PDP, is a secular liberal political party in Tunisia. It was founded under the name of Progressive Socialist Rally in 1983, gained legal recognition in 1988 and was renamed Progressive Democratic Party in 2001. Under the rule of Ben...
at 12.3% and the Ettajdid Movement at 7.1%. It was also found that 61.4% of Tunisians "ignore political parties in the country." 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."
In May 2011 Ennahda's General Secretary Hamadi Jebali
Hamadi Jebali
Hamadi Jebali is a Tunisian engineer, Islamist politician and journalist. He is the Secretary-General of the Ennahda Movement, a moderate Islamist party in Tunisia.-Education and professional life:Born in Sousse, Hamadi Jebali studied engineering...
traveled to Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
on the invitation of the Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy He also met U.S. Senators John McCain
John McCain
John Sidney McCain III is the senior United States Senator from Arizona. He was the Republican nominee for president in the 2008 United States election....
and Joe Lieberman
Joe Lieberman
Joseph Isadore "Joe" Lieberman is the senior United States Senator from Connecticut. A former member of the Democratic Party, he was the party's nominee for Vice President in the 2000 election. Currently an independent, he remains closely affiliated with the party.Born in Stamford, Connecticut,...
.
Ennahda'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
Algerian Civil War
The Algerian Civil War was an armed conflict between the Algerian government and various Islamist rebel groups which began in 1991. It is estimated to have cost between 150,000 and 200,000 lives, in a population of about 25,010,000 in 1990 and 31,193,917 in 2000.More than 70 journalists were...
between Islamists and the government and the divisions in Palestine between Hamas and secularists. 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
Islamic democracy
Islamic democracy refers to two kinds of democratic states that can be recognized in the Islamic countries. The basis of this distinction has to do with how comprehensively Islam is incorporated into the affairs of the state....
ideology to Christian democracy
Christian Democracy
Christian democracy is a political ideology that seeks to apply Christian principles to public policy. It emerged in nineteenth-century Europe under the influence of conservatism and Catholic social teaching...
in Italy and Germany. A foreign journalist attending Ennahda rallies in Tunisia noted enthusiasm for the Palestinian cause and the slogan "no to American military bases, no to foreign interventions."
On a press conference in June 2011 the Ennahda Movement 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
Süddeutsche Zeitung
The Süddeutsche Zeitung , published in Munich, is the largest German national subscription daily newspaper.-Profile:The title literally translates as "South German Newspaper". It is read throughout Germany by 1.1 million readers daily and boasts a relatively high circulation abroad...
noted that, unlike leftist parties of Tunisia, the moderately Islamist party is not against a market economy.
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
Eid ul-Fitr
Eid ul-Fitr, Eid al-Fitr, Id-ul-Fitr, or Id al-Fitr , often abbreviated to Eid, is a Muslim holiday that marks the end of Ramadan, the Islamic holy month of fasting . Eid is an Arabic word meaning "festivity," while Fiṭr means "breaking the fast"...
feasts, and sponsoring events. Therefore, it has been accused of receiving considerable financial contributions from abroad, namely from the Arab states of the Gulf
Arab states of the Persian Gulf
"Arab states of the Persian Gulf" or "Arab Persian Gulf states" or "Persian Gulf Arab states" or "Arabic Persian Gulf states" or "Arab States of The Gulf", are terms that refer to the six Arab states of Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman, bordering the Persian Gulf....
.
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 nationalistArab nationalism
Arab nationalism is a nationalist ideology celebrating the glories of Arab civilization, the language and literature of the Arabs, calling for rejuvenation and political union in the Arab world...
, and socialist principles that predominate among the other parties, and instead allow Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
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
Islamism
Islamism also , lit., "Political Islam" is set of ideologies holding that Islam is not only a religion but also a political system. Islamism is a controversial term, and definitions of it sometimes vary...
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?”
Ghannushi has denounced Sayyid Qutb
Sayyid Qutb
Sayyid Qutb was an Egyptian author, educator, Islamist theorist, poet, and the leading member of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood in the 1950s and '60s....
, supported worker's rights and women's education, and stated Sharia law has "no place in Tunisia." Other sources question the sincerity of Ennahda. Ahmed Ibrahim
Ahmed Ibrahim (Tunisian politician)
Ahmed Ibrahim ; born 19 June 1947), also known as Ahmed Brahim, is a Tunisian politician. He is the First Secretary of Ettajdid Movement and the leader of the Democratic Modernist Pole. He was the party's candidate for President of Tunisia in the 2009 presidential election...
of the Tunisian Pole Democratique Moderniste
Democratic Modernist Pole
Democratic Modernist Pole is a Tunisian political coalition created for the Tunisian Constituent Assembly election of 23 October 2011. The "Pole" consists of four parties and five citizen initiatives, the largest of which is the Ettajdid Movement. However, a October 18 report by Bloomberg.com...
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." The general manager of Al Arabiya
Al Arabiya
Al Arabiya is a Pan-Arabist Saudi-owned Arabic-language television news channel. Launched on March 3, 2003, the channel is based in Dubai Media City, United Arab Emirates, and is majority-owned by the Saudi broadcaster Middle East Broadcasting Center ....
wrote an editorial expressing the opinion that Ennahda is fundamentally a conservative Islamist party with a moderate leadership.
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.
The party, notably, is more moderate in urbanized areas such as Tunis
Tunis
Tunis is the capital of both the Tunisian Republic and the Tunis Governorate. It is Tunisia's largest city, with a population of 728,453 as of 2004; the greater metropolitan area holds some 2,412,500 inhabitants....
, where secular and socially liberal beliefs predominate. Tunisia is the only Arab country with a large secular community.
2011 victory
According to scholar Noah FeldmanNoah Feldman
Noah Feldman is an American author and professor of law at Harvard Law School.-Education and career:Feldman grew up in Boston, Massachusetts, where he attended the Maimonides School....
, rather than being a "puzzling disappointment for the forces of democracy", the Ennahdha victory is a natural outcome of inevitable differences between revolution's leaders and the fact that "Tunisians see Islam as a defining feature of their personal and political identities." Rashid Ghannouchi, the party's leader was one of the few "voices of resistance to the regime in the last 20 years."
Political scientist Riadh Sidaoui explain that the Ennahdha leader models his approach on the moderate Islamism
Islamism
Islamism also , lit., "Political Islam" is set of ideologies holding that Islam is not only a religion but also a political system. Islamism is a controversial term, and definitions of it sometimes vary...
of Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
; he says : "The leadership was forced into exile in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
for a long time [because of harassment by Tunisian police] and understood about the need to have a balanced outlook... No one wants a repeat of the 1991 Algerian scenario.”
On 13 November 2011, the party's general secretary Hamadi Jebali
Hamadi Jebali
Hamadi Jebali is a Tunisian engineer, Islamist politician and journalist. He is the Secretary-General of the Ennahda Movement, a moderate Islamist party in Tunisia.-Education and professional life:Born in Sousse, Hamadi Jebali studied engineering...
held a joint rally in Sousse
Sousse
Sousse is a city in Tunisia. Located 140 km south of the capital Tunis, the city has 173,047 inhabitants . Sousse is in the central-east of the country, on the Gulf of Hammamet, which is a part of the Mediterranean Sea. The name may be of Berber origin: similar names are found in Libya and in...
together with a parliamentary deputy of the Palestinian Hamas
Hamas
Hamas is the Palestinian Sunni Islamic or Islamist political party that governs the Gaza Strip. Hamas also has a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades...
party. In a tone sharply in contrast to official statements of the party, Jebali referred to the occasion as "a divine moment in a new state, and in, hopefully, a 6th caliphate," and that "the liberation of Tunisia will, God willing, bring about the liberation of Jerusalem."
External links
- Bruce Maddy-Weitzman, "The Islamic Challenge in North Africa," MERIA: Middle East Review of International Affairs, Vol. 1, No. 2 (July 1997)
- Article by Emmanuel Sivan Official Site of Al Nahda