Inside Tunisia's al-Nahda

McCarthy, Rory

doi:10.1017/9781108560511

Cited by 56 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 98 publications

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“…Social service provision can generate a reputational advantage for Islamist political parties (Cammett and Luong, 2014), alternatively Islamist activists may also use civil society to critique political compromise by the party (Sigillò, 2023). The relationship between the original piety movement and later political ambition is often a source of ongoing internal tension (McCarthy, 2018a;Meijer, 2021).…”

Section: Connecting Daʿwa and Politicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Explaining the distinction between religious and political activism in Islamism: evidence from the Tunisian case

Merone,

McCarthy

2024

Politics and Religion

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Tunisia's Islamist movement Ennahda has announced a separation of political and religious work, apparently reinforcing a “post-Islamist” argument that Islamic parties have left behind religious mobilization. However, the boundary between religious and political fields is highly porous. We ask why the distinction between religious and political activism remains a point of ambiguity within Islamism. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with 48 men and women who participated in the movement in the 1970s and 1980s in Tunis and Sousse, we develop a microlevel explanation of Islamist mobilization. We argue that religious and social Islamist activism is replete with political intent, which worked through three mechanisms: a counter-hegemonic ideology, an activist engagement in social transformation, and a formal organization. These findings add empirical insights to the case of Ennahda, provide leverage in explaining the politicization of Salafist movements, and underscore the legacy of asymmetric party capacities in shaping outcomes in a democratic transition.

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Section: Connecting Daʿwa and Politicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Explaining the distinction between religious and political activism in Islamism: evidence from the Tunisian case

Merone,

McCarthy

2024

Politics and Religion

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“…Nidaa Tounes and Ennahda were willing to forge a coalition government and power-sharing agreement that helped move the political process forward even as the U.S. Embassy in Tunis was attacked in 2012, two leftist MPs were assassinated in 2013, and terrorist attacks occurred in Tunis and Sousse in 2016. Ennahda acted to ensure its long-term political survival, having learned from its difficult history of repression and the renewed crackdown against the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt following the 2013 military coup (McCarthy 2018;Wolf 2013Wolf , 2018Haugbølle and Cavatorta 2012). In 2015, a quartet of organizations-the Tunisian General Labor Union; the Tunisian Confederation of Industry, Trade and Handicrafts; the Tunisian Human Rights League; and the Tunisian Order of Lawyers-assembled in 2013 after the assassinations of the two leftist deputies, received the Nobel Peace Prize for helping steer the Tunisian political process out of the crisis.…”

Section: Between Polarization and Consensusmentioning

confidence: 99%

Struggles for Political Change in the Arab World

2022

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Preface | xix of surveillance and policing. Thus, from March onwards in 2020, largescale protest activities stopped in many states.However, this temporary halt in what had been a resurgent crescendo of activism will not last. In many countries, the coronavirus crisis exposed severe deficits of governance in terms of income inequality, underachieving educational systems, and overloaded healthcare facilities. Indeed, it was partly because many rulers had such little excess infrastructural capacity that their lockdowns were so strict and harsh, for even a minor uptick in infections and deaths would have overwhelmed their social service provisions. The crisis has also grounded the regional economy. Key sectors required by all but the richest oil-exporting economies, such as worker remittances, tourism receipts, and informal businesses, suffered devastating immobility. Even the most optimistic estimates suggest it will take another one to two years for economic growth to return to pre-pandemic levels.Once the pandemic subsides, popular forces will again struggle toward familiar goals regarding social justice, economic fairness, and political rights. New moments of reckoning loom. When that transpires, ruling elites must have better answers than instructing their societies to wait for better circumstances, or to warn about the menace of violence and conflict should their authoritarian grasp upon power dissolve. These represent old excuses that no longer hold water.The resulting process of change that awaits will be protracted, un predictable, and sometimes painful. But it will nonetheless still be one of change, not continuity. As this volume makes clear, history continues to rewrite itself in the Middle East and North Africa.1. We use this term critically and with recognition of its limitations. See, for example, Gelvin (2012,(32)(33).

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“…In 2011, Islamist parties won general elections in Tunisia, Egypt and Morocco, and they have since been the focus of much scholarly interest, as the introduction to this special issue shows. There have been numerous studies of Ennahda since then, with works examining its history (Wolf, 2017), the role of its members in keeping the organisation alive during the years of exile and clandestinity (McCarthy, 2018), its unique path to moderation as driven by its exclusion from the political sphere prior to 2011 (unlike other Islamist parties elsewhere: see Cavatorta & Merone, 2013), its economic agenda and policy proposals (Ben Salem, 2020;Cimini, 2017), as well as its record in power (Guazzone, 2013), among many others. While these works have been incredibly important in revealing the behavioural and ideological changes within Ennahda, they have had two limitations: their focus has been almost exclusively domestic; and they have drawn, implicitly or explicitly, on the moderation framework, commonly interpreted as a departure from the original Muslim Brotherhood (MB)'s guiding principles for a shift towards a liberal democratic agenda.…”

Section: Moderation or Self-limitation? A New Theoretical Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Learning mechanisms within an Islamist party: Tunisia’s Ennahda Movement between domestic and regional balances

Cimini

2021

Contemporary Politics

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Inside Tunisia's al-Nahda

Cited by 56 publications

References 98 publications

Explaining the distinction between religious and political activism in Islamism: evidence from the Tunisian case

Explaining the distinction between religious and political activism in Islamism: evidence from the Tunisian case

Struggles for Political Change in the Arab World

Learning mechanisms within an Islamist party: Tunisia’s Ennahda Movement between domestic and regional balances

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