The Role of Political Islam in Tunisia's Democratization Process: Towards a New Pattern of Secularization?

• Author: Ozcan, Sevinc Alkan
• Position: ARTICLE

Secularization, which is mainly used to explain the relation between modernity and religion in European societies, (1) has become an indispensable concept in discussions of the recent democratic uprisings in the Muslim world. No analysis of the Arab uprisings can neglect the concepts of Islam, secularization, laicism, modernity, civil society, pluralism, authoritarianism and democracy We can say that Tunisia is one of the best examples in which all these concepts can be analyzed together in the new era.

Following the uprisings that began with the self-immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi, and Zine al-Abidin Ben Ali's abandonment of the country after twenty-four years of power, a temporary government was set up. In 2011, the first multi-party elections were held in Tunisia, followed by parliamentary and presidential elections in 2014 in the wake of a year of crisis in Tunisian politics marked by the assassination of two political figures in 2013. The reconciliatory reactions of the Muslim democratic Ennahda Party to the rise of the nationalist-secularist Nidaa Tounes Party in the 2014 elections were important in terms of the change of the patterns of secularization in the Islamic world in general, and the relationship between democracy and secularization in Tunisia in particular.

As far as the discussions on the Muslim world are concerned with the process of secularization, the question of whether Islam and democracy are compatible has been a major focus, driven by the assumption that a linear relationship prevails among modernity, secularization and democracy However, the pattern created by the secular-nationalist-authoritarian regimes that dominated the entire Islamic world in the 20th century and the religious-oppositional-civil movements that have been revived since the 1980s has prompted a reformulation of the question as follows: "are secularization/laicism and democracy compatible?" or, put differently, "what kind of a relationship is there between secularization and a country's level of democratization?" Or, are "the enemies of democracy in the Middle East, not the Islamic parties, but the secular regimes?" as John Esposito, Tamara Sonn, and John O. Voll have stated. (2) When we formulate the basic questions in these ways, we can understand the developments in the Middle East without reducing them to an Islamist versus secularist dichotomy, and at the same time, we can clarify the transformation that took place in the relation between secularization and democracy in Tunisia.

Within this framework, my research questions are why, until now, have economic backwardness, corruption, oppression of the opposition and elimination of freedom of religion and conscience, as well as restrictions on the freedom of expression and press, not been seen as an integral part of the secular/laic-authoritarian pattern in Tunisia? Do the political developments and specific role of Ennahda after the uprisings in Tunisia have the potential to reveal a new pattern of secularization? My argument in this article is that there has been a shift in Tunisia from the dominance of the French type of authoritarian, exclusivist and monopolistic laicism to a pluralistic understanding of secularization, in which the resurgence of political Islam has made a significant contribution. In this shift, in addition to the Ennahda Party and its leader Rachid al-Ghannouchi's democratic stance, Ennahda's coalition partners after the first general elections and the coalition partners of the Nidaa Tounes Party, the democratic left Ettakatol (Democratic Forum for Labor and Liberties) and the secular-liberal CPR (Congress Party for the Republic) have also contributed. In this context, I argue that Zine al-Abidin Ben Ali's escape from the country and the democratization that has taken place since the time of the interim government have opened up a more pluralist understanding of secularization in the country. The transition to this pluralist understanding shows, in the case of Tunisia, that secularization emerges in an exclusive and monopolistic form in the absence of democracy and freedom of political participation.

The two different patterns in Tunisia are represented by two political wings, both of which participated in the 2014 elections. The authoritarian-laic pattern, which constitutes the dominant secularization pattern in Tunisia, is represented by the winning party of the 2014 elections, Nidaa Tounes and its leader Essebsi, who led the liberals, leftists and the former regime factions. The Islamist Ennahda and its leader Ghannouchi, who were in favor of a different understanding of secularization, represent the second pattern. Although the secularist-Islamist polarization in politics has become more prominent in the last six years, the issue of religion is, of course, not the only factor that influences electoral behavior. As Ghannouchi stated, the "Parliamentary elections in Tunisia on October 26, 2011 were not about the role of Islam in society. It was an opportunity to address issues such as unemployment, more inclusive economic growth, security, regional development and income inequality; in other words, earning bread is an important issue for ordinary Tunisians. There was no sad atmosphere in the party center when Ennahda was defeated by Nidaa last month in the parliamentary elections; we were happy that it was a victory for Tunisian democracy." (3) Ghannouchi has argued that Islam can live in reconciliation with modernity, and contrary to the secular and authoritarian conception of Bourguiba and Ben Ali, his understanding of secularization presents itself as more compatible with the Tunisian culture and its Islamic identity. (4)

The Secularization Debate

As Jose Casanova states, in the modern world all religions are refusing to accept the marginal and privatized role which theories of modernity as well as theories of secularization had reserved for them... "We are witnessing the deprivatization of religion in the modern world." (5) This rejection forces us to rethink the complex relationship between modernity and religion in the context of non-Western societies as well as Western ones because the role of religion has increased in politics, society and the public sphere all over the world since the 1970s and 1980s. Although the existing literature on secularization, mostly focusing on Western Europe and the U.S., says very little about the non-western world, it is still significant in responding to the question "is secularization an irreversible process which every society has experienced in a same way?" (6) --a question that has been raised specifically to discuss the relations between religion and politics in Muslim societies. As a matter of fact, many problems have been created by the adaptation of the concept of secularization, especially in the Islamic world, and criticisms of this process have become more audible in the recent period. (7) S. Parvez Manzoor says that as a reality or a doctrine it is not possible to consider secularism isolated from the theory and practice of secular power. Seeing secularism as a very philosophical paradigm in a sociological theory Manzoor argues that it is more an ideological discourse than a factual reality. Manzoor distinguishes the "secularization process" from secularism as an ideological concept that forms the basis of sociology. He defines the secularization process as the liberation of certain sectors of society from religious institutions and symbols, the separation of church and state from each other, the expropriation of church properties, and especially the liberation of education from the authority of religion. (8)

The inspiring works and conceptual frameworks of David Martin and Jose Casanova may provide significant openings for understanding secularization in non-European societies as well as within the European paradigm. Casanova's thesis of the deprivatization of religion, which is specifically based upon Catholic societies (Poland and Spain), enables us to rethink the relationship between religion and the public sphere and civil society--which have been defined as secular spheres by theories of modernization--and also explains the different patterns of secularization. Casanova compares the third wave of democratization movements in Catholic countries and the recent political and social transformations in the Islamic world. He focuses on the question of whether Islam has played a similar role to that of Catholicism in the democratic movements in Eastern Europe and Latin America, in the democratization process in the Middle East, and in the emergence of Muslim civil societies. He points out that:

The Tocquevillian argument can easily be applied to Islam. More perhaps than any other religion, Islam stresses discursively and ritually the equalization of all Muslims before God. Moreover, in comparison with the clerical, hierarchic, and hierocratic centralized administrative structure of the Catholic Church, the Islamic umma, at least within the Sunni tradition, has a more conciliar, egalitarian, laic, and decentralized structure. Moreover, in comparison with the canonical and dogmatic modes of official "infallible" definition and interpretation of the...