Transformation of the Ennahda Movement from Islamic Jama'ah to political party.

• Author: Yildirim, Ramazan
• Position: ARTICLE

ABSTRACT The Ennahda Movement, foundations were laid in Tunisia at the beginning of the 1970s by Rached Ghannouchi and his friends, has continued its existence as an Islamic movement for many years, and has acquired the identity of a political party. This article analyzes the transformation of the Ennahda Movement--the role model of political transformations for Islamic movements in the Arab world post Arab Spring--from a religious movement to a political party. The article also addresses issues such as the role of the Ennahda Party in the democratization process started in Tunisia after the Arab Spring, its contributions to the new constitution, and its influence in the governments in which it has participated.

Historical Background of the Ennahda Party

Many intellectuals and activists made theoretical and practical contributions to the process in which the fundamental building blocks for the Ennahda Movement were laid by individuals such as Rached Ghannouchi, Abdelfattah Mourou, Hamida al-Naifar, Salah al-Din Jourchi, and Abdulmajid al-Najjar. The Ennahda Movement, which was affected by the methods of Islamic movements such as the Muslim Brotherhood but avoided slavish imitation, went through many stages until it acquired an idiosyncratic structure. Without a shadow of a doubt, the prominent leader at all stages has been Rached Ghannouchi.

Ghannouchi showed interest in Arab nationalism in his youth; however, he gravitated towards "Pan-Islamism" after realizing that the latter type of nationalism possessed a more secular and Western character rather than embracing the culture of Islam. In his own words, he "entered Islam" while he was studying philosophy in Damascus, after having realized that the socialist and nationalist movements he was involved in were crisis-ridden at the time. With this decision, he left both secular nationalism and traditional/imitational Islam and took a step toward fundamental or "real" Islam. This real Islam, whose main source was the revelation, is different from "imitational" Islam, which is the invention of history and traditions. (1)

After Ghannouchi, a significant actor in shaping Tunisia's Islamic Movement, gained Islamic awareness, he strengthened his world of thought theoretically by reading the works of thinkers such as Muhammad Iqbal, Hasan al-Banna, Abu A'la Maududi, Sayyed Qutb, Muhammad Qutb, Mustafa al-Siba'i, Malek Bennabi, and Abul Hasan Nadwi. He also kept in touch with the Ikhwan, Hizb ut-Tahrir, Sufi and Salafi communities in the field by participating in study circles with Damascus' prominent scholars. He attended the study circles of Nasiruddin al-Albani, an outstanding pioneer of contemporary Salafi movements. With the influence generated by Albani's grasp of the hadith (the Prophet Muhammad's sayings and deeds) and his efforts to purify Islam from superstition, Ghannouchi started showing interest in the works of Ibn Taymiyyah and Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya. After having completed his undergraduate study of philosophy in Damascus, Ghannouchi went to France to continue his education. In France, he contacted with the Tablighi Jamaat (Missionary Community) that he had known from his years in Damascus. He enjoyed the fact that the Jamaat members lived Islam simply and worked to spread the faith.

While it may seem contradictory for an individual who studied philosophy, who strived to grasp Islamic thought in depth, who was affected by Salafi interpretations of Islam and who criticized traditional piousness in no uncertain terms, to be influenced by the practices of Tablighi Jamaat, which involve adopting a type of asceticism--taqwa (piety). This seeming contradiction actually positively contributed to Ghannouchi's thought when he formed his own practice. During the time he spent with the Jamaat in Paris, he had to reduce the Islamic culture and thought which he had based on a philosophical foundation to a simple level and understanding. Factors like the simple lives of the Tablighi Jamaat members, their focus on the spiritual dimension of Islam and their practices of the Holy Prophet's Sunnah (tradition) in their daily lives influenced Ghannouchi and transformed him into a missionary (da'i) rather than a teacher of philosophy. Ghannouchi, with a clear mind on his way to Tunisia as to what kind of working method he would implement, emphasized the features of the method practiced by the Tablighi Jamaat in forming the first core of the Tunisian Islamic Movement. Based on the Tablighi Jamaat's method in regard to the Islamic movement, he came together with his friends in mosques to memorize some verses and hadiths. By walking in the boulevards and streets, they invited people to live a religious life without giving any political message.

After starting his activities with his method, however, Ghannouchi had to make a radical change when Tunisian security units began to scrutinize and hindered his group's activities. The method they followed had not required any secrecy at all. It was understood shortly that the method which was valid in societies where piety could be experienced openly and freely was not going to work in countries like Tunisia, where ordinary piety was marginalized and a strict secular and westernized politics was implemented.

Changing Socio-politics from Mashreq to Maghreb

The most important reason why the movement transformed into a different discourse and method was related to the strict secularism and fait accompli of Westernism policies there. Tunisia's political, cultural, and social structure presented both advantage and disadvantage for this cadre in search of a method and discourse. Therefore, the ideas that those who studied Maududi and Sayyed Qutb tried to disseminate did not have a tremendous impact.

Although it is geographically located in Maghreb (the region of North Africa, west of Egypt), Tunisia holds affiliations to the Mashreq (the region of the Arab world to the east of Egypt) basin, which includes Egypt, Syria and Iraq, due to its cultural and societal structure, a fact displayed by the commanding lead of labor unions, socialists and western-secularists in its discourses. Hence, the young cadres that were on the verge of launching a new Islamic movement had to be involved in the quest for an encompassing discourse that could solve the real problems of Tunisian society, instead of a belief-based discourse constructed on exclusionism. The Maghreb region had undergone a de facto colonialism period; Arab-Islamic culture had been alienated, forms of traditional piousness were weakened, and the government had supported efforts to replace them with the cultural and societal values of the West. In contrast, the traditional piety and cultural and social fiber of Islam continued its existence without much damage in the eastern countries of the region, which had also experienced a colonial period. For instance, Egyptian intellectuals typically use English only for official business, and speak Arabic in their private lives and at home. However, the Tunisian intelligentsia use French in all fields of life, including their private lives. English is not the language of administration, culture, tradition and daily life; rather, French has become the official language of the country. Language clearly demonstrates how these cultural, political and administrative differences between the Mashreq and Maghreb have affected these regions' respective Islamic movements. (2)

The Zaytuna University in Tunisia had adopted the Reform Movement which swept through the world of Islam in the 19th century. The reform they envisaged, however, was completely different from the reform movement of religion in the West. This movement, which advocated a renewal in Muslims' grasp of religion, gained wide acceptance in the community by supporting the renunciation of some traditions that did not have much to do with religion, and making new rulings and interpretations based on the fundamental references (Quran and hadith) of social, political and legal areas. However, these reform actions, which started in Tunisia in a natural process were aborted during the colonial period and then disappeared in the Bourguiba period as a result of efforts to eliminate religion from all societal areas. The most basic feature that separates the Islamic Movement in Tunisia from similar movements in other regions involves this approach to the reforms. In Tunisia, innovation, reform, and renewal were advocated, whereas westernization and secularization were protested. The difference between westernization and modernization was understood, and while modernization with the help of local internal dynamics was approved, Westernization policies imposed via foreign, external dynamics were protested.

Islamic Jama'ah (al-Jama'ah al-Islamiyya, 1971-1981)

Experiencing a crisis of identity in the face of harsh Western policies imposed upon them, and aspiring to preserve their traditional Muslim identities, some young people came together and strived to express themselves through the Islamic Jama'ah idea and identity. (3) The termination of the activities of Zaytuna University, one of the oldest educational institutions of the Islamic world, implementing a strict francophone style of secularism and forcing the government and the society to change in line with these policies quickly pushed the Islamic Jama'ah cadre to a process of reckoning with the official ideology and secular Western groups.

Islamic Jama'ah formed one of the building blocks of today's Ennahda Movement Party. It began its existence in 1970 by carrying on activities in the fields of thought, culture and education. The initial 10-year period of its formation also contributed to the growth of Ghannouchi and his friends by offering them a context within which to mature their own ideas, bring them together with the society through legal means, confront the real problems of Tunisian society, and provide practical experiences in...