Ennahda Movement حركة النهضة
Hizbu Ḥarakatu n-Nahḍah
Mouvement Ennahda
Hizbu Ḥarakatu n-Nahḍah
Mouvement Ennahda
Rached Ghannouchi (co-founder)
6 June 1981
1 March 2011
67, rue Oum Kalthoum
1001 Tunis
El-Fajr
Founded as the Movement of Islamic Tendency in 1981,[10] Ennahda was inspired by the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood[11] and through the latter, to Ruhollah Khomeini's own propelled ideology of "Islamic Government".[12]
In the wake of the 2011 Tunisian revolution and collapse of the government of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, the Ennahda Movement Party was formed,[13] and in the 2011 Tunisian Constituent Assembly election (the first free election in the country's history),[14] won a plurality of 37%[14] of the popular vote[15][16][17][18] and formed the government. Uproar in the traditionally secular country over "Islamization" and assassinations of two secular politicians however, led to the 2013–14 Tunisian political crisis, and the party stepped down[19] following the implementation of a new constitution in January 2014.[20] The party came in second with 27.79% of the vote, in the 2014 Tunisian parliamentary election, forming a coalition government with the largest secular party, but did not offer or endorse a candidate in the November 2014 presidential election.[21]
In 2018, lawyers and politicians accused Ennahda of forming a secret organisation that had infiltrated security forces and the judiciary. They also claimed the party was behind the 2013 assassinations of Chokri Belaid and Mohamed Brahmi, two progressive political leaders of the leftist Popular Front electoral alliance. Ennahda denied the accusations and accused the Popular Front of slandering and distorting Ennahda. It said that the Popular Front was exploiting the two assassination cases and using blood as an excuse to reach the government after failing to do so through democratic means.[22]
Ideology[edit]
Robert F. Worth, following 2011 and the "Arab Spring" mainstream media reports, calls it "the mildest and most democratic Islamist party in history"[23] but omits the ideological adoption of the velayat-i feqih[24] by the movement's founder Rached Ghannouchi,[25] who has remained its president for 38 years without interruption. The expert on Islamic Jurisprudence and Shia Political Thought, Rana Rashid Mudhaffer (University of Baqir al-Olum University) refers to him in an article published in the personal website of Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei, making an apologetical commentary of Kheridji-Ghannouchi's publication "Participation in Non-Islamic Government in Liberal Islam", when referring to Islamic Government.[26] Rached Ghannouchi says textually in his book: "The Islamic government is one in which: 1- supreme legislative authority is for the shari'a, which is the revealed law of Islam, which transcends all laws. (...)" [27]
According to Sebnem Gumuscu, there were competing views within the party about liberal democracy in its early years, but since the 1990s, liberali Islamists pulled Ennahda towards democratic principles.[28]
History[edit]
Early years[edit]
Succeeding a group known as Islamic Action, the party was founded under the name of "Movement of Islamic Tendency" (French: Mouvement de la Tendance Islamique (MTI), Arabic: حركة الاتجاه الإسلامي Ḥarakatu l-Ittijāhu l-Islāmī) in 1981.[10][29]
After the Tunisian bread riots in January 1984 the government suspected the MTI of involvement in the disturbances, and arrested many of its supporters. The MTI leaders had encouraged their followers to join in the riots, but the government produced no proof that they had organized them. The persecution of the MTI enhanced its reputation as an organization committed to helping the people.[30]
In 1989, it changed its name to Ḥarakat Ennahḍha.[31]
The party has been described as one of many parties/movements in Muslim states "that grew up alongside the Iranian revolution",[32] and it was originally inspired by the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood.[11] The group supported the 1979 takeover of the U.S. embassy in Tehran, claiming that "It was not an embassy, but a spy centre".[32][33] Their influence in 1984 was such that, according to Robin Wright, a 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."[34]
During its first ten years of existence, presidency of Ennahda changed very often, while its leading figure Rached Ghannouchi was jailed until 1984 and then again in 1987. After going to exile he remained the party's "intellectual leader".[15] In November 1991 he also took back the formal presidency.
Following is a list of all former presidents of the party:[82]