Another Reading for the Tunisian Elections

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Another Reading for the Tunisian Elections

Another Reading for the Tunisian Elections

Secularists can still control the future of Tunisia

By Tawfik Hamid

www.tawfikhamid.com

The first free elections after the so called "Arab Spring" have been recently conducted in Tunisia.

The Islamist Ennahda party was declared the winner of Tunisia's election which will shape new democratic institutions after a revolution 10 months ago which set in motion the "Arab Spring" uprisings.

The following are approximate figures for the division of power in the NEW Tunisia.

41.5 % to Ennahda (the Islamist party)

28 % to the big liberal parties (CPR, Ettakatol, PDP Ettajdid)

14 % to the Popular Petition (led by wealthy business people)

6 % to the parties aligned with Ben Ali's regime (Afek Tounes, Mubadara)

10.5 % to several smaller lists & parties (mostly secular)

There is certainly a legitimate fear that Tunisia can ultimately be an Islamic state that implements Sharia Laws. However, careful analysis of the results shows that the secular groups -while divided into several political parties- constitute the majority (approximately 58.5%) of the seats of the total 217-seat assemblies. In other words in creating the new Tunisian constitution, the Islamic party that has 41.5% of the votes (90 seats) is unlikely to be able to implement Sharia rules that contradict secular values since secular parties together control more seats than the Islamic party. In such a situation it will not be entirely easy for the Islamic party to pass Sharia Laws that contradict secular laws. This could be one of the reasons why the Islamic Ennahda party declared that it accepts secularism, promised to maintain women rights in Tunisia, and declared that it will follow the 'Turkish model' subsequently causing leaders of the Ennahda Party to state that they will allow alcohol and bikinis in Tunisia. On the contrary, the leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) of Egypt could not say such a statement and -on several occasions- have expressed their desire to prevent alcohol and Un-Islamic dress in the country. Additionally, Ennahda party put Suaad Bin Abdel-Rehim -a women candidate of the party who do not wear the Hijab- on one of their election lists. Choosing a female candidate, who does not wear the Hijab to represent an Islamic party, is virtually 'unthinkable' for the MB of Egypt and other Islamic groups, as many of these groups know very well that wearing the Hijab is vital for proliferating the Islamism Ideology.

If we compared the statements of Ennahda party of Tunisia to the statements of the MB in Egypt who were opposed to serving alcohol or wearing bikinis on the beaches of Egypt and to the statements of Libyan leadership that stated that they will ban all Laws that contradict Islamic Sharia we can see that the Tunisian Islamic party represents a 'mutated' form of Islam that may have better chance to survive with modernity than the form of Islam that is adopted by the Egyptian and Libyan Muslim Brotherhood groups.

What was truly peculiar about the Tunisian Elections is that the support for Ennahda Islamic party among the Tunisians who live abroad (mostly in Europe) was 50% while the support for the Islamic party among the Tunisians who live in Tunisia was 41.5%. This is an indication that Islamism has been probably growing at faster rates in Europe than in some Islamic countries.

Another observation is that the only Islamic systems that clearly stated that they support 'secularism' and 'equality of women' are Turkey and Tunisia who are the only Islamic countries that prohibited the Islamic Hijab in government institutions. This could be seen as indication that the proliferation of the Hijab phenomenon can modify or modulate the type of Islam produced by these societies. For example, if we compared Saudi Arabia where most women wears complete body cover (Niquab) to Egypt where most women now wear Islamic Head Scarves (Hijab) to Tunisia where the Hijab was suppressed for decades, we can clearly see that the most radical understanding of Islam developed in the country where women are most covered while the relatively liberal understanding of the religion developed is in the country that suppressed the Hijab. This does not in any way underestimate the valuable role of education in the Tunisian society that were adopted by the former Tunisian government and promoted acceptance of the 'other'.

If the Ennahda party of Tunisia respected its promise to adopt secularism, to maintain women rights, and to follow the Turkish model- its possible success can be used as an anti-dote to Islamic systems which adopt regressive forms of Islam that has resulted in or will result in failure for their societies. This could be like using a homeopathic treatment that contains un-harmful dilutions of a toxin to prevent more serious toxins from working in the body (1).

At the moment, we cannot determine for sure if Ennahda party will keep its promises or not, however, secularists -all together- who represent more than 50% of the Tunisian parliament can impede the ability of their Islamic political opponent to create a regressive constitution for their country. On the contrary, the liberals and seculars in Egypt and in Libya are in a worse situation than their counterparts in Tunisia and thus are less likely to be able to prevent the next Egyptian or Libyan parliaments from adopting an Islamic regressive constitution that may end hopes for modernity in both countries

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