3. Islamists and Politics in Tunisia Today: Is the Foundation of a Democratic Islamic Party Possible?

Did the Tunisian Ennahdha party have a sociological and ideological predisposition inclining its transformation from a religious movement into a viable political party? How did an organization which was originally a group of preachers proclaiming Islamic societal salvation transform into a political party able to exercise power within a multiparty democratic system? These questions may seem merely technical as the Ennahdha party already exists and its members support conforming with Tunisia’s official charter regulating political parties. This association shifted over the past decades, organizing bureaucratically in a way that now clearly divides its operations between preaching for the salvation Islamic values and direct political action. But this process was not inevitable and the party has faced significant sociological and ideological challenges during its transformation process. Arguably, these challenges have negatively impacted the party’s political efficacy. Furthermore, the future of the Ennahdha party’s political-religious project will play out in accordance with how the party continues to manage this passage. Its commitment to participate as a party in a democratic system (or lack thereof) will surely influence the way in which large sections of Tunisian civil and political society react to it. At the heart of these challenges is the anthropological-political conception of Islam as a social fact in the Maussian sense of the term: as a method of exercising social control, which allows it to generate the world of salvation here and in the hereafter.