Tunisia: Understanding Conflict 2012 - Johns Hopkins School of ...

that Ennahdha has a totalitarian project, in the sense that it wants to shape and control
vast areas of the Tunisian public spheres.
Against these critiques, Ennahdha has replied that the presence and the
importance of the salafis has been magnified by the media. “As in many other
countries.” Abderrazak Kilani, Minister for Coordination between the Constitutional
Assembly and the Government, stated, “there are extremists of every color”. “Our
problems,” he continued, “are social, economic, but not the salafis. If we keep on
focusing on salafis, we are just scaring the tourists, who won’t choose Tunisia for their
vacations, with great damage to our economy” (SAIS Group Meeting, 26 January 2012).
Ghannouchi is on the same page: “We condemn them, they are not Muslim.” However,
he is in favor of the expression of their views in the public arena: “Ennahdha is for
freedom,” he maintained, “they have the right to express themselves. For me the salafis
are Tunisian people who have the right to express themselves within the limits of the
law.” According to the Ennahdha leader, the salafis emerged because of Ben Ali’s
repression and violence. “We believe that the salafis are the product of dictatorship,” he
stated; “When our party was expelled and persecuted by the government, there was a
vacuum that was filled by them. Once democracy will be established, there won’t be a
fertile ground for them to proliferate” (SAIS Group Meeting, 24 January 2012).
The Ennahdha official line seems therefore to disapprove of the salafis’ actions in
public statements and to marginalize their importance in the eye of the Western public
opinion, by reminding the European and U.S. observers that extremists from left and right
have always been a plague for many governors throughout the world. Also, he adds,
extremist groups are present in the parliaments of some Western democratic countries.
Ennahdha’s official “recipe” is the re-education of the salafis, as Ghannouchi has
proposed: “We need to re-educate them toward the real Islam. Islam radicalized in prison,
under torture; our enemies have been demonized. Once freedom will be restored, the
salafis will see their importance reduced drastically” (SAIS Group Meeting, 24 January
2012).
108