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

movement, which would be similar to the Christian Democrat movement in Europe.
However, it is currently difficult to proliferate this alternate secularist interpretation.
His interpretation of secularism appears as a post-modern interpretation of the role
between religion and the state. He argued for a new concept of 21 st century secularism.
Fundamentally, this means that Tunisia would not be an Islamic state, but rather in lieu of
having a dictatorship of modernity, as the imposition of secularism under Bourguiba and
Ben Ali was often described, it would be an alliance of liberals, Islamists, pan-Arabists,
and socialists. This type of secularism would encompass a separation of religion from
the functioning of the state, but not renounce religion. In a sense, this idea seems to be
more in line with creating a toleration of multiple ideologies, while acknowledging that
Islam is the religion of the majority. The extent to which this would simply exist or be
codified is unclear and would lend itself to one of two different models postulated by
Stepan. Essential here is that Islam would not be the dominant religion, leading to the
Islamicization of society, but the role of Islam as the religion of the majority would be
recognized. Interestingly, religious secularism is recognized by many who ascribe to the
laïque variety of secularism as “Islamist,” rather than secular.
Conclusion
Tunisia ignited the Arab Spring. The Tunisian democracy experiment could serve as an
example to the rest of the Middle East and North Africa of how to create a viable,
moderate, successful democracy that embraces Islam. Without room for Islam, Tunisia’s
democracy will not be viable in the long term, nor would Tunisia be able to serve as a
model within the Arab-Muslim world of a viable, moderate marriage of Islam and
democracy. It is important to note the religious vision of Tunisians is moderate, like most
Tunisian identity issues. As a result, this establishment of political Islam driven by the
desire to see freedom of expression is an opportunity upon which to capitalize.
Recommendations
To achieve a more viable form of secularism, the following recommendations should be
considered.
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