GCIS INTELLIGENCE BRIEFING: Tunisia Islamist Leader Does Not Support an Islamic State

ISSUED BY: GCIS Communications Command Center

SOURCE: GlobalSecurity.org

02February2011 5:38pmEST

GCIS INTELLIGENCE UPDATE: Islamist leader Rachid Ghanouchi has been in Tunisia's spotlight since returning to the North African country after more than two decades in exile.

In the past, Tunisian authorities have cracked down hard on political Islam. Many are wondering what role it will play as Tunisia tries to build a multiparty democracy.

Ghanouchi is quick to stress his brand of religious politics is open, moderate and tolerant. It is something he has stressed repeatedly, including in an interview with VOA.

Ghanouchi says his party, Ennahda, wants a democratic republic and does not search to install an Islamic republic.

He said that the ideology of Ennadha has matured since the 1980s and Islam and democracy go together.

Ghanouchi's party means renaissance in Arabic. And Tunisia is also undergoing a rebirth, of sorts, as it shakes off its autocratic past. (read full report)

 

 

 

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