Sunday, May 01, 2011

How Secular Is Post-revolutionary Tunisia?

Not very, according to Graham Usher's dispatch: "The Reawakening of Nahda in Tunisia" (MERIP, 30 April 2011). A few days before the publication of this article, moreover, the Financial Times reported: "Politicians . . . agree that the Islamist party [Nahda] could well emerge as the single largest in the assembly. Secular parties, both liberal and leftist, are fragmented while traditional parties are just learning how to run for genuine elections." Tunisia is said to be among the most secular countries in North Africa and West Asia. But even here the balance of ideological and organizational forces does not appear to favor secular leftists after the revolution.

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