The Islamists in Tunisia between confrontation and participation: 1980-2008

For four decades Tunisia has been struggling with the question of whether to legalise political participation by Islamist parties. There have been several, but the party now called Ennahda, under exiled leader Rachid Ghannouchi, has been by far the most important. This article traces the shifting relationship of the Tunisian government under Bourguiba and Ben Ali with the Islamic Movement. The relationship is now confrontational, but it has not always been so. Rather, it has varied over time between confrontation and participation. We conclude that, especially with the recent rise of a violent Salafist movement in the Maghreb, there is a possibility of future political participation in Tunisia by moderate Islamists movements such as Ennahda, and that the cost of such participation is far better than the cost of their non-participation.