In Tunisia, a move toward 'Muslim democracy'
Tunisia’s Ennahda movement, the most successful Islamist party to emerge from the Arab Spring revolts early in this decade, has left political Islam and declared that its members will operate in the country as “Muslim democrats.”
A recent party congress in Hammamet voted almost unanimously to drop Ennahda’s traditional religious work and participate in Tunisian politics as a regular political party.
The reform represented a major victory for Ennahda’s leader Rached Ghannouchi, 74, an activist who developed into an influential Muslim thinker during his 22 years of exile while Tunisia was governed by dictators.
