Rashid Al-Ghannushi

Rashid al-Ghannushi is a Tunisian Islamist who contributed to founding the Ḥizb al‐Nahḍah, the Tunisian Renaissance Party. Al-Ghannushi was born in 1941 outside of al-Hama, in the Qabis province of southern Tunisia.

He received his certificate of attainment degree, equivalent to the Baccalaureate, in 1962 from the University of Zaytuna. He entered the school of agriculture at Cairo University in 1964, but following the expulsion of Tunisians from Egypt due to the dispute between Gamal Abdel Nasser and Habib Bourguiba, he left for Syria. He studied philosophy at the University of Damascus, graduating in 1968. While in Damascus, Al-Ghannushi initially joined the European Socialist Party, but later adopted a more religious viewpoint. He spent a year in France at the Sorbonne before returning to Tunisia and, along with many other Tunisians, established an organization devoted to the reform of Tunisian society based on Islamic principles.

Following an opening of political space in April of 1981 by Borguiba, Al-Ghannushi founded the "al-ittijah al-islami" or Islamic Tendency Movement. The Movement described itself as specifically rooted in Islam, anti-violence, and called for a "reconstruction of economic life on a more equitable basis, the end of single-party politics and the acceptance of political pluralism and democracy." By the end of July, Al-Ghannushi and his followers were arrested, sentenced to eleven years in prison in Bizerte, and were tortured. Both the religious and secular community, including numerous secular political organizations, rallied in his support. [Linda G. Jones, "Portrait of Rashid Al-Ghannoushi" Middle East Report, No. 153 (July-August 1988).] He was released in 1984, returned to prison in 1987 with a life sentence, but was again released in 1988. He moved to Europe as a political exile, and lived there until the early 1990's.

Al-Ghannushi continues to criticize Tunisian politics, and particular president Ben Ali.

Philosophy

Rashid Al-Ghannushi represents a progressive strain in Islamic reformism, and continuously stresses the need for innovation against social injustice. He underscores the importance of local culture, and an Islamist movement based in the needs of Tunisians and not in "the obscure theories of Sayyid Qutb". He has sided with worker's rights, unionism, and women's education and rights, though those rights are based in Islam and not Western liberal feminism. [Linda G. Jones, "Portrait of Rashid Al-Ghannoushi" Middle East Report, No. 153 (July-August 1988).]

Ghannoushi maintains that, women being one half of the Islamic community, women should have full access to education [Charles Tripp, "Islam and the Moral Economy," Cambridge University Press.] He cites oppressive cultural codes in Islamic cultures as the major force behind women's choices to turn to Western culture, and believes that Islamic reform, as part of a larger reformist movement, is needed to address women's education, participation, and respect. [Rashid Al-Ghannoushi and Linda G. Jones, "Deficiencies in the Islamic Movement" Middle East Report, No. 153 (July-August 1988).]

For women, there was no path to freedom, knowledge or self-determination except through a revolt against Islam and its mores and the imitation of the West-until the Islamist movement. Before the emergence of the Islamist movement, woman found herself in an unstable and decaying society whose "liberation" was purely superficial: nudity, eroticism, leacing the house and the intermingling of the sexes. So she revolted against these superficial manifestations and called for the return to Islam. But not without trepidation, because for women the return to Islam still portended a return to the age of decline: the harem, self-negation and the inability to determine her own destiny. [ibid]

In discussions of plurality within Islamic societies, Rashid Al-Ghannushi believes that non-Muslim citizens should not be barred from positions in government, aside from the presidency and other leadership roles, setting himself against more conservative viewpoints. [ [http://islam21.net/main/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=76&Itemid=62 Abdelwahab El-Affendi, "Muslims, Citizens and "Neighbors": Islamism and the Modern Concept of Citizenship" 2004] ]

Works

*Public freedoms in the Islamic state.
*We and the West (jointly).
*From the experience of the Islamic Movement in Tunisia.
*So when Ibn Taymiyya.
*Rapprochement in the secular and civil society.
*The Islamic movement and the issue of change.
*The Palestinian issue crossroads between paths.
*Women between the Koran and the reality of Muslims.
*Citizenship rights in the Islamic state.
*The difference right and the duty to unity.

Some of his books were translated into other languages including English, French, Turkish and Persian.

External links

* [http://www.nahdha.info The Nahdha Party]
* [http://www.alhiwar.net Al-Hiwar forums and news]

Sources

*Saeed, Abdullah. "Rethinking citizenship rights of non-Muslims in an Islamic State; Rashid al-Gannushi's contribution to the evolving debate" "Islam and Christian Muslim Relations", vol. 10 no. 3, 1999. P. 311.
*alhiwar.net 6.5.2007
*Linda G. Jones, "Portrait of Rashid al-Ghannoushi," Middle East Report, No. 153, Islam and the State (Jul. - Aug., 1988), pp. 19-22
*Rashid al-Ghannoushi and Linda G. Jones, "Deficiencies in the Islamic Movement"Middle East Report, No. 153, Islam and the State (Jul. - Aug., 1988), pp. 23-24

References