Tunisian authorities prevented Islamist party Hizb ut-Tahrir from holding its annual congress meeting in Tunis, on 4 June. Hedi Majdoub, the interior minister, justified the decision on security grounds and that the Tahrir Party represented a threat to stability and order. The Tahrir Party appealed the decision of the governor of Tunis at the Administrative Court, which ruled in favour of the party on the grounds that Hizb-ut-Tahrir is operating legally having been officially recognised in June 2012. Despite the court’s decision security forces locked the Palais des Congrès building where the rally was due to be held, rounded up leaders of the party who were en-route to Tunis, while coaches bringing the party’s militants and sympathisers from other towns were prevented from reaching Tunis. Following a string of condemnations of the authorities’ decision Majdoub had to take to the airwaves and justify his decision by the state of emergency in place, stating that Tahrir’s leaflets and posters distributed ahead of the party’s rally represented a threat to order. A number of political parties including the Congress on the Republican Party, Moncef Marzouki’s Tounes al-Irada, Riad Chehibi of the National Construction Party expressed solidarity with Tahrir. Some observers pointed to the double-standards in this case in that just a week earlier Marzouki’s party had held a rally in the same facility. Besides, observers explained that Ennahdha held its 10th congress three weeks earlier in the same facility with over ten thousand participants, while the Tahrir Party would at best attract one thousand.

This episode reminded Tunisians of the Ansar al-Sharia’s standoff with the authorities on holding its rally in spring 2013. Critics of the Tahrir Party consider that the party’s manifesto, which calls for the restoration of the Caliphate, is anti-constitutional; and that the party does not recognise the Tunisian state nor the nation-state notion. Besides, they think the party is using the democratic framework as a tool to establish its project which, they believe, is a total negation of the values of democracy. Redha Belhaj, leader of the Tahrir Party, responds by saying that his party was officially recognised in 2012 and that there is no evidence that the party has incited violence nor been involved in it. He added that by holding its annual congress the party is complying to the laws regulating parties; and as for the restoration of the Caliphate the party considers that it was clearly stated in the documents it submitted when it sought official recognition from the authorities. Opponents of the party find this argument very light if not ironic. They ask how would a party that does not recognise the rules of the game of democracy, and whose cornerstone philosophy considers Muslim nation-states and Arab post-independence regimes mere forms of neo-colonialism, would seek an appeal at a court of a state the party does not even recognise? The party considers that there is no contradiction in its political program. It argues that while some parties call for the union of Maghreb states, or Arab states (Arab League), or Muslim states (Organisation of Islamic Cooperation), the Tahrir Party strives for the restoration of the Caliphate, just as Europeans strive to construct the European Union. Belhaj argued in the media that it is the party’s criticism of the neo-liberal economic model and opposition to the imposition of Western democracy values on Tunisians that is at the heart of the matter and why some secularists, with the help of so-called Muslim democrats, to use the party’s words, plot to ban the party. The debate goes on. However, unlike Ansar al-Sharia the leadership of the Tahrir Party is unlikely to escalate tensions, especially now that it is Ramadan. Redha Belhhaj explained that the event gave more media exposure to his party.

Nevertheless, some politicians and analysts have warned that there is real threat for the fragile political transition in Tunisia. The issue of the Tahrir Party is the elephant in the room and it should be resolved. Some politicians and public opinion figures call for the banning of the party, but that is unlikely to resolve the issue. The party’s Tunisian branch was established in 1974, forty years ago. Analysts consider the party very unlikely to resort to violence if banned, but that should not be an incentive to ban it. Tahrir does have some following and a constituency that some analysts expect it to grow, especially if Tahrir manages to capitalise on the disenfranchised Ennahdha youth base.

Links for more information:
http://www.mosaiquefm.net/fr/actualite-politique-tunisie/16758
http://kapitalis.com/tunisie/2016/06/04/congres-de-hizb-ettahrir
http://zoomtunisia.tn/article/top/36298

Posted by lakhdarghettas

Dr. Lakhdar Ghettas Author of Algeria and the Cold War: International Relations and the Struggle for Autonomy (London & NY: IB Tauris, 2018)