Category: Blog

Five Years On, Libya Struggles to find Peace

On 14 October, Khalifa Ghweil announced that the General National Congress (GNC)’s Salvation Government was back in business after Serraj’s Government of National Accord (GNA) failed to deliver, according to him. The GNC’s government declared its comeback from the GNC’s...

/ October 23, 2016

Leadership Struggles Further Weaken Tunisia’s Modernist Parties

The saga of splits, defections, resignations and below-the-belt hits is showing no sign of abating within Tunisia’s so-called modernist political parties. Indeed, the crisis within Nida Tounes has hit a new low with the freezing of the activities of the...

/ October 23, 2016

Tunisia: The Republic’s Mufti and Politics

Tunisia’s Grand Mufti Othmane Battikh, appointed by President Beji Caid Essebsi last summer, caused a political row, in late September, when he considered some labour sit-ins and protests as haram or religiously illicit because they harm the country’s fragile economy....

/ October 10, 2016

Morocco: Scrambling to Attract Salafis

A month ahead of the legislative elections on 7 October Salafis emerged as important actors in the Moroccan political landscape. If the rapprochement between the Salafi figure Abdelouahab Rafiqui (Abou Hafs) and the Istiqlal Party has increased gradually since the...

/ September 7, 2016

Shifting Alliances in Libya’s Conflict

The main development in Libya’s stalemate over the last three weeks has been the offensive against the so-called “Islamic State” group in Sirte led (officially) by forces under the command of Faize Serraj’s Presidency Council. Reports from the field indicate...

/ June 24, 2016

Tunisia: Hizb ut-Tahrir Prevented from Holding its Annual Congress

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...

/ June 14, 2016

Ennahdha’s 10th Congress Promise

“We are leaving political Islam and entering democratic Islam. We are Muslim democrats who no longer claim to represent political Islam,” announced Rached Ghannouchi to Le Monde ahead of the party’s 10th congress, held on 20-22 May, at Hamamet. The...

/ May 22, 2016

Still Turning Around in Libya

Faize Serraj’s Government of National Accord (GNA) continues to face strong resistance from the Tobruk-based House of Representatives (HoR). On 16 May, HoR president Aguila Saleh reiterated his call for Serraj’s Presidency Council (PC) to travel to Tobruk and seek...

/ May 16, 2016