Inside Tunisia's al-Nahda
Between Politics and Preaching

This challenging new perspective on Tunisia's al-Nahda movement focuses on the lived experience of Islamist activism.

Rory McCarthy (Author)

9781108472517, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 11 October 2018

248 pages
23.5 x 15.7 x 1.8 cm, 0.48 kg

In the wake of the Arab uprisings, al-Nahda voted to transform itself into a political party that would for the first time withdraw from a preaching project built around religious, social, and cultural activism. This turn to the political was not a Tunisian exception but reflects an urgent debate within Islamist movements as they struggle to adjust to a rapidly changing political environment. This book re-orientates how we think about Islamist movements. Drawing on extensive fieldwork with grassroots activists of Tunisia's al-Nahda, Rory McCarthy focuses on the lived experience of activism to offer a challenging new perspective on one of the Middle East's most successful Islamist projects. Original evidence explains how al-Nahda survived two decades of brutal repression in prison and in social exclusion, and reveals what price the movement paid for a new strategy of pragmatism and reform during the Tunisian transition away from authoritarianism.

1. Introduction
2. Morality, behaviour, and networks
3. Rethinking politicisation
4. Confronting prison
5. Beyond social exclusion
6. Rebuilding and fragmenting
7. Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Political subversion [JPWJ], Demonstrations & protest movements [JPWF], Pressure groups & lobbying [JPWD], Political activism [JPW], Political control & freedoms [JPV]