Tunisia: Islam as a Political Force

Abstract

In the wake of the Iranian revolution, a number of Middle Eastern countries are experiencing a populist Islam. Described as fundamentalist', these movements appear to be the most serious threat to the governments of these countries. In Tunisia, the government has virtually halted its promised democratic reforms claiming that the Islamists will use the political process to gain control of the government and that they are violent radicals attempting to overthrow the government. This thesis argues that the Islamic movement in Tunisia is neither revolutionary, radical, nor fundamentalist. Islam has played an important role historically in the creation of Tunisian nationalism and the current movement is a political movement attempting to reform a repressive, unresponsive regime.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jun 18, 1992
Accession Number
ADA257862

Entities

People

  • Jayne E. Garland

Organizations

  • Naval Postgraduate School

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Foreign Relations
  • Geography
  • Governments
  • International Relations
  • Law
  • National Politics
  • National Security
  • Political Ideologies
  • Political Movements
  • Political Science
  • Political Systems
  • Recreation
  • Social Sciences
  • Societies
  • Sociopolitics
  • Students
  • Terrorists

Fields of Study

  • Political science

Readers

  • Political Violence and Terrorism Studies.