Post-Islamism Politics in Tunisia

Abstract This chapter analyzes the post-Islamist politics of the Tunisian Ennahda party and conceives of post-Islamism as post-ideological. Islamism in the twentieth century is a modern ideology of societal transformation, while post-Islamism is the "normalization" of such political praxis. In the Tunisian context, Ennahda succeeded in integrating state institutions and participating in building democracy after 2011. At the 2016 conference, the party declared to have overcome "Islamism" and adopted a new strategy of specialization, which led to the separation of daʿwa activities and politics. This change has transformed the party's conception of politics, whereby the priority becomes contesting elections and participating in governmental coalitions. This chapter analyzes this change from the point of view of the party's ideological transformation and its concrete political actions.