Salafism in Tunisia : trajectories of political (dis)engagement (1970-2021)

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dc.contributor.authorBLANC, Théo
dc.date.accessioned2023-07-03T13:29:36Z
dc.date.embargo2027-06-27
dc.date.issued2023
dc.descriptionDefence date: 27 June 2023en
dc.descriptionExamining Board: Prof. Olivier Roy, (EUI, supervisor); Prof. Stéphane Lacroix, (Sciences Po Paris, external supervisor); Prof. Asef Bayat, (University of Illinois); Prof. Simone Tholens, (EUI, John Cabot University)en
dc.description.abstractThis dissertation sets out to explain why and how Salafis choose to participate in institutional politics after the Arab revolutions. Existing explanations relying on the opportunity-inclusion approach cannot account for the variation in pathways taken by different Salafi groups facing the same structural opportunities. This is because they overlook motivations to mobilise (the subjective why), reasons to choose one form of mobilisation over another (the subjective how), and the right timing to do so (the subjective when). I argue that the alternative is to trace the genealogies of the different Salafi groups in the long term to explain their respective preference and choice for a specific form of mobilisation before and after the revolution. Only by reconnecting and articulating the pre-revolutionary and post-revolutionary Salafi scene can one make sense of its post-2011 transformations. I propose to do so through a comparative case study of three Salafi groups in Tunisia, a country that experienced a decade-long process of democratisation (2011–2021) that is unique in the Arab world: the Salafi-Jihadi revolutionary group Ansar al-Shariʿa, the political Salafi group Jabhah Islamiyya (later Jabhat al-Islah party), and a group of scholastic sheikhs joining the electoral coalition Itilaf al-Karama. My analysis contributes not only to understanding how Salafism took root in the country but also how it crystallised into different currents that engaged into diverging trajectories of political (dis)engagement. Key to understanding actors’ trajectories is their respective (subjective) perception of the revolution and their respective interactions with the Islamist current embodied by Ennahdha, a pivotal Islamic and governmental actor. Tracing actors’ respective genealogies in the long-term thus sheds light on their distinct understanding of the political, ultimately leading to identifying different models of political Salafism and politicisation trajectories. The diversity of trajectories does not prevent, however, a certain convergence towards post-Salafism, understood as the revision of Salafis’ modalities of engagement with both state and society towards non-exclusivism and the prevalence of political over religious objectives.en
dc.description.versionIntroduction and Chapter 7 'From Movement to Party—Why and How al-Jabhah alIslamiyya Became Jabhat al-Islah ' of the PhD thesis draws upon an earlier version published as an article ' Opportunity, ideology, and Salafi pathways of political activism in Tunisia' (2020) in the journal 'Third World thematics : a TWQ journal'.
dc.embargo.terms2027-06-27
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen
dc.identifier.citationFlorence : European University Institute, 2023en
dc.identifier.doi10.2870/913992en
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/1814/75754
dc.language.isoenen
dc.orcid.uploadtrue*
dc.publisherEuropean University Instituteen
dc.relation.ispartofseriesEUIen
dc.relation.ispartofseriesSPSen
dc.relation.ispartofseriesPhD Thesisen
dc.relation.replaceshttps://hdl.handle.net/1814/73435
dc.rightsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/embargoedAccessen
dc.subject.lcshSalafīyah -- Tunisia
dc.subject.lcshIslam and politics -- Tunisia
dc.subject.lcshTunisia -- Politics and government
dc.titleSalafism in Tunisia : trajectories of political (dis)engagement (1970-2021)en
dc.typeThesisen
dspace.entity.typePublication
eui.subscribe.skiptrue
person.identifier.orcid0000-0002-4396-9693
person.identifier.other40954
relation.isAuthorOfPublication9324d9cd-6afb-4d02-9f56-dee6518ae121
relation.isAuthorOfPublication.latestForDiscovery9324d9cd-6afb-4d02-9f56-dee6518ae121
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