The evolution of the Salafi phenomenon in contemporary Tunisia: reality and futureTunis, 7–8 March 2018Author:Ahmida Ennaifer
Translated from Arabic by: Ali Toumi
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INTRODUCTION
On 7 and 8 March 2018, in Gammarth, a northern suburb of Tunis, the Cordoba Foundation of Geneva organised an interactive workshop on “The evolution of the Salafi current in Tunisia: reality and future”, with the participation of the Tunisian League for Culture and Plurality and the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs.
The most obvious guiding element of the workshop lies in the background that leads the Cordoba Foundation of Geneva to take an interest in the Salafi landscape in the Arab world in general and in Tunisia in particular, as part of its own and the Federal Department’s follow-up of the implications of the “Arab Spring” and of their interest in actors who have recently joined political action.
The Foundation’s aim in holding this interactive workshop was to contribute to a better understanding of the context in which the Salafi current emerged in Tunisia, and to analyse its position in society and its interactions with other currents amid the changes in the Tunisian political landscape.
The approach seeks to safeguard Tunisia’s political transition, given the observed tendency to “equate Salafism with jihadism” and the neglect of “the evolution of non-violent Salafi political groups in North Africa, West Asia and the Sahel”.
The activity is part of efforts to resolve conflicts by providing a space for dialogue and joint work that can move beyond this levelling logic, which judges the components of the broad spectrum of Salafi currents without distinguishing between them. It also seeks to help the various political stakeholders (the authorities, the opposition, civil society representatives, influential figures and organisations) to transform the sharpness of their dispute with the representatives of the Salafi phenomenon – particularly those who have joined a process of political participation – a sharpness that could drift into violence, into an objective and rational approach likely to lead to a forward-looking vision of alternative national policies in Tunisia.
The direct practical starting point of this distinctive approach was the commissioning of three research papers on the evolution of the Salafi current in Tunisia, written by three Tunisian researchers from different intellectual backgrounds. The first paper looked at the birth and history of the phenomenon and the hypotheses about its durability; the second at its formation, course and future; and the third was a field study that posited and explored the emergence of a third Salafi line in Tunisia.
Each of these papers contributed to an understanding of the Salafi phenomenon, its evolution, its internal dynamics and some of its preaching, social and political aspects, so as to support a collective understanding of the phenomenon and thereby strengthen political integration and social cohesion.
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