The Media Line Has the Tunisian Public Learned the Lesson?

Al-Watan, Egypt, January 26

The Ennahda Party, representing the Muslim Brotherhood in Tunisia, seeks to regain power by employing evasive tactics and disingenuous messages of reassurance and religious devotion to the Tunisian people. As an Egyptian who witnessed the birth and rise of Islamic groups at the university in the late seventies, I warn the people of Tunisia: the [Muslim] Brotherhood and its affiliates should never be trusted! Egypt is the birthplace of the Brotherhood, founded by Hassan Al-Banna, and we are best equipped to understand their true nature. I say this with complete confidence. The Brotherhood may preach piety, but they do not abandon their reactionary ideologies, nor do they learn from their past mistakes. They shook hands with [Gamal Abdel] Nasser during the revolution, only to betray and [attempt to] assassinate him in Al-Manshiyya. They promised [Anwar] Sadat to embrace a new mindset and position themselves as an alternative to the Left, but then murdered him at Egypt’s annual victory parade held in Cairo. [Hosni] Mubarak granted them freedom for several decades, yet they later demanded his execution in Tahrir Square! Anyone who believes in or supports them is deluding themselves and subscribing to fantasies. What did the secretary-general of the Ennahda party tell you? He claimed that the party’s new approach does not seek a return to power but rather aims at rectifying the political mistakes made during Tunisia’s so-called “Black Decade.” We must not forget that the Brotherhood in Egypt also claimed they would not run for the presidency after January, and we all know how that turned out. Ennahda Secretary-General al-Ajmi al-Warimi insisted that their current focus is on restoring democracy, devoid of narrow party interests. But should we believe him? Al-Warimi went on to say, “Perhaps some parties have issues with Ennahda. … The Tunisian people have the authority to grant birth and death certificates to political parties, and Ennahda has long-established roots within Tunisian society. All political parties experience fluctuations, but the ultimate judge is the ballot box.” Do the people of Tunisia know that for the Brotherhood, the ballot box is merely a tool they discard once they ascend to power? Indeed, Ennahda remains faithful to its tradition of double-speak, masking its true intentions with noble talk about democracy. The party often says one thing and means the opposite, as it seeks to regain political relevance. Now, it attempts to alter its rhetoric, abandoning familiar stereotypes to suit the current climate and best manage its transitional phase. Tunisian intellectuals, I trust that you will not be deceived again. —Khaled Montaser (translated by Asaf Zilberfarb)

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