During the Arab Spring Islamist movements gained attention again and became an interesting object of investigation. This is also true for the case of An-Anahdha, an example from Tunisia examined by Karima El Ouazghari in PRIF Working Paper 14/2012 "An Nahdha im Wandel. Eine Islamistische Bewegung im Kontext sich verändernder Opportunitätsstrukturen in Tunesien" (An-Nadha Evolution. An Islamist Movement within Changing Opportunity Structures in Tunisia).
To what extent are the political positions (i.e. ideas about a political and social order) and the practices of An-Nahdha a result of the different experiences they made with the regime then and today? This is the central question of this Working Paper which deals with the Tunisian Islamist movement An-Nahdha in the context of changing opportunity structures. The concept of contextual opportunity structures, derived from the social movement theory, is used as an analytical framework as well as results from research about democratization processes and political Islam. The paper will show that An-Nahdha adapted from the beginning remarkably flexible and pragmatic to changing circumstances. At the same time, certain political positions and practices can be identified as a constant pattern since the 1980s, especially a commitment to peaceful means, a strong will for participation within pluralistic political processes, and the fact that the movement is concerned with traditional and conservative values when it comes to ideas of a social order. The Islamic religion serves as a crucial part of its identity and legitimates certain political positions (“Islamic Framing”). The detailled identification of certain “red lines”, which limit the pragmatism of An-Nahdha, remains to be seen
This PRIF Working Paper can be downloaded here.