secularism in Tunisia

"Leftists and secularists are faced with important choices and considerations. As’ad AbuKhalil, a Lebanese-American professor with leftist sensibilities, has written against collaboration between secular and religious tendencies in the wake of the Arab uprisings. AbuKhalil regards Islamists as agents of counter-revolutionary forces; reactionary in their social and economic objectives and willing to collude with western and Gulf powers in pursuit of political gain. Fundamentalist forces, in his view, cannot be trusted by secular or liberal forces. The example of the Iranian revolution, where progressives combined with fundamentalist forces to topple the Shah’s dictatorship only to find them betrayed and brutally repressed once their immediate objective was achieved. AbuKhalil thus takes the skeptical eye to secular parties’ cooperation with en-Nahdha in Tunisia, questioning the wisdom of Moncef Marzouki ‘expressing sympathy and amity’ with the Islamist party and for not attacking it on an ideological basis. AbuKhalil urges Arab secularists should ‘declare ideological war on the fundamentalists,’ and ‘refute the arguments’ of such factions in electoral and political campaigns. Such an attitude both reflects and encourages the intense polarization that exists in Arab political society. But the cadence of such a posture resembles the paranoia and fear politics that has held back progressive forces from making successful appeals to Arab masses. If religion should be a private matter — admittedly a point of some controversy — secular parties should struggle to address those problems in Arab society which are without any doubt public ones: social [in]justice, social services, government accountability, corruption and opportunities for growth and development. This is not to oppose challenging the intellectual and ideological basis of Islamist movements but simply to say that this is not enough." (thanks Redouane)