Erdogan could have used the opportunity to rise beyond Islamist, liberal,
secularist and Kurdish identities to establish a new political consensus around democratic norms.
It is true that all actors (traditionalist, modernist, and
secularist) used Islam for instrumental and tactical reasons when they resorted to the meta-discursive strategy of deriving justification from Islam in their battles with each other (p.
The threat of a coup is not far-fetched: the
secularist military staged three coups in Turkey between 1960 and 1980 and pushed the first Islamist-led government out of office in 1997.
Mursi's "Muslim Brotherhood government strove to please America and the
secularists as much as it could, but they were not satisfied with it," said Zawahri, who is believed to be hiding somewhere in Afghanistan or Pakistan.
Morsi's "Muslim Brotherhood government strove to please America and the
secularists as much as it could, but they were not satisfied with it," said Zawahiri, who is believed to be hiding somewhere in Afghanistan or Pakistan.
So
secularists have ended up monopolizing power by excluding and repressing Islamists.
Atheists and
secularists have been fighting an uphill battle for political recognition.
That being the case, it is confirmed by everyone that this election is the most crucial election in the nation's history: The Islamists believe that the majority in the parliament is the last thing they need to cement their Islamist state, while the
secularists believe that if they didn't get significant votes this time, if not a majority, they will not be able to break the wave of Muslim Brotherhood authoritarian rule by peaceful means for a long time.
"On the other hand,
secularists hold the view that Islamists have hijacked the revolution (that toppled Mubarak) and exploit religion and poverty to mobilise ordinary people against liberals as a whole."
Ennahda leaders may have been maneuvering to draw the Salafis into the process, while maintaining their political support, but it gave the
secularists another reason to doubt Ennahda's commitment to moderation.
As a
secularist and an atheist (again, not the same thing), I have no wish to take away anyone's freedom to follow their religion, as long as it does no harm to others - and as long as it is not forced on others.
Summary: The third-largest party in Tunisia's constituent assembly, charged with writing a new constitution, proposed on Monday a draft document based on Islamic law which will likely alarm the country's
secularists.
