From Islamic Democracy to Muslim Democracy

Abstract

Abstract This introduction begins with the current political crisis in Tunisia since the suspension of parliament and assumption of autocratic powers by President Kais Saied on July 25, 2021. It then introduces the Tunisian democratic transition, with a particular focus on the role of the Islamist Ennahda Party in helping to author a constitution for a pluralist, democratic order with no special status for the Islamic shariʿa in the legal system. This paved the way for the 2016 declaration that Ennahda had “left political Islam” and adopted the ideology of “Muslim democracy.” The chapter provides a brief account of Ghannouchi’s prior theory of a legitimate democratic Islamic state, as elaborated in his Public Freedoms in the Islamic State, followed by an outline of concepts and commitments behind the idea of “Muslim democracy.” It concludes with three paradigms for thinking about Muslim democracy as an ideology.