Tunisia: Does the removal of Ennahdha by Kais Saied mean the beheading of the movement’s snake?

The question is: It is true that Tunisia was the last Arab country ruled by the Muslim Brotherhood movement? Are they really failed in the Arab world?

It is true that Tunisian President Kais Saied, by applying Article 80 of the constitution, was able to neutralize the Muslim Brotherhood and limit its power and control over the state. However, this does not mean that Ennahdha is failed or that it will keep silent on what took place. This was confirmed by the former Parliament Speaker and leader of the Ennahdha Movement, Rached Ghannouchi, saying that “Ennahdha partisans will protest if the president does not retract his decisions”!

In a study titled “Islamists in Tunisia and the Security Empowerment Project.. From the Security Group to the Secret Service published at the Trend Research and Consulting Center, Ahmed Nazif, a writer specializing in Islamist groups, states: “From 1988 to the nowadays, Ennahdha relies on building repressive apparatuses for the organization, as the founder of the Tunisian Brotherhood, Rached Ghannouchi, refers to this in an article published in the Knowledge magazine by the movement’s mouthpiece, and stresses that those who have pledged to work and assumed responsibilities must avoid revealing themselves”.

In 2013, former Interior Minister Lotfi Ben Jeddou prefer charges against Ennahdha of having a powerful intelligence apparatus in Tunisia that spied on officials, citizens, and state institutions, and that it had agencies that exceeded the capabilities of the army and interior in Tunisia!

The question now arises: Will the Brotherhood turn to gang style? 

Entirely possible, as occurred in Syria and Egypt, and it may try to revert to the method of assassination, which it used to take on in more than country.

Here some say: “It is necessary to freeze and confiscate their money, as Ghannouchi has more than a billion dollars in wealth, all of which he earned from sending weapons and terrorists to Syria and Libya, in clear cooperation with other regimes. This is President Kais Saied’s first challenge, and thus working to dry up the sources of terrorist financing. Furthermore, it is needed to work to uncover the system of secret communications of the group”.

So returning to the establishment of Ennahdha movement, Ghannouchi was one of the founders of Ennahdha in 1972, when it was called the Islamic Group. In 1981, it was transformed into the Movement of Islamic trend. Ghannouchi handed over his brother-in-law, Rafik Abdessalem, to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs after the fall of Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali in 2011. Abdessalem left the government on charges of corruption and a journalist’s investigation Olfa Riahi, who made accusations about him of seizing a $1 million “Chinese grant” he did not hand over to the state treasury.

Has Ennahdha ever been popular in Tunisia?

In 2011 “Ennahdha” gained 89 of 217 seats, a 41% non-absolute majority.

In 2014, “Ennahdha” lost 69 seats, or 31%, and was outpaced by the secular Nidaa Tounes.

Since 2014, Ennahdha’s internal situation continues to deteriorate, and along with its decline in the elections, it has maintained its position as prime minister, because the authorities of the prime minister in Tunisia are greater than those of the head of state. Wherefore, the movement abandoned the presidency ostensibly and assured on holding the prime minister’s office. The first prime minister of Ennahdha was appointed after the so-called Jasmine Revolution in 2011, in which the Brotherhood was given 16 ministries out of 30, more than half, and more than half of them in the Parliament. Their government was forced to resign because of the protest movements, which broke out in Tunisia in February 2013, following the assassination of the leftist opposition leader, Chokri Belaid, who was a big symbol for Tunisians, and accused Ennahdha of “legislating for political assassination” after the increase in attacks by the Revolution Protection Associations, the military arm of the Ennahdha movement.

The assassination of Belaid was followed by the assassination of Mohamed Brahmi, a leader of Nasserism, after accusing Ennahdha of practicing tyranny, but the movement rejected the accusations of its involvement in the assassinations; about a year and a half later, a statement was issued by the “Islamic State” (ISIS) saying that it was the one who assassinated the two Tunisian leaders in an attempt to mitigate “Ennahdha”, which confirms two things: the first is that the terrorism led by the Brotherhood is the same, and the second is to determine the relation between “ISIS” and “Ennahdha” and the mother movement, the Muslim Brotherhood.

The question remains: When will the Arab world get rid of political Islamist movements that use violence as a means to seize authority, and follow the Machiavellian style, with scant regard for the Islamic values they claim?