Implications of an Islamist Tunisia

Submitted by M. Tovey (United States), Jan 18, 2011 at 18:28

What has happened in Tunisia should be cause for great concern, for the reasons intimated by Dr. Pipes and for reasons not yet seen lurking in the shadows of Tunisia's sand swept vistas. Just as Islamists have recently demonstrated so adeptly, rarely has an opportunity such as this been left unchallenged.

But as it has been debated earlier, this is not a situation of wondering if a moderate Muslim sensibility will assume control of Tunisian politics, but whether any moderated political presence can keep Tunisia from Dr. Pipes' worst case scenario. That Tunisia is a stone's throw (read missile launch) from Tripoli, which has a troubled history with the United States going back more than two hundred years, is one item this American thinks can be an indicator of things to come.

There is no doubt in this reader's view that if the Islamic sentiments were to be given any better chance than this to interdict and insert themselves into mainstream Tunisian politics, the script for taking that chance could not have been written in any other way to give the Islamist's what they need to not only achieve some portion of control, but to potentially assume a majority position.

Dr. Pipes also makes the assertion, correctly so, that little pressure from Western powers are in any position to thwart an Islamist assumption of power, that compromises already made have dulled any ability to put pointed pressure to keep Tunisia 'moderate;' that even if such a 'moderate' Muslim power structure were to emerge, any ability to maintain control remains to be seen. If the 'Ennahda ' are embedded in the society like counterparts in other Muslim countries and have a presence in the military, then one might easily assume the factors necessary to place 'Ennahda' in positions of power are already in place.

In any event, Tunisia can be added to the list of a changing Middle East (though not technically so, but by being in a nominal sphere of influence), so much so that just this little change of the balance is enough to reinforce the intentions of making the eastern Mediterranean more dangerous to western sensibilities and giving more encouragement to other places where just such a shift of power is all that is needed for Islamist's to be more bold in their quest for shari'a over all. As a reminder, those who hold to a Biblical scriptural worldview need not adopt a negative attitude to such things, remembering instead that all such things are under the control of the Almighty God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

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