LONDON – The leader of the Tunisian Islamist party that rose to power after the first Arab Spring uprising last year said this week that Islamist movements would eventually emerge triumphant throughout the Arab world after a difficult transition period. Rached Al-Ghannouchi, whose Ennahda party governs with two junior leftist partners, said secular groups should join forces with Islamists. But in the end, Islam will be the “reference point”. “The Arab world is going through a transition phase which needs coalitions to govern, which brings together Islamist and secular trends,” Ghannouchi said in an interview during a trip to London where he spoke at Chatham House. “These coalitions will lead to eventual rapprochement between the Islamists and the secularists.” However, he added Islamists would have the upper hand. “There's a true way that Islam represents the common ground for everyone ... Eventually Islam becomes a reference point for everyone,” he said. The role of Islam in government and society has emerged as the most divisive issue in Tunisia in the wake of an uprising two years ago that sparked “Arab Spring” revolts that have empowered Islamists throughout the region. The Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt – a movement affiliated to Ennahda – is locked in conflict with secular forces who fear the new Islamist President Mohamed Morsi and his Brotherhood backers want to impose their vision on society. The Syrian Muslim Brotherhood is also the strongest force in the opposition that hopes to take over in the country if President Bashar Al-Assad is ousted by rebels in what has become a bloody civil war that has claimed some 40,000 lives. Ghannouchi, who returned to Tunisia from exile in London after Ben Ali fled in January 2011, predicted there would be more change in the Gulf Arab region. “I expect the victory of the Syrian revolution, reforms in more than one Arab country,” Ghannouchi said. “And for the countries where there have been revolutions, (I expect) there to be more stability.” – Reuters
