Tunisia: Islamists win Arab Spring’s first election

Congratulations to Tunisia! said the Qatar Al-Rayah in an editorial. With a massive turnout of more than 90 percent, Tunisians shed the last vestige of their oppressed past by voting in a free and fair election. The country’s transformation into a democracy validates the sacrifice of Mohamed Bouazizi, the young man whose self-immolation in December triggered the Tunisian uprising that ousted dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and launched the Arab Spring. “There will be no loser in these decisive elections, as the real winner is Tunisia and the Tunisian people.”

The election “was certainly intoxicating,” said Raouf Khalsi in the Tunis Le Temps. “But now Tunisia has woken up with a hangover.” While the final results aren’t yet in, it’s clear that Ennahda, the main Islamist party in the running, has won the largest share of seats, although it probably won’t have an outright majority in parliament. “Should we fear for our achievements?” Ennahda has been nothing but reassuring, stressing that it is a moderate religious party. It says it has no intention of rolling back women’s rights or banning sales of alcohol—measures that would hurt our tourism industry as well as our own personal lives. Instead, party leader Sheikh Rachid al-Ghannouchi advocates modeling the new Tunisia on Turkey, a secular democracy that embraces Islam. Still, that’s not entirely reassuring, given the creeping Islamization of Turkey in the past few years.

This is moderate Islam’s big chance, said Sa’d Bu’aqbah in the Algiers, Algeria, Al-Fadjr. “If it gives what is for the people to the people and what is for God to God, then Tunisia may succeed where Algeria failed.” Twenty years ago, Islamists came to power through Algeria’s first multiparty elections, but the military panicked at the thought of an Islamic state and canceled the elections with a coup, triggering civil war. That won’t happen to our neighbor. Tunisia can create “a modern, democratic Islam that entrenches the people’s right to rule themselves—rather than the sheikh’s right to rule the people in the name of God.”

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The secularists, too, must be moderate, said the Beirut Daily Star. Some reports said that as Ghannouchi left the polling place, some secular demonstrators shouted “Terrorist!” at him. “This is the worrying part,” for while Ghannouchi is an Islamist politician, he is also considered a liberal and a reformer. He is certainly “no Osama bin Laden.” Democracy means allowing Islamists to cast their votes—and respecting the results.