Islam & Democracy in North Africa

Algeria's neighbor Tunisia likes to present itself as the "moern" face of Islam - secular and trying to introduce multi-party democracy. In the early 1990s, the main opposition party - the En-Nahda or Renaissance party - was banned as a fundamentalist movement that would introduce an Islamic dictatorship and plunge the country back into the Dark Ages, destroying the gains of modernization - especially female equlaity.

But En-Nahda said it accepted the rules of Western democracy and that Islam must adapt to modern society and not the other way around. En-Nahda accused the government of deliberately using smear tactics in an effort to maintain their own hold on power. Again the question: Are Islam and democracy compatible? remain unresolved.

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