44 Years of Chaos: Tunisia’s Muslim Brotherhood – From a Bloody Past to an Inevitable Downfall

Today marks the 44th anniversary of the founding of the Ennahdha Movement, the political wing of the Muslim Brotherhood in Tunisia — an anniversary steeped in controversy, evoking a legacy of bloodshed, coups, and legal crackdowns. Since its official founding on June 6, 1981, the group has never strayed far from conspiracy against the state, resulting in repeated imprisonments of its leadership.

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Ennahdha‘s trajectory has passed through several “explosive” phases. It began as a secret religious movement in 1969, launched by Ghannouchi, Mourou, and Nefir, before becoming a public political organization under the name “Islamic Tendency” in 1981. Soon after, it returned underground under state pressure. Key turning points followed in 1987, 1991, and even as recently as 2023 — each involving alleged coup attempts, bombings, and ties to terrorist networks.

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The group’s founding leaders were imprisoned early on. Rached Ghannouchi and Abdelfattah Mourou were tried in the 1980s on terrorism charges. Yet with every political amnesty or settlement, the group would re-emerge, exploiting political openings to gain influence — culminating in its rise to power after 2011, during which, analysts argue, the state was treated as spoils of war.

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Today, as the Tunisian branch of the Brotherhood marks its founding, many of its leaders are behind bars. Movement president Rached Ghannouchi is imprisoned on charges related to terrorism and conspiracy against national security, alongside several other senior members. The group now faces internal fragmentation and popular collapse amid widespread rejection of its violent history and rhetoric seen as a threat to civil governance.

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In a statement marking the occasion, Ennahdha attempted to defend its legitimacy, claiming that “there can be no true democracy without Islamists,” and that excluding them would not create a free state. These remarks were widely criticized and viewed as political blackmail — a sign that the movement’s mindset remains unchanged.

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Political analyst Nabil El Ghouari said that Ennahdha’s history is “stained with blood,” noting that every rise has been followed by a fall caused by its own violence. He described their claim that politics cannot function without Islamists as “the dance of a slaughtered rooster,” affirming that the Tunisian people have dismissed the movement after seeing its true face.

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Meanwhile, contemporary history professor Abdallah Chakhari stated — according to the same source — that Ennahdha was never born as a democratic party, but as an extension of the Muslim Brotherhood with a totalitarian vision. He noted that the movement targeted state institutions during the 1980s and 1990s, and later sought to infiltrate them after the revolution — not to govern justly, but to entrench itself in power.

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