ABSTRACT

This article contributes to the debate on the transformation of Islamic activism in a context of political change. Drawing on the case of post-authoritarian Tunisia, it reconstructs and explains the trajectories of Islamists’ participation in civil society during a period of renewed opportunities and intense political conflict. At the crossroads between the literature on Islamic politics and social movement studies, the study discusses how the Islamist actors’ engagement with the associational sphere affects their ideological positions and mobilization capacities. Notably, the article shows how activists engaged in charitable associations have, over time, recast their relations with the party Ennahda, the public authorities and international donors, in order to cope with external pressures arising from a polarized political landscape. Contrary to what could be expected, the change of focus from the political to the associative sphere does not amount to a process of Islamists' de-ideologization, but is rather to be understood as a coping strategy whereby Islamic activists continue to mobilize in conditions where they have some room for manoeuvre whilst Political Islam is difficult to pursue at the party level.

摘要

本文有助于讨论在政治变革背景下伊斯兰激进主义的转变。借鉴后威权主义突尼斯的案例，它重构并解释了伊斯兰主义者在新的机遇和激烈的政治冲突时期参与公民社会的轨迹。在伊斯兰政治文献和社会运动研究之间的十字路口，该研究讨论了伊斯兰行为者与社团领域的接触如何影响他们的意识形态立场和动员能力。值得注意的是，这篇文章展示了参与慈善协会的积极分子如何随着时间的推移重新调整他们与复兴运动党、公共当局和国际捐助者的关系，以应对两极分化的政治格局带来的外部压力。