Abstract:

This paper aims to analyze Rachid Ghannouchi’s perception of Muslim democracy, one of the leading Muslim intellectuals in contemporary time. Following the Arab Spring, the perception of Muslim democracy and the politics of Ghannouchi, i.e., the Ennahda party, is a crucial topic in academia. Ghannouchi intended to argue that Islamic political values are compatible with democratic values, particularly election, pluralism, freedom, etc. Within this aspect he discussed the approach of Shahada, Shura, Ijma, Bay’ah, Ummah, Amar-bil-Maroof and Nahi-anil-Munkar and Hikmah in the Islamic political thought. He considered democracy as the best product of contemporary civilization that Muslim should accept it. Though he criticized Western liberal democracy for its inadequateness of being an ideal regime from different perspectives, it is also better than the autocratic role worldwide, particularly in the Middle East. Along with this theoretical perspective he has a long experience in politics where he faced the autocratic regimes in Tunisia. After the Arab Spring, this experience directed him toward Muslim democracy to ensure political stability. This paper analyzes his perception of democracy from both theoretical and realpolitik perspective. This research argued that Ghannouchi’s perception of democracy is based on both the approach of Maqasid as-Sharia and his realpolitik experience.

Keywords: