Ennahda from within:Islamists or “Muslim Democrats”? A conversation | Brookings Institution
▻http://www.brookings.edu/research/papers/2016/03/ennahda-islamists-muslim-democrats-ounissi
Much can be gleaned in this regard by examining the intellectual and religious origins of Tunisia’s Islamic movement. For instance, the two main founders of Ennahda, Abdelfattah Mourou and Rached Ghannouchi, were both graduates of Zaytouna University, the first Islamic university in the Arab world. Founded in 737, it gained a reputation for being responsive to the changing needs of society. Understanding this is significant, as Abdelfattah Mourou’s spiritual father is Sheikh Hmed Ben Miled, a Zaytunite, rather than Sayyid Qutb as many may erroneously assume. Ben Miled played a key role in Tunisia’s national liberation movement. He was heavily engaged in the struggle for the modern Tunisian state and a supporter of the state institutions that formed its bedrock. There is a famous picture of Miled with a group of scholars from Zaytouna in front of the Parliamentary building, taking part in legislative consultations during Bourguiba’s regime.
In the movement’s early years, Ennahda’s religious circles were oriented towards Sheikh Tahar Ben Achour’s teaching and legal judgements. A president of Zaytouna University and adherent of the Maliki school of jurisprudence, Ben Achour was one of the modern fathers of a more rationalist approach towards Quran exegesis (tafsir) which emphasized the importance of maqasid al-sharia, in other words the objectives or ends, rather than the means, of Islamic law. An arch-enemy of the traditionalists, he was pushed out of the university in 1960.