After more than 20 years of absence, Rached arrived in early afternoon on Sunday at the Tunis airport cheered by thousands of supporters. Ghannouchi, who many will probably see for the first time, is the face of Islam that seem to add fear to the many supporters of secularism if he were to achieve the new post of ex Tunisian president Ben Ali driven from power on January 14 by a popular uprising .
Appearing at the airport Tunis-Carthage, the septuagenarian who has lived in London has launched into an “Allah Akbar” (God is greatest), his arms stretched skyward, before boarding a car. In the crush militants Ennahda (Renaissance) sang songs very symbolic in Islam, among them one that evokes the departure of the Prophet Muhammad from Mecca to Medina in 622. As, dozens of supporters of secularism were nevertheless present at the airport with placards against fundamentalism.
Rached Ghannouchi founded in 1981 the “Nahda” (Renaissance) with intellectuals inspired by the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood. He said today he represent a moderate form of Islam close to the AKP in Turkey. “I’m not a Khomeini and Tunisia is not Iran,” he said in London. “I want to make an intellectual contribution to Tunisia as it comes out of an era of repression to lead us to democracy. “
Tolerated at the beginning of the era of Ben Ali in 1987, his movement had been suppressed after the general election of 1989, where he supported the lists that had received at least 17% of the vote. About 30,000 Islamic activists and supporters were arrested in the 90s. Ghannouchi then left the country to Algeria, eventually settling in London. In 1992 he was sentenced in absentia to life imprisonment for plotting against the president.