Rached Ghannouchi says he doesn’t want an Islamic state in Tunisia

By Robert Fisk

The Independent
October 24, 2012

Can he prove his critics wrong? 

The leader of the North African country’s largest political party defends it against accusations that it poses a threat to secularism in the birthplace of the Arab Spring

When Rached Ghannouchi met Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali - before Mr Ghannouchi wisely exiled himself to London as an enemy of the dictatorship - a very odd thing happened. “He didn’t look me in the eye,” Mr Ghannouchi said. “He didn’t speak that much. But when I was with him, they brought coffee for both of us.

“I was talking and he was silent and listening, then he surprised me. He switched the coffee cups round. He gave me the coffee that he had, and took the coffee that I had, saying: ‘Did you have some doubt about the coffee?’ But this never crossed my mind! So I switched the coffees back again and took the one I was originally given.”

Odd indeed. It must have been the first time in history that a dictator thought his guest feared being poisoned. And at this very moment in our conversation, a lady entered Mr Ghannouchi’s office with cups of coffee. Don’t switch the cups, I warned him. The point was not lost. But Mr Ghannouchi is not a naturally humorous man and he spends a lot of his time these days trying to persuade his antagonists that – as founder and leader of the country’s largest party, Ennahda – his doesn’t want an Islamist state in Tunisia.

To continue reading....