CSID Newsletter
April 11 2016
In This Issue
CSID 17th Annual Conference

Democratization, Authoritarianism, and Radicalization - Exploring the Connections 
Thursday, April 21, 2016
 
Renaissance Hotel  
999 9th Street, NW 
Washington DC 20001

Click Here to View the Program and to Register for the Conference

 
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We are happy to send you our new weekly newsletter, and we invite you to join us at the CSID 17th Annual Conference, which will be held next Thursday, April 21, 2016, in Washington DC.  We have put together a very rich program, and we expect about 150-200 of the top experts and policy-makers, from Washington DC and around the world, who are working on the region of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. 

We look forward to seeing you there.
CARNEGIE EVENT:

Supporting Tunisia's Imperiled Transition
 
Marwan Muasher
William J. Burns
Antony J. Blinken
Yassine Brahim
Bowman Cutter
Samia Msadek
Naceur Hidoussi
Mohamed Malouche


Thursday, April 14, 2016

Washington, DC

8:30 AM - 12:15 PM EST

This event will launch  a new Carnegie report entitled:

Between Peril and Promise: A New Framework for Partnership With Tunisia.

Tunisia's political transition is as remarkable as it is fragile-imperiled by both security challenges and significant socioeconomic obstacles.  
 
Ennahda from within: Islamists or "Muslim Democrats"?
Sayida Ounissi
 
Brookings Paper | March 2016 -

By: Sayida Ounissi

Sayida Ounissi, member of Tunisia's parliament, addresses the issues of the very identity of Ennahda and why it is important to discuss the supposed Muslim Brotherhood paternity of the movement, what the failure of the "legalist" approach...

"In a nutshell, Muslim-Democrat is the most accurate term to describe what Ennahda is trying to accomplish since the beginning: reconciling Islam and democracy in the Arab world."

The "End of Islamism" and the Future of Tunisia
 
Said Ferjani
The Hudson Institute
By Said Ferjani

In the 2011 election, the movement won 89 of the 217 assembly seats and its secretary general, Hamadi Jebali, became prime minister. In January 2014, the party willingly stepped aside in the face of severe criticism to end a political deadlock and enable a technocratic administration to take power.

Now, Ennahdha is a vitally important voice in the emerging democracy in Tunisia. In this interview, Ferjani, a prominent leader of Ennahdha, answers questions that delve into the movement's past and look at its future.


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Foreign Policy | Democracy Lab
By Karina Piser


The Ennahda party was widely seen as a threat to Tunisia's democratic transition. Instead, it helped drive it forward.

Tunisia has indeed made formidable progress in consolidating its democracy - the only one to emerge from the Arab Spring - since a popular uprising toppled its longtime strongman, Zine el Abidine Ben Ali, in 2011. But a close look at Tunisia's democratic transition reveals that much of the credit should go to the country's largest Islamist party, Ennahda, and its willingness to embrace compromise with secular political forces.


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1,840 Disappearances in Egypt in 2015
       

Said Ferjani
World Bulletin / News Desk
 
 
Rights groups in Egypt say that since March 2015, enforced disappearance has become the government's unofficial security policy.

Moreover, the danger is no longer limited to Egyptian nationals. The European Parliament's debate yesterday was prompted by the murder in January of Italian academic Giulio Regeni, whose tortured body was found by a road. 


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By Ahmed Salah  


Editor's note: The following is the personal account of Ahmed Salah, an Egyptian democracy activist.
 
 
It is adapted from his memoir, You Are Under Arrest for Masterminding the Egyptian Revolution, which he wrote with Alex Mayyasi. You can find his book on Amazon.


Ahmed Salah's memoir "You Are Under Arrest for Masterminding the Egyptian Revolution" is available on Amazon.


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