124this led to another secular Arab coup taking mat-
ters back to square one.
To start with, we could point to Tunisia. This
birthplace of Arab Uprisings witnessed an Islamist-
inspired government voluntarily cede power and
allow for a secular party with the largest vote share
to form a government after them. The Islamist-
inspired party Hizb al- Nahda had paved the way
for such a development because when forming
their own government immediately after the up-
rising, they dropped the clause stipulating that a
version of shari’ah must form the basis for law. If
Hizb al- Nahda’s more mature approach to post-
Islamist politics can spread to neighboring Egypt,
and then the region, much good could come
from it.
But all the onus cannot be on the Islamists.
Ruling Arab secular strongmen must bear a great
deal of the burden. They should work with post-
Islamist factions that are akin to Hizb al- Nahda in
each country to build on the Tunisian model and
to encourage a more demo cratic approach across
the region. To achieve this, a combination of po-
liti cal, intellectual, and cultural approaches are
necessary. The international community cannot af-
ford to let the chance for secular democracy in the
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