Tunisia's Postcolonial Identity Crisis: A Key to Understanding the Lure of Extremism

In Tunisia today - a country burdened by a weak economy and experiencing precarious security - the hotly debated question of Tunisian identity opens up a vacuum for radical groups to fill. Since its independence in 1956, Tunisia has been through three major historic chapters, each offering strikingly different views of Tunisian identity: the era of Habib Bourguiba (1957-1987), of Zine el-Abidine B…