исламонацисты такие исламонацисты

(When I first came to the UK) I gave a lecture Manchester University in which I said democracy should not exclude communists. At the time this was rejected strongly by Islamists who saw it as accepting atheism. I said that it is not ethical for us to call on a secular government to accept us, while once we get to power we will eradicate them. We should treat people like-for-like. As the Prophet Muhammad said, one should wish for his brother what he wishes for oneself. And Kant said you should use your behaviour as your base for treating the rest of humanity.

At the time this was alien to political thought (among UK-exiled Arab Islamists) and I was described as a secularist and part of a secularist movement because I called for democracy that does not exclude anyone.

Indeed since our first statement, our founding statement on 5 June 1981, journalists have asked me: if the Tunisian people elected communists would you accept that?

I answered that if the Tunisian people do that then I would respect the will of the Tunisian people and I’ll then address them to convince them that this is not right and when there are elections, the elections will tell whether we managed to convince them.