First things first, I’d like to introduce myself (for I expect that most of you, save my parents, don’t know me). My name is Quinn Rask and I am a senior this year double majoring in International Relations and Middle Eastern Studies with a minor in Arabic. I spent last spring studying at the University of Jordan in Amman, living with a Jordanian family, and travelling around the Middle East. Unfortunately (for my travel plans, not for the Arabs) the Arab Spring put a hamper on my possible travel options (all of the border crossings in Jordan were closed except the one with Israel), although I was still able to go to Egypt right (well pretty close at least) after Mubarak abdicated power to the Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF). This trip to Tunisia makes me 2/3 in visiting countries that toppled leaders in the Arab Spring, well, so far at least.

            While I am here I will be studying the future of secularism and Islamism in Tunisian politics. Yeah, yeah, big scary Islamist right? That’s what we hear about all the time on the television. We equate Islamists with the Taliban, making it basically synonymous with oppression. What I have seen so far is different. Actually, completely different. Tunisia is not Afghanistan. Tunisia is not Saudi Arabia. Tunisia is not even Egypt. We will see what the future of Tunisian Islamism is, but for right now it seems to be more similar to the Moral Majority of the United States (that is, socially conservative, but still ready and willing to participate in the democratic political system) than the Islamists in Iran (where they established an Islamic theocracy).

            I don’t want to say too much now (I want you all to keep coming back to read the  blog after all), so I will leave the discussion there for right now. But I will be writing, hopefully every day or every other day (time permitting, in shah Allah) about things related to my topic and my experiences in Tunisia, which so far have been incredible. If you have any questions, want to talk to me about some that I write, or really about anything please email me at Quinn.rask@tufts.edu and I will try to get back to you as soon as I can.

-Quinn