Despite the social reforms led by Bourguiba during his presidency, the state of Tunisia, as modern as it was, gave way to a thriving Islamic revival movement to such an extent that during the '80s their activities disturbed Tunisia's political life. The years between 1986 and 1991 were marked by open conflict between the regime and the Islamists. Since this conflict was an ideological one, the population was influenced only marginally by its outcome. Perhaps the concerns of the Islamists were not involved enough with those of most Tunisians. An analytical approach to Tunisian Islamist thought reveals that political matters, inspired by Islamic teachings as well as secular ones, formed its ideological basis. The ideological needs of the population were not a priority. Being easily influenced by mainstream thought, Tunisians were easily conditioned by the state and the mass media to reject any form of Islamism.

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The main thesis of this study is that Islam played a role in the history of the Tunisian nationalist movement on two levels. It was considered as a fundamental component in defining the specificity of the Tunisian nation, source of legitimacy of the Tunisian nationalist movement both before and after independence. Moreover, as a fundamental component of the Tunisian "personality", it influenced the mode of communication used by nationalist leaders to mobilize the masses. / The biographical approach served to focus the issue through the prism of Habib Bourguiba's life. It revealed that even this most secular of Arab leaders could not shed the Arab-Islamic heritage of Tunisia precisely because Islam, as a fundamental component of the Tunisian "personality" and as the language of the masses, held the key to political legitimacy.

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