Mere coincidence might be behind the eruption of crises connected to the state apparatus in both Tunisia and Egypt at the same time. Yet such an eruption provides the most eloquent expression of the nature of the relationship that political Islam, which holds the electoral majority, wishes to establish with the state apparatus in the two countries. It also reveals the function it ascribes to this apparatus. In pluralistic and democratic political systems, a framework both the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and the Ennahda (Renaissance) Movement in Tunisia still claim to cling to, the state apparatus falls outside the scope of political parties, and its function does not change when the ruling majority changes. Indeed, it is entrusted with serving the public interest, which transcends politics and political parties, and it takes a neutral stance on internal conflicts. This is the basis for the necessity of keeping the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government separate from each other, in such a way as to prevent political exploitation by those in power. And that is the essence of the civil state, of which Islamists seek to change the function, because it is in their thinking “secular", a characteristic they ascribe to it in order to cause repulsion. Such a civil state is the opposite of the one established by dictatorial regimes, where branches of government and of the state apparatus overlap and are placed at the service of the ruler alone. This had been the case under Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali in Tunisia and Hosni Mubarak in Egypt, and the revolution came in both countries in order to reclaim the rights of the civil state from the ruling regime and party, and to restore its original function. In Tunisia, Ennahda leader Rashid al-Ghannushi has not been able to restrain his desire, which he has repeatedly tried to hide with the defense of democracy and the right to political participation, to make clear the core of his stance on the state as it currently stands in Tunisia. Indeed, it remains “secular" and filled with “radical secularists" of whom it should be cleansed, even if over several phases. The meaning of those words emerges both in a general framework and in another more specific one. The general framework is what Ghannushi specified as “hostile branches" of the state apparatus, which he said were the army and the media in particular, as the Islamist movement has not yet been able to impose its influence on these two institutions and to direct them in its favor. The more specific framework is that of addressing these words to the Salafists, to whom, in order to attract them in the coming electoral campaign, he is offering a major concession in the concept of the civil state. In Egypt, President Mohamed Morsi, and through him the Muslim Brotherhood, purposely took the step of interfering directly with the work of the judiciary, in order to absorb the protests against the verdicts that were issued in the case of the “Battle of the Camel". Based on the content of the leaks about what was said to Attorney-General Abdel Meguid Mahmoud in order to convince him to accept Morsi's decision, the decision to remove him came for the sake of avoiding popular pressure, demonstrations and personal threats against the judge. Regardless of what this issue has led to and of the legal aspect concerning how those harmed by such a verdict should have objected to it, Morsi's intervention unequivocally seems to represent an attempt to lay one's hands on the judicial apparatus, which is constitutionally independent, and to once again subject it to the interests of those in power. This intervention also shows that concessions to an angry public, which is a voting public, will be taking place at the expense of the separation between branches of government, as a prelude to redefining their function. Yet matters will not settle down with the ease expected by political Islam, whether in Tunisia or in Egypt, as civil forces continue to resist the trend to undermine the state they are striving for. Indeed, in Tunisia, for example, one-third of the members of the National Constituent Assembly (NCA) have objected to Ghannushi's stances, considering them to represent a threat to the democratic alternation of power in the country, and have demanded the dissolution of the movement for “conspiring against the civil nature of the state". Similarly, the Ministry of Defense, in response to his accusing the army of “secularism", has issued a rare statement in which it stressed its neutrality with regard to all political parties, including Ennahda and its stances. And in Egypt, the judicial institution has acted in solidarity with the removed Attorney-General and has imposed that he remain at his post, while the “Brotherhood" crowd supporting Morsi has turned to confrontations against the other civil forces that criticize the President's performance.
