For a Washington eager to find a ray of hope within the post-Arab Spring’s gloom, the visit here this week of Rachid Ghannouchi, leader of the moderate Islamist Ennahda party of Tunisia, has been extremely welcome.

The avuncular Ghannouchi, in appearances at a half dozen Washington think tanks, has radiated optimism about Tunisia’s path toward democracy, based on consensus between the Islamist and secular elements of the political elite. In turn, he has been compared to an Arab “Mandela,” Vaclav Havel or even Thomas Jefferson, who could serve as a model and mediator elsewhere in the Middle East.

A new constitution endorsed by 200 of 217 members of parliament on Jan. 26 represents “a marriage between Islam and democracy, between Islam and human rights, between Islam and universal values,” Ghannouchi told a dinner in his honor on Feb. 25, sponsored by the Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy and the National Council on US-Arab Relations.

“We in Tunisia proved that the two trends [Islamism and secularism] can coexist and even establish a government,” he said.