Tunisian President Kais Saied confirmed Tuesday that a draft constitution to be put to a referendum on July 25 will not enshrine Islam as the ‘religion of the state.’ ‘The next constitution of Tunisia won’t mention a state with Islam as its religion, but of belonging to a community which has Islam as its religion,’ he told journalists.
Daily Mail Sadeq Belaid, the legal expert who headed the drafting committee, had told AFP in an interview this month that he would remove all reference to Islam from the new document in a challenge to Islamic extremist parties.
His comments, partly referring to Saied’s nemesis Ennahdha, a Muslim Brotherhood-inspired party which has dominated Tunisian politics since 2011, sparked a heated national debate. The first article of Tunisia’s 2014 constitution – and its 1959 predecessor – defined the North African country as ‘a free, independent and sovereign state. Islam is its religion and Arabic is its language.’
Thousands of Tunisians protested against this referendum in the capital over the weekend.
The new text, produced through a ‘national dialogue’ excluding opposition forces is meant to be approved by Saied by the end of June before being put to voters on July 25. That is a year after the former constitutional law professor sacked the government, later consolidating his power grab by dissolving parliament and seizing control of the judiciary.
https://youtu.be/xCf-pDSLdXc
Baby steps at a time is the only way to win the war against Islamists. For now, the country is safe from Sharia Law taking over. Great move.
Im wondering how many death threats he has received already.
Hear, hear!
Finally some of the Maghreb countries are waking up.
I hope this is successful.
This man wants to protect his nation and people.Countries that are hard line Islamic never prosper and are very cruel to women and children.
Tunisia is very secular. From what I understand, it is very popular with Western tourists as it has lots of bars and nightclubs and even a red light district.
Not much difference. Just in the wording.
Tunisia is actually going secular? Wow! That is a big step. But then again, Tunisia, of all of the former French colonies was most under French influence and retained much of its French character even after independence. But if Tunisia is actually abandoning a state religion, I am sure that will rile the hardline fundamentalists, and you can be sure that there will be a lot of terrorist backlash. The fanatics are going to be fuming!
They already are.
It won’t go to this date. They will cut his throat before that date. They will still get their way with violence. It’s in their DNA.
Yep. I smell a fatwa .