Crisis in Tahrir

No religion in Tunisia’s constitution, says Islamist leader

| 7 November 2011 | Comments (4)

 

Tunisians prepare for life after elections.

There will be no religion in Tunisia’s planned changes to the constitution, the Islamist-led coalition government said on Monday morning, in a move that is already garnering widespread support.

Instead, the Islamist Ennahda party, who won some 40 percent of the vote late last month, will focus the new constitution on democracy, human rights and a free-market economy.

According to Ennahda leader Rachid Ghannouchi, Islamic law, or Sharia, will be left out of the new constitution in order to maintain a secular interpretation of the rule of law, he told Reuters news agency.

“We are against trying to impose a particular way of life,” said Ghannouchi.

It comes as critics of the Islamist group, a more moderate Islamist party won 41.7 percent of the vote in the country’s first free and fair election since a protest movement ousted the former regime in January, have voiced concern over the future of Tunisia.

Women had been fearful that the Islamic leaning party could attempt to implement a series of reforms that would curtail their freedom, but average citizens appear less worried on Monday after Ghannouchi’s statements.

“I was definitely scared that they would force us all to veil and would hurt our chances of work and freedom, but now I don’t think there is anything to really worry about,” said Marwa, a 29-year-old accountant in Tunis, the capital. She said that Ennahda has shown itself to be “a Tunisian party and one that while conservative, won’t destroy our identity.”

All political parties have already agreed to maintain the old constitution’s first article that explicitly states Arabic and Islam as the foundation for the country.

“This is just a description of reality,” Ghannouchi said. “It doesn’t have any legal implications.

“There will be no other references to religion in the constitution. We want to provide freedom for the whole country,” said the Islamist leader, who will not take any official role in the new government. The new constitution is due some time next year.

BM

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Section: Latest News, Religion, Tunisia

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  • Anthony Hanna

    Comparing Tunisia’s Ennahda to Egypt’s MB is not all apples and oranges. Islam in Tunisia was ‘controlled’ by Tunisia’s former leaders, to the extent that praying at a mosque outside or immediate area could see one arrested. Tunisians want their basic right to practice religion returned to the, and this is what the will get, a simple basic right.

    Egypt on the other hand were free to practice Islam, with exceptions to extremist militants and those threatening the authority of the former regime. What I do hope for is that when the MB attain power in what I pray to be a free and fair election, that they allow the Copts, Egyptians just like them, to practice their religion freely and attain their basic right to do sol just like Tunisia will now.

  • Anonymous

    Mubarak had the sharia as his explicit source of legislation and a lot of good that did for Muslims!!!.  We need actions not words.  God Bless Ghanouchi and may he inspire equally thoughtful responses within the muslim intelligentsia of Egypt.

  • msbmap68

    What a precedent! They are living up to their name, renaissance of a religion that used to be open, generous and free enough to bring to the Western world of the dark ages the translations of Greek philosophers and mathematicians, that the West today takes pride in naming “our cultural heritage”, conveniently omitting the Arab detour….  Will the Egyptian MB ever be enlightened and courageous enough to do the same?