Tunisia: Referendum on not making Islam the official religion of the state

Its president TunisiaKais Saied, wants the country to turn the page and intends to call the people to a referendum to decide whether to separate the state from the Islam.

“Tunisia’s next constitution will not mention a state with a religion of Islam, but an umma (community) whose religion is Islam,” he told reporters.

According to him, “umma and the state are two different things”, while he handed over a relevant draft on Monday. In fact, he told AFP in an interview this month that he would remove any reference to Islam from the new document in a dispute with Islamic parties.

However, according to his critics, the move may be aimed at his political opponents and especially the Ennahdha party, which is inspired by Islamists and has dominated Tunisian politics since 2011.

It is noted that the first article of the Tunisian Constitution of 2014 defined the North African country as “a free, independent and sovereign state. “Islam is his religion and Arabic is his language.”

Source: News Beast

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