Tunisia's Ennhada will not enforce Sharia.
The moderate Islamist Ennahda party, which leads Tunisia's government, will not back calls by conservatives to make Islamic law, or sharia, the main source of legislation in a new constitution, a senior party official said on Monday, Reuters reports.
Source : https://www.marocafrik.com/english/Tunisia-s-Ennha...
"Ennahda has decided to retain the first clause of the previous constitution without change," Ameur Larayed told Radio Mosaique. "We want the unity of our people and we do not want divisions."
International media such as the New York Times noted the decision to preserve article of the constitution which says that Tunisia is an independent ,islamic state with Arabic as its language and a republic. It defines that state and is viewed as protecting its secular nature.
This follows the demonstration on Sunday by thousands of Salafists demanding sharia and attacking a group of actors. So far however no police action has been taken against the attackers and the artists were asked not to provoke a confrontation with the salafists.Poice themselves have been the object of attacks in previous salafist
demonstrations.
As ANSAMED notes:"Tunisian Minister for Religious Affairs Noureddine el-Khademi denounced the radical changes seen in the country's mosques: since the ''revolution'' they have been turned from religious to political stages".. He also criticised the attack on the artists.
La Presse de Tunisie reports Rached Ghannouchi the head of Ennhada as saying"There is no war against the Salafists, the law must be applied against those who violate the security of citizens."
"Sharia is a concept that remains a little fuzzy to the public. There is no national consensus on this issue. Some are afraid of its application while others are willing to die for it. A possible vote on this issue can still divide society and put some of the people in position of rejection of sharia, which is very serious! We do not want to introduce Sharia law in the Constitution as the sole source of legislation. "The head of Ennahdha said.
He called on the Constituent Assembly to retain the first article of the constitution.
The situation in Tunisia is very different from Egypt where the Muslim Brotherhood through the Freedom and Justice Party and the Salafist al-Nour party hold the majority of seats in parliament and control the panel drafting the constitution. In Tunisia the Ennhada party shares power with two secular parties, Ettakol and Congress for the Republic (CPR) and the secular tradition in Tunisia is far more deeply rooted amongst the majority of Tunisians.This however is probably not the last of the argument between hard line fundamentalists and the secular elements of Tunisian Society.
International media such as the New York Times noted the decision to preserve article of the constitution which says that Tunisia is an independent ,islamic state with Arabic as its language and a republic. It defines that state and is viewed as protecting its secular nature.
This follows the demonstration on Sunday by thousands of Salafists demanding sharia and attacking a group of actors. So far however no police action has been taken against the attackers and the artists were asked not to provoke a confrontation with the salafists.Poice themselves have been the object of attacks in previous salafist
demonstrations.
As ANSAMED notes:"Tunisian Minister for Religious Affairs Noureddine el-Khademi denounced the radical changes seen in the country's mosques: since the ''revolution'' they have been turned from religious to political stages".. He also criticised the attack on the artists.
La Presse de Tunisie reports Rached Ghannouchi the head of Ennhada as saying"There is no war against the Salafists, the law must be applied against those who violate the security of citizens."
"Sharia is a concept that remains a little fuzzy to the public. There is no national consensus on this issue. Some are afraid of its application while others are willing to die for it. A possible vote on this issue can still divide society and put some of the people in position of rejection of sharia, which is very serious! We do not want to introduce Sharia law in the Constitution as the sole source of legislation. "The head of Ennahdha said.
He called on the Constituent Assembly to retain the first article of the constitution.
The situation in Tunisia is very different from Egypt where the Muslim Brotherhood through the Freedom and Justice Party and the Salafist al-Nour party hold the majority of seats in parliament and control the panel drafting the constitution. In Tunisia the Ennhada party shares power with two secular parties, Ettakol and Congress for the Republic (CPR) and the secular tradition in Tunisia is far more deeply rooted amongst the majority of Tunisians.This however is probably not the last of the argument between hard line fundamentalists and the secular elements of Tunisian Society.
Source : https://www.marocafrik.com/english/Tunisia-s-Ennha...