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Ed Webb

'Charter of Honor' Proposed to Prevent Tunisian Mosques from Being Politicized : Tunisia Live - 1 views

  • Tunisian imams and religious lecturers will sign a ‘charter of honor’ to keep Tunisian mosques from becoming politicized during the holy month of Ramadan.
  • there are 4,885 mosques in Tunisia. 100 mosques are in the process of applying for recognition from the Ministry of Religious Affairs, while 20 mosques are completely independent of the government and are controlled by what Lefi identified as a Salafist movement
  • “We have an investigative committee that notifies us of any transgressions. Yet, like any other ministry, we cannot control everything. We try to interfere, but it gets hard sometimes with clashes between religious groups and security forces. The situation is not perfect, but it is getting better,”
Ed Webb

Tunisian Ruling Party Feels Heat After Egyptian Coup - Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East - 0 views

  • “France knows that Islam and democracy are compatible.” While Hollande did say “Islam” and not “Islamism,” it was nevertheless the closest thing to an endorsement of Tunisia's Ennahda party to come from any French politician.
  • if the Tunisian Tamarod movement has not seen immediate support from the street, they have received a major political partner: Tunisia's most important opposition coalition, Nidaa Tounes. The coalition — which scores alongside Ennahda at the top of opinion polls — issued a press release on July 4 in which it made the same demands as Tamarod, the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly and new elections.
  • Mabrouka Mbarek, a left-leaning deputy at the Constituent Assembly from the Congress for the Republic Party, expressed her outrage at Essebsi's position. “This is unacceptable and dangerous. For Essebsi to say this shows that he has no clue what democracy is, and is not fit to be in government,”
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  • “The Egyptian example is present in the mind of Ennahda right now,” said Mohamed Bennour, the spokesman for the Ettakatol Party in an interview at the party's annual congress on July 7. He went on to say that the events in Egypt could play a “catalyzing” role in Tunisia. “I think the people will move if Ennahda ever makes big mistakes. I think that Ennahda is conscious now of not making mistakes in the current period.”
  • The biggest bone of contention in Tunisian politics right now is the finalization of the country's constitution, and in particular two articles — Articles 6 and 141 — which secularists say leave the door open for a higher degree of influence of Islamic law. Article 6 says that the state is the “protector” of “al moqadiset”  — “the holy things" — which could mean a ban on insulting any religious symbols, mosques or even imams, a much stricter blasphemy law than anything Tunisia currently has. Article 141 says that no amendments can be made to the constitution which are not in accordance with “Islam as the religion of the state,” a vague wording that some — including the Ettakatol Party — think could imply that Sharia should be the basis for future constitutional changes. “Article 141 refers the origin of the law to the Quran and Sharia, and that is very dangerous because it can be interpreted by certain judges as being the law, Sharia as law,” said Bennour. However, Bennour and others within the socialist Ettakatol Party felt that Ennahda would cede on these controversial points in light of recent events.
  • While the rest of Tunisia prepares to slow down with the reduced hours of the holy month of Ramadan [due to start on July 9], the Constituent Assembly has announced it will continue to work, with a session in the morning and another after the breaking of fast at night. Perhaps the dire example of Egypt will push Tunisia's parliament to put aside differences and advance their country to the next phase of democracy.
Ed Webb

Tunisia: Attack on Djerba synagogue was premeditated by national guard member - Al-Monitor: Independent, trusted coverage of the Middle East - 0 views

  • Tunisia’s Interior Ministry has identified the man behind an attack that killed five people earlier this week, saying Thursday that he intentionally targeted a synagogue on the Mediterranean island of Djerba in a premeditated act. The ministry described the shooting as a “cowardly criminal attack” but refrained from calling it an act of terrorism.
  • The French National Terrorism Prosecution Office has launched its own probe into the attack. Benjamin Haddad, who was French, was killed in the attack along with his cousin Aviel Haddad, who held dual Tunisian and Israeli citizenship.
  • The shooting coincided with the annual Jewish pilgrimage that is part of Lag Ba’omer celebration. Thousands of Jews from around the world gather at El-Ghriba synagogue, believed to be the oldest in Africa dating back 2,500 years.
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  • Djerba’s Jewish population is one of North Africa’s biggest, although in recent years it declined to 1,500, down from 100,000 in the 1960s
  • Tunisia and Israel do not have formal diplomatic relations, but Israelis can apply for a visa to travel to Djerba for the pilgrimage.
  • During his electoral campaign in 2019, Saied, who has since cemented his one-man rule, labeled normalization with Israel “high treason.”
Ed Webb

Ministry of Women's Affairs Bans Niqab from Children's Public Institutions : Tunisia Live - 0 views

  • The ministry stressed that educators should refrain from disseminating any particular ideologies, and strongly advised that singing, acting, and painting – as well as other activities that in recent instances had been labeled by educators as “forbidden” – be avoided, as well.
  • “We must abide by the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which bans any sort of ideological persuasion [when teaching], whether political or religious. We have international commitments to provide favorable learning conditions, and we should abide by them,”
Ed Webb

Tunisian Ministry of Religious Affairs to Increase Control of Mosque Activites : Tunisia Live - 0 views

  • There are four different positions in Tunisian mosques assigned by the ministry: a daily prayer imam, a Friday imam, a person to perform the call to prayer, and someone who maintains the building
  • some parties have attempted to assign imams affiliated with their parties in order to influence masses. “Our ministry chose to remain silent over such issues in the beginning. Now we are taking a more strict approach,” he added. The ministry will closely monitor sermons at mosques and will be swift and fair in their punishment of offenders, he said.
Ed Webb

Clashes Erupt in Sfax Mosque : Tunisia Live - 0 views

  •  
    NB Islamophobic comments
Ed Webb

Accused of Slapping a Niqab-Wearing Student, Dean of Manouba University Has Trial Postponed : Tunisia Live - 0 views

  • Faycel Zammi, one of Kazdaghli’s lawyers and a member of the Modern Left party, declared that this case is more serious than the Persepolis trial
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