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 an umma (community) which has Islam as its religion,” he told journalists at Tunis airport.

For the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app.

“The umma and the state are two different things.”

Saied took delivery of the draft text on Monday, a key step in his drive to overhaul the Tunisian state after he sacked the government and seized far-reaching powers last July in moves opponents called a coup.

Sadeq Belaid, the legal expert who headed the drafting committee, had told AFP in an interview earlier this month that he would remove all reference to Islam from the new document in a challenge to Islamist parties.

His comments, partly referring to Saied’s nemesis Ennahdha, an Islamist-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.”

The 2014 document was the product of a hard-won compromise between Ennahdha and its secular rivals three years after the revolt that overthrew former leader Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

The new text, produced through a “national dialogue” excluding opposition forces and boycotted by the powerful UGTT trades union confederation, is meant to be approved by Saied by the end of June before being put to voters next month.

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.

His moves have been welcomed by some Tunisians tired of the corrupt and often chaotic post-revolutionary system.

Saied has long called for a presidential system that avoids the frequent deadlock seen under the mixed parliamentary-presidential system.

Asked about that issue on Tuesday, he said: “Whether the system is presidential or parliamentary is not the question.”

“What counts is that the people has sovereignty. There’s the legislative function, the executive function and the judicial function, and separation between them.”

JAMO84:
Islam means peaceful submission to the will of Almighty Allah, it's beyond constitutional provision of any Worldly leader.


They can take Islam out of their constitution, but they cannot take it out of the people.

JAMO84:
Islam means peaceful submission to the will of Almighty Allah, it's beyond constitutional provision of any Worldly leader.


They can take Islam out of their constitution, but they cannot take it out of the people.

malvisguy212:
peaceful and submission. this definition fit Islam. the word "submission" explain the type meaning of peace in Islam.

Surrounder or your life, submit and you'll have peace, if you don't submit, jihad is declare upon you until you submit

Surah 17:33: “And do not kill the soul
which Allah has forbidden, EXCEPT BY RIGHT.”

what right a Muslim have to kill ? if he submit, you don't have the right to kill him, but if he refuse, you have the right to kill him. no wonder many Muslims justify the killing of Deborah.

JAMO84:
That one na your own personal problem

malvisguy212:
peaceful and submission. this definition fit Islam. the word "submission" explain the type meaning of peace in Islam.

Surrounder or your life, submit and you'll have peace, if you don't submit, jihad is declare upon you until you submit

Surah 17:33: “And do not kill the soul
which Allah has forbidden, EXCEPT BY RIGHT.”

what right a Muslim have to kill ? if he submit, you don't have the right to kill him, but if he refuse, you have the right to kill him. no wonder many Muslims justify the killing of Deborah.

Built2last:
Haram

Watch our brothers from one region may start protest and burn shops

yrex01:
Leviticus (20:10-12) If a man commits adultery with another man's wife, even with the wife of his neighbour, both the adulterer and adulteress must be put to death.
what right a Christian have to kill ?

JAMO84:
Islam means peaceful submission to the will of Almighty Allah, it's beyond constitutional provision of any Worldly leader.


They can take Islam out of their constitution, but they cannot take it out of the people.

malvisguy212:
This is only occur in the dispensation of the law.... the new testament fullfil the old testament law, we move on from the fulfilments.

malvisguy212:
peaceful and submission. this definition fit Islam. the word "submission" explain the type meaning of peace in Islam.

Surrounder or your life, submit and you'll have peace, if you don't submit, jihad is declare upon you until you submit

Surah 17:33: “And do not kill the soul
which Allah has forbidden, EXCEPT BY RIGHT.”

what right a Muslim have to kill ? if he submit, you don't have the right to kill him, but if he refuse, you have the right to kill him. no wonder many Muslims justify the killing of Deborah.