The document will be submitted to a referendum on July 25, a year after Saied assumed all powers
June 22 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The president of Tunisia, Kais Saied, has confirmed that the draft of the new Constitution, which will be submitted to a referendum in July, does not include any reference to Islam as a “state religion”, in what would be the first time in Arab countries .
Saied explained in statements to the press that the next Magna Carta “does not speak of a State whose religion is Islam, but of (Tunisia’s belonging) to an ‘umma’ (Muslim community) whose religion is Islam”.
“This issue does not involve anyone other than man”, highlighted the president, who has argued that the State is an “entity” similar to a company or an institution, so “it does not go to heaven or hell”, according to the Tunisian radio station Mosaique FM.
Saied received the draft of the new Constitution on Monday, which will be submitted to a referendum on July 25, a year after assuming all powers after dissolving the Government and suspending Parliament, which was later dissolved.
This document will replace the Magna Carta approved in 2014 following the overthrow in 2011 of the then president, Zine el Abidine ben Ali, within the framework of a massive wave of popular protests in what is known as the ‘Arab Spring’.
The current Constitution, which Saied himself has considered “illegitimate”, stipulates that Tunisia “is a free, independent and sovereign state, Islam is its religion, Arabic is its language and the republic is its regime”, while the preamble stresses that the Tunisian people have a “cultural and civilizational membership in the Arab and Islamic ‘umma'” and “an Arab and Islamic identity”.
Saied is facing growing criticism for the economic crisis and the exceptional measures adopted since May 2021, a measure denounced by many parties, including the Islamist Ennahda, which had the majority of seats in the dissolved Parliament.
Add Comment