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| Tunisian Salafist leaders Mohamed Khelif, right, and Khmaies Majeri give a press conference on Oct. 11, 2012, in Tunis, following their meeting with Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki. (AFP Photo/Fethi Belaid) |
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Tunis. A
key proposal by Tunisia’s ruling Islamist party to outlaw blasphemy in the new
constitution, which stoked fears of creeping Islamization, is to be dropped
from the final text, Assembly speaker Mustapha Ben Jaafar told AFP.
The
agreement to drop the clause follows negotiations between the three parties in
the ruling coalition and must still be approved by the committees drafting the
constitution, which Jaafar said would be debated by parliament next month.
It comes
after President Moncef Marzouki warned that radical Islamist militants pose a
“great danger” to the Maghreb region, and following a wave of violent attacks —
blamed on Salafists — on targets ranging from works of art to the US Embassy.
“There will
certainly be no criminalization,” Jaafar, the 72-year-old speaker of the
National Constituent Assembly, said in an exclusive interview.
“That is
not because we have agreed to [allow] attacks on the sacred, but because the
sacred is something very, very difficult to define. Its boundaries are blurred
and one could interpret it in one way or another, in an exaggerated way,” he
added.
The plan to
criminalize attacks on religious values sparked an outcry when it was first
announced by the Islamists in July, with the media and civil society groups
warning that it would result in new restrictions on freedom of expression.
Jaafar
argued that freedom of expression should be guaranteed, as a key achievement of
the mass uprising that ousted former president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali last
year.
“There is a
fundamental achievement of the revolution that should never be called into
question, and that no one should be able to challenge, which is the freedom of
expression and of the press.”
Government
critics have also warned of creeping Islamization in the North African country
since Ben Ali’s regime was swept away.
Jaafar said
that Ennahda, the Islamist party that heads the ruling coalition, will accept
dropping the blasphemy clause even though it was at the heart of its political
agenda.
Ennahda had
even wanted to see its proposed ban on attacks on the sacred become
international law, but had modified its position, said Jaafar, who heads
Ettakatol, a leftist party allied to the Islamists in a coalition government.
“Sometimes
we hold talks within the troika [three-party ruling coalition] and we feel that
they [Ennahda] are prepared to let their opinions develop, to move the lines a
bit,” he added.
Successes
and failures
Tunisia’s
interim parliament is tasked with drafting a new constitution but the main
sticking point in that task, which has been much-delayed and has threatened to
set back elections set for 2013, is the nature of the political system, Jaafar
said.
The
Islamists have been pushing for a pure parliamentary system, while the other
parties want important powers to remain in the hands of the president.
“I have
high hopes that a compromise will be found,” he said, recalling that Ennahda
had already agreed not to insist on Islamic Shariah law.
A first
draft of the text will be submitted to the Assembly in November, and then each
article will be debated between December and January, Jaafar said, adding that
he expected the elections to take place before next summer.
Tunisia’s
Islamist Prime Minister Hamad Jebali has promised to announce a new
constitution timetable on Oct. 18.
Jaafar
admitted to “mistakes” by the coalition government, which has been accused of
authoritarian tendencies, and of having failed to make progress on social and
economic issues that were driving factors behind the revolution.
“It is a
government where certain officials lack experience and have made mistakes.
There have been successes and there have been failures,” he said, referring to
a woman accused of indecency who was raped by policemen.
Jaafar also
lamented the ruling coalition’s failure to rein in Tunisia’s increasingly
assertive Salafist movement, for which it has been sharply criticized.
“The
government has lacked firmness” toward the radical Islamists, blamed for a
spate of violence, including an attack on the US Embassy in Tunis last month,
that has “tarnished Tunisia’s image,” Jaafar said.
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