The Tunisian Revolution & Governance of Religion

Abstract

This article examines how the Tunisian revolution and subsequent political transition has influenced the relationship between state power and Islam. It aims to provide an in-depth and historically informed analysis of these relations through an exploration of one specific case: The attempts by successive Ministers of Religious Affairs to reform the state’s management of Tunisian religious institutions after January 2011. The article builds on multiple fieldwork visits to Tunisia by both authors, in addition to an extensive set of primary and secondary sources. The authors argue that relations between state and religious authority have changed considerably throughout the 2011–2015 period, and that a wide variety of actors, interests and political conflicts intersected with the question of state-religion relations. The fact that non-Islamist actors played such a crucial role in shaping the governance of Tunisian religious institutions underlines the necessity for scholars to give more attention to the role non-Islamist actors play in the institutionalization of public religion in Arab and Muslim majority countries.

Key Words:

• Ennahda
• formal Islam
• Islamic religious institutions
• political Islam
• state-society relations
• Tunisia

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Nadia Marzouki, Hamza Meddeb and Olivier Roy at the European University Institute for their critical and very useful feedback on an earlier version of this paper. We also would like to thank the participants at the Religion, Politics and Ideology in the Contemporary Middle East panel at the BRAIS conference of April 2016 for their valuable input. Finally, we would like to thank the three anonymous reviewers at Middle East Critique for their valuable comments. All remaining mistakes are solely our own. The authors did not receive any external funding for this research project, nor have they any financial interests in its application.

Notes

¹ M. Zeghal (1999) Religion and Politics in Egypt: The Ulema of al-Azhar, Radical Islam, and the State (1952–94), International Journal of Middle East Studies, 31(3), pp. 371–399.

² M. Ben Hamadi (2015) Tunisie: Béji Caïd Essebsi s’ Oppose Catégoriquement à la Dépénalisation des Pratiques Homosexuelles [Tunisia: Beji Caid Essebsi categorically opposes the decriminalization of homosexual practices], Huffington Post Maghreb, October 6.

³ Zeghal, Religion and Politics in Egypt.

⁴ J. Fox (2008) A World Survey of Religion and the State (New York: Cambridge University Press).

⁵ One can mention, for example, J. P. Berkey (2003) The Formation of Islam: Religion and Society in the Near East, 600–1800 (New York: Cambridge University Press).

⁶ See for example M. Zeghal (2010) Public Institutions of Religious Education in Egypt and Tunisia, in: Osama Abi-Mershed (ed.) Trajectories of Education in the Arab World: Legacies and Challenges (London: Routledge).

⁷ This digital archive can be found at www.turess.com.

⁸ K. S. Vikør (2005) Between God and the Sultan: A History of Islamic Law (Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press); R. Brunschvig (1965) Justice Religieuse et Justice Laïque dans la Tunisie des Deys et des Beys, jusqu’au Milieu du XIXe Siècle [Religious Justice and Secular Justice in Tunisia Under the Deys and Beys up to the Middle of the 19th Century], Studia Islamica, pp. 27–70.

⁹ A. Green (1976) Political Attitudes and Activities of the Ulama in the Liberal Age: Tunisia as an Exceptional Case, International Journal of Middle East Studies, 7(2), pp. 209–241.

¹⁰ N. Sraieb (1992) Khérédine et l’Enseignement: une Nouvelle Conception du Savoir en Tunisie [Kheredin and Educaton: A new idea of Knowledge in Tunisia], Revue du Monde Musulman et de la Méditerranée, 63(1), p. 206; K. J. Perkins (2004) A History of Modern Tunisia (New York: Cambridge University Press); and A. H. Green (1978) The Tunisian Ulama 1873–1915: Social Structure and Response to Ideological Currents (Leiden: Brill), p. 34.

¹¹ Green, Political Attitudes and Activities of the Ulama in the Liberal Age, p. 239.

¹² M. D. Lewis (2014) Divided Rule: Sovereignty and Empire in French Tunisia, 1881–1938 (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press), p. 131.

¹³ N. Sraieb (1967) Contribution à la Connaissance de Tahar el-Haddad (1899–1935), Revue du Monde Musulman et de la Méditerranée, 4(1), 99–132.

¹⁴ M. Achour (2012) Tahar ibn Achour, Chevalier de la libération et de l’illumination Babnet Tunisie, The International Solidarity Movement – France, February 13.

¹⁵ Green, The Tunisian Ulama 1873–1915.

¹⁶ Zeghal, Public Institutions of Religious Education in Egypt and Tunisia, p. 5.

¹⁷ Tunisian Ministry of Religious Affairs (2012) A Historical Overview of the Administrative Management of Religious Affairs in Tunisia [in Arabic].

¹⁸ Ifta Office of Tunisia (2016) Introduction to the Ifta office, Ifta Office of Tunisia, 2016.

¹⁹ Zeghal, Public Institutions of Religious Education in Egypt and Tunisia, p. 9.

²⁰ For more information on these reforms see Y. Ben Achour (1980) Islam Perdu, Islam Retrouvé. Annuaire de l’Afrique du Nord; XVIII, pp. 65–75; Moore, Tunisia since Independence: The Dynamics of One-Party Government.

²¹ Moore, Tunisia Since Independence: The Dynamics of One-Party Government, p. 57.

²² F. Frégosi (2004) La Regulation Institutionelle de l’islam en Tunisie: Entre audace moderniste et tutelle étatique (Paris: CERI Sciences Po).

²³ Ibid.

²⁴ It should be noted that many members of the previously mentioned Association pour la Sauvegarde du Coran would constitute the first generation within the Tunisian Islamist movement. For an in-depth discussion of this period, see F. Burgat (1988) L’islamisme au Maghreb: La voix du Sud: Tunisie, Algérie, Libye, Maroc (Paris: Karthala).

²⁵ Tunisian Ministry of Religious Affairs, A Historical Overview of the Administrative Management of Religious Affairs in Tunisia.

²⁶ Frégosi, La Regulation Institutionelle de l’islam en Tunisie, p. 17.

²⁷ Tunisian Ministry of Religious Affairs, A Historical Overview of the Administrative Management of Religious Affairs in Tunisia.

²⁸ Y. Ben Achour (2000) Politique et Religion en Tunisie, Confluences Méditerranée, Printemps, 33; and M. Kerrou (2002) Public et privé en islam: Espaces, Autorités et Libertés (Paris: Maisonneuve et Larose: Institut de Recherche sur le Maghreb Contemporain).

²⁹ Zeghal, Public Institutions of Religious Education in Egypt and Tunisia, p. 9.

³⁰ Frégosi, La Regulation Institutionelle de l’islam en Tunisie, p. 19.

³¹ Author Interview with a clerk at the Ministry of Religious Affairs, Tunis, September 12, 2015.

³² Next to the formal religious educational institute, Zaytuna also re-emerged as a collective identity built on a Tunisian religious authority: In essence as a collective of independent ulema that received their religious education at Zaytuna. This, for instance, can be observed around the Charter of Zaytuna Ulema (Mithaq Ulema Tunis) published in December 2012 by the late Zaytuna scholar Kamaladdin Jaid.

³³ E. Gobe (2012) Tunisie an I: Les Chantiers de la Transition, l’Année du Maghreb, 8, pp. 433–454.

³⁴ F. Altashi (2011) The most Important Implications of the General Amnesty [in Arabic], Al-Chourouk, February 25.

³⁵ T. H. Donker (2013) Re-emerging Islamism in Tunisia: Repositioning Religion in Politics and Society, Mediterranean Politics, 18(2), pp. 207–224.

³⁶ Author Interview with an advisor to Noureddine Khademi, Tunis, November 14, 2015.

³⁷ This is a diverse group of Islamists, often described under the single banner of ‘Salafists. See M. Marks (2013) Youth politics and Tunisian Salafism: Understanding the Jihadi Current, Mediterranean Politics, 18(1), pp. 104–111.

³⁸ S. Al-Qasmatini (2012) Shaykh Rached Ghannouchi at the Sidi al-Lakhmi Mosque in Sfax: We are at the building stage, there is no doubt the mosque will return to have a role in society, in al-Wasat al-Tunisiya, June 6.

³⁹ H. Trabelsi (2011) The Lakhme Mosque Welcomes Shaykh Ridha Jaouadi as its New Imam [in Arabic], Al-Hiwar, March 16.

⁴⁰ A. Gana, G. Van Hamme & M. Ben Rebah (2012) Géographie électorale et disparités socio-territoriales: Les enseignements des élections pour l’assemblée constituante en Tunisie [Electoral geography and social-territorial differences: The lessons of the Constituent Assembly elections in Tunisia], L’Espace Politique, p. 18.

⁴¹ M. Zeghal (2016) Constitutionalizing a Democratic Muslim State without Shari’a: The Religious Establishment in the Tunisian 2014 Constitution, in R. W. Hefner (ed.) Shari’a Law and Modern Muslim Ethics (Bloomington: Indiana University Press); and K. L. Netterstrøm (2015) The Islamists’ Compromise in Tunisia, Journal of Democracy, 26(4), pp. 110–124.

⁴² Ibid, p. 120.

⁴³ Babnet Tunisie (2012) ‘We Will Work to Develop Religious Speech to Strengthen the Moderate Tunisian Personality’ [in Arabic], February 13.

⁴⁴ Author Interview with an advisor to Nourredine Khademi, Tunis, November 14, 2015.

⁴⁵ Ibid.

⁴⁶ R. Boukriba (2012) Union of Mosque Employees Demands Resignation of Khademi [in Arabic], Attounisia, November 1; M. Bouazizi (2012) A Cry of Distress from the Mosques: A Hundred Mosques Under the Control of Salafists and the Ministry of Religious Affairs is Complicit [in Arabic], Al-Chourouq, November 2.

⁴⁷ Also see the website of the SNR: www.snr-tunisie.com; Masdar al-Youm (2013) Khademi holds President of the Republic Responsible for Problems with the Umra [in Arabic], June 11; Assabah (2013b) Khademi in Saudi Arabia for final Hajj Preparations [in Arabic], September 10.

⁴⁸ Author Interview with advisor to Nourredine Khademi, Tunis, November 14, 2015.

⁴⁹ Attounisia (2012) The Educational Board of the Zaytuna Mosque Declares that Traditional Zaytuna Education will Return [in Arabic], May 13.

⁵⁰ Author Interview with Houcine Laabidi, Tunis, October 10, 2012.

⁵¹ African Manager (2012), Ministry of Religious Affairs: Houcine Laabidi Understands the Zaytuna Educational Agreement as a Blank Check for State Independence, August 8.

⁵² Organisation Tunisienne du Travail (2013) The Formal Declaration for the Founding of the OTT [in Arabic], Organisation Tunisienne du Travail, August 21.

⁵³ Organisation Tunisienne du Travail (2014) Our Position Regarding Neutrality of the Mosque [in Arabic], Organisation Tunisienne du Travail, March 7.

⁵⁴ F. Bujnah (2013). Founding Conference in Sfax of Tunisian Organization for Work [in Arabic], al-Tunisiya, September 8.

⁵⁵ Authors’ Interview with a founder of OTT, Mohamed Boukhari, Tunis, January 23, 2015.

⁵⁶ M. Zeghal (2013) Competing Ways of Life: Islamism, Secularism, and Public Order in the Tunisian Transition, Constellations, 20(2), pp. 254–274; Le Monde (2011) Une Chaîne Tunisienne Attaquée par des Islamistes pour avoir diffusé Persepolis, October 9; and Le Figaro (2012) Violences en Tunisie contre une Exposition Controversée, June 12.

⁵⁷ International Crisis Group (2013) Tunisia: Violence and the Salafi Challenge, p. 137.

⁵⁸ Agence France-Presse (2013) Entre les Mouvements Sociaux et la Manipulation Politique, la Tunisie au Bord de l’éffondrement!, Huffington Post Maghreb, 2013.

⁵⁹ The others being UTICA, The Bar Association, and the Tunisian Human Rights League. See K. L. Netterstrøm (2016) The Tunisian General Labor Union and the Advent of Democracy, The Middle East Journal, 70(3), pp. 383–398; and H. Yousfi. (2015) L’UGTT, une passion Tunisienne: Enquête sur les Syndicalistes en Révolution, 2011–2014 (Paris: Karthala).

⁶⁰ Ibid; and S. Chayes (2014) How a Leftist Labor Union Helped Force Tunisia’s Political Settlement, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, March 27.

⁶¹ Hakaek online (2014a) This is the Position of the Minister of Religious Affairs Regarding Unifying Sermons in Mosques! [in Arabic], Realites Arabic, February 4, accessed April 20, 2016.

⁶² Hakaek online (2014b) Minister of Religious Affairs: Tunisia is an Islamic Country and Takes Everyone into Account [in Arabic], Realites Arabic, March 9, accessed April 20, 2016; and Al-Jarida al-Tunisiya (2014) Minister of Religious Affairs Defends Imam of the Lakhme Mosque [in Arabic], March 9.

⁶³ A. Al-Souhaili (2015) Soon Mosque Affairs will be a Public Service [in Arabic], Attounisia, February 2.

⁶⁴ F. Laabidi (2014) Minister of Religious Affairs: We Fired Nine Radical Imams… and Zaytuna is Uncontrolled [in Arabic], Aljarida Attounisia, March 9.

⁶⁵ Al-Chourouq (2014) Exclusive: Ministers of Interior, Justice and Religious Affairs will meet today about mosques [in Arabic], February 5.

⁶⁶ Interview with authors, Tunis, September 12, 2015.

⁶⁷ African Manager (2014) Decision to Dissolve the Lakhme Association in Sfax [in Arabic], November 30.

⁶⁸ Assabah (2014) Houcine Laabidi: Mehdi Jomaa gave Order to Storm Zaytuna Mosque [in Arabic], June 27.

⁶⁹ A. Al-Souhaili, A. (2015) Soon Mosque Affairs will be a Public Service [in Arabic], Attounisia, February 2.

⁷⁰ M. Ben Hamadi (2014) L’article 6 de la Constitution: Le Péché Originel, Huffington Post Maghreb, January 23.

⁷¹ Ibid.

⁷² Authors’ translation, Article 6 (partial) of the Tunisian Constitution (2014).

⁷³ F. Dahmani (2013) Que se sont dit Rached Ghannouchi et Béji Caïd Essebsi à Paris? Jeune Afrique, August 20.

⁷⁴ C. Bozonneti (2014) Tunisie: Net Recul des Islamistes aux Elections Législatives, Le Monde Afrique, October 27.

⁷⁵ At the congress Ennahda also decided to split its activities: One focusing on politics; and another focusing on preaching. See Ennahda Movement (2016) The Final Declaration to the Tenth General Conference of the Ennahda Movement [in Arabic], Ennahda Movement, May 25.

⁷⁶ HuffPost Tunisie (2016) Coup d’Envoi du Dixième Congrès d’Ennahdha: Béji Caïd Essebsi Parmi ses Alliés, Huffington Post Maghreb, May 20.

⁷⁷ Author Interview with an advisor to the Minister Othman Battikh, Tunis, November 18, 2015.

⁷⁸ Ibid.

⁷⁹ Ibid. Debates on the position of informal mosques in the Tunisian Islamic sphere therefore are deemed irrelevant: Without state recognition, a mosque is perceived as non-existent.

⁸⁰ Ibid. The first advisory topic, and related letter as sent to preachers, was shown to one of the authors the next day.

⁸¹ Ibid.

⁸² See, for instance, the explicit statement on terrorism in the final declaration of Ennahda’s Tenth Conference: Ennahda Movement (2016) The Final Declaration To The Tenth General Conference Of The Ennahda Movement [in Arabic], May 25.

⁸³ See: majles.marsad.tn. Available at: http://majles.marsad.tn/2014/fr/chroniques/56898fea12bdaa034bb8b72f, accessed February 6, 2017.

⁸⁴ Attounisia (2015) The Judge Rules and Laabidi Refuses to go… When is the Conflict over Zaytuna Going to End? [in Arabic], March 26.

⁸⁵ Al-Chourouq (2015) The Ministry of Religion Leads the Prayer at Zaytuna today [in Arabic], April 3.

⁸⁶ Babnet Tunisie (2015) Tunis: 80 Representatives from the Parliament Sign Petition Demanding the Removal of the Imam of the Lakhme Mosque Ridha Jaouadi [in Arabic], July 23.

⁸⁷ Authors’ Interview with senior Ennahda member, Sfax, June 12, 2015.

⁸⁸ Agence France-Presse (2015) Tunisie: Manifestation contre le limogeage contesté d’un imam de Sfax. Available at: tempsreel.nouvelobs.com, accessed February 6, 2017.

⁸⁹ Al-Chourouq (2015) Sfax: Jaouadi Leads the Worshippers in the Lakhme [mosque] and the Friday Prayer Returns to the Great Mosque [in Arabic], September 18.

⁹⁰ Author Interview with an activist Imam, Sfax, November 20, 2015.

⁹¹ Attounisia (2016) Ridha Jaouadi Reacts to Change of Othman Battikh: Finally The Mufti of Ben Ali is Gone [in Arabic], January 7, 2016.

⁹² L. Armati (2015) Laïcité: Le Grand Flou Tunisien, Télérama, February 8, 2015.