Attalaki releases its first Annual Report on Religious Freedom in Tunisia and the Arab World

In Tunisia, we find ourselves in a reality increasingly marked by the challenges regarding religious freedom in general, in particular, that the State continues its policy of indifference before a fundamental issue, especially for a country that claims to be in a democratic transition towards a rule of law marked by universal values, as predicted in the preamble to the Second Republic’s constitution.

Islam is considered the religion that enjoys the majority in Tunisia with 97% of the population, most of which adheres to the thought of Maliki-Ash’ari with the presence of other Islamic sects like the Shiites, Ibadism, Hanafi, Hanbali, Ahmadiyya, and Sufis, without forgetting radical Islamic movements such as jihadism with its different streams of theological thought. As for the other religions, there are 1,500 Jews from Tunisia, most of whom live on the island of Djerba, Tunis, and the coastal regions (including Sousse). About 5,000 Tunisian Christians are spread throughout Tunisia, the majority of whom are under the obligation to practice their ceremonies (prayer gatherings) in homes (home churches) and this is due to the absence of churches especially in the internal regions of the country (this problem affects the Tunisian Protestant community which represents the overwhelming majority of Tunisian Christians). There are also 30,000 foreign Christians residing in Tunisia (the majority of who belong to the Roman Catholic Church). In addition to a hundred adherents of the Bahai faith. This community is in search of recognition and their right to organize legally for years (in the associative framework to enhance their culture). Without forgetting also the presence of a large number of atheists and non-believers, their number is estimated at thousands, and the majority of them are young.

Although it has been 10 years since the popular revolution of January 14, 2011, the issue of diversity and pluralism in the Tunisian society has not been resolved, in addition to the rise of hate speech and the number of recorded cases of violence and violation of the rights of Tunisian citizens on the base of their beliefs.

It should be noted that these statistics concerning religious minorities are not based on any official study carried out by the Tunisian State, only on the annual reports of international bodies. This “religious making in Tunisia” in terms of numbers is progressively changing.
However, despite their claims of freedom and equality, they only allow Muslim citizens to run for the presidency and other government and military positions. It clearly states in Article 74 that a person’s religion must be Islam to be president: “Every male and female voter who holds Tunisian nationality since birth, whose religion is Islam shall have the right to stand for election to the position of President of the Republic”. Religious minorities in Tunisia are also being subjected to different forms of oppression, that is why a lot of Christians in Tunisia often hide their religious identity to avoid being discriminated against. A report also claims that some citizens are being excluded from basic citizenship right because of their religion even though the country’s constitution states that every citizen is subjected to all the constitutional rights, regardless of their religious identity. In addition to the report, the state often disregards the safety and freedom of religious minorities like Christians, Jews, Baha’is, and others, as these groups are often subjected to discrimination.

As an example of these oppressions, a Christian family in Southern Tunisia was harassed last March, and a family member was dragged by her hair as she was being tortured repeatedly by her neighbors. They were also called hateful names by the neighbors. The family went on to file a report against their neighbors who attacked them, but the police officials did not entertain them until they submitted a medical charge. After being harassed, the police officials only questioned them regarding their religious identity and didn’t care much about the attack. Thankfully, the Attalaki is currently helping the family with their case and appointed a lawyer for them. There have been numerous reports of attacks and oppression on Christians in Tunisia like the Christian girl who was arrested for wearing a cross necklace, a Christian pastor who was threatened on Facebook, and a woman who was beaten by her brother for not having the same religion (Islam) as his.

Attalaki works closely with these national and international partners to strengthen the notion of citizenship in the Tunisian reality through the acceptance of diversity and pluralism and through the follow-up that takes place with the members of the different religious communities in Tunisia, the sensitization of society to the issue of diversity and the rejection of hate speech, training sessions, and conferences that are held to address different topics with different types of participants, such as religious leaders, politicians, representatives of national organizations, etc. Attalaki also works with the United Nations agencies in Tunisia and Geneva to raise the agencies of the international community to the deteriorating situation of religious minorities in Tunisia, In this context, the NGO intervened in the 13th session of the United Nations Forum on Minority Issues, the whose targeted issue was the “Hate Speech, Social Media and Minorities”, Attalaki’s intervention focused on religious extremism and hate speech in the Tunisian parliament, which has repeatedly targeted religious minorities in Tunisia, until the justification of terrorist acts in France recently for one of the deputies.