A year after the coup that gave President Kais Saied complete power, he is now prepared to ratify a draft for constitution that would replace Islam as the country of Tunisia’s official religion. According to reports, a referendum on the proposed constitution would be held on June 25.

According to Morocco World News, the President informed media at Tunis airport that the forthcoming constitution of Tunisia “won’t refer a state with Islam as its religion, but of belonging to an umma (community) which has Islam as its religion.”

It is noteworthy that Tunisia, a country in northern Africa, has a majority Muslim population and that, as of this writing, Islam has been declared the State religion. The goal of President Saied is to keep politics and religion apart.

Saied took full power in July 2021 after dissolving the Tunisian parliament the previous year. Saied’s proposal to separate Islam from the State is rejected by many politicians. According to politician Rached Ghannouchi, the head of the Islamic party Ennhada, “the biggest corruption in politics is dictatorship, and the solution is to return to democracy and the separation of powers.”

The new constitution of the nation will not make any mention of Islam, according to Sadok Belaid, the former dean of the Tunis law school and chairman of the drafting committee. More than 80% of Tunisians, according to him, oppose Islamist politics and all forms of extremism.

Following the Arab Spring in 2011, Tunisia legally adopted its current constitution in 2014, stating that Islam is the state religion and Arabic is the official language of the country.

Saied fired 57 judges earlier this month after alleging that they had protected terrorists and engaged in corruption. Following that, judges across the country went on strike in protest of Saied’s judgement.

DISCLAIMER: The author is solely responsible for the views expressed in this article. The author carries the responsibility for citing and/or licensing of images utilized within the text.