Tunisia

The Tunisian Republic lies on northern Africa's Mediterranean coast, adjacent to Algeria and Libya, midway between the Atlantic Ocean and the Nile Valley. Despite its relatively small size, its location at the meeting point of three distinct cultures (Arabo-Islamic, sub-Saharan, and European) and its history of openness to a wide variety of contrasting influences, including that of the Berbers, the Phoenicians, the Romans, the Vandals, and the Arab Muslims, made it a center for major world religions, mainly Judaism, Christianity, and Islam early in the religions' histories. This religious diversity has been critical in shaping contemporary Tunisian society on paths that were markedly different from those of other countries in the Muslim world. It helped nurture a culture of religious pluralism while at the same time maintaining Islam as the official religion of the country.

In 1956, after 75 years of French colonization, Tunisia had a total population of 3,527,000, including 57,800 Jews, one third of whom had acquired French citizenship and joined the rank of the majority of Jewish foreign nationals, and 250,000 settlers, 180,000 of whom were French (mainly Catholic). This suggests that more than 97% of Tunisian citizens were Muslims. Despite this religious homogeneity, the Tunisian constitution, which declared Islam the official religion of the state, guaranteed universal religious freedom and established total equality between its citizens regardless of their religion, building on the progressive reforms of the Fundamental Pact of September 10, 1857, and the constitution of 1861.

Since independence, a series of measures were taken to bring the Tunisian Jewish and Christian communities into the national fold. In 1964, the Tunisian state signed a modus vivendi with the Roman Catholic Church. Unique to a Muslim country, it guaranteed religious freedom to the Catholic Church in Tunisia. Today, Tunisia has [Page 1309]22,000 Catholics (out of 10 million inhabitants), of which around 3,400 are Italian and many are French. Overall, they hold 44 nationalities. The diocese of Tunis has an indigenous bishop, around 30 priests, and 165 nuns. The Catholics have 10 schools with around 6,000 Muslim students.

Even though Jewish presence in the Muslim world has been subject to shifts in regional and international politics since the mid-20th century, Tunisia was the only Muslim country to appoint Jewish ministers in the government (1957). Today, 1,300 Tunisian Jews, the country's largest indigenous religious minority, practice their religion in public and with devotion. They have a Grand Rabbi and five officiating rabbis and a board of directors. Annually in April, the Jewish community holds an international pilgrimage on the holiday of Lag B'Omer to Djerba. It represents the centerpiece of Jewish life in the country. Jews from all over the world come in droves to celebrate the pilgrimage festival that takes place at El Ghriba, the oldest and most famous synagogue in North Africa.

Tunisia played a critical role in helping spark the political unrest across the Middle East that has been termed the “Arab Spring” of 2011 and that has led to the ouster of Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak and major internal violence within Libya and Syria. The beginning of this wave of protest was in Tunisia, when a young street vendor in Tunis, Mohamed Bouazizi, immolated himself on December 17, 2010, in protest against government actions that prohibited him from plying his trade. His act of defiance became the symbol of brazen resistance to government authoritarianism in Tunisia and throughout the Arab world. After a month of mounting public protest involving hundreds of thousands of Tunisian demonstrators, the 23-year rule of the Tunisian strongman President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali came to an end on January 14, 2011, and the dictator fled to Saudi Arabia. New political parties have been formed, and Islamic religious interests play a role in some of them. Democratic elections were held later in 2011.

...