Constituent Assembly Divided over Role of Islamic Law in Constitution

The National Constituent Assembly

Today’s Constituent Assembly plenary session saw conflict over the role which Islamic law should play in shaping Tunisia’s new constitution.

The debate came during a meeting in which each coalition, party, and independent member had the opportunity to present its vision regarding the process of drafting the constitution.

Rabii Abdi, an assembly member representing the northwestern town of Beja for the centrist Congress for the Republic (CPR) party, emphasized that the constitution must honor the country’s Arab-Muslim roots along with explicit adherence to the “principles of modernity embodied in documents such as the UN Declaration on Human Rights.”

However, many Ennahda members argued that the principal source of legislation should be derived from sharia’a – traditional Islamic law. Ali Fares, an assembly member from Ennahda representing Tataouine, said, “This constitution must be responsive to the demands of the revolution – but by accommodating the Arab-Muslim identity and without contradicting it.”

He continued to say, “Islamic sharia’a [jurisprudence] must be a principal point of reference in our constitution.”

This point has been a persistent source of contention among assembly members throughout the process of drafting the constitution. “While we need to be in harmony with our identity, we cannot use the sharia’a as a source of legislation because it can disrupt the balance of Tunisian society,” said Nadia Chaabane, an assembly member from the Democratic Modernist Pole, representing the France 1 district.

“Even if we did use it – whose version will we follow? Sharia’a is so vague and unclear – it needs a lot of interpretation. Moroccan interpretation, for instance, is not the same as Iranian,” stated Chaabane.

One point of agreement among most assembly members, however, is that the constitution must protect the demands of the revolution, and should protect all citizens from any potential threat of tyranny. “We need to achieve the goals of the revolution, which was carried out for dignity and liberty. We must begin by providing equal opportunity for all citizens in terms of employment, development and growth, education, health services, etc,” said Abdi.

Others, such as Chaabane, emphasized the importance of having an independent judiciary and concrete, pragmatic methods of translating the liberties mentioned in the constitution into tangible guarantees. “A decentralized, mixed system of governance is necessary to protect freedoms. Democracy is not just about voting. It’s about having independent commissions that actively work to guard these freedoms,” she said.

The Constituent Assembly is due to meet in plenum on Thursday to discuss with government representatives the country’s current status and issues of foreign policy.