Tunisia's president announces a new constitution without Islam as an official religion.
Tunisian President Kais Saied confirmed on Tuesday that a draft constitution to be put to a referendum on July 25 will not enshrine Islam as the "religion of the state".
The move is part of his efforts to reform Tunisia's political system, which has been accused of being corrupt and chaotic but is also seen as a manoeuvre to sideline rival Islamist parties.
"Tunisia's next constitution will not mention a state with Islam as its religion, but an umma (community) with Islam as its religion," he told reporters at Tunis airport.
"The umma and the state are two different things," he said.
Saied delivered the draft on Monday, a key step in his effort to overhaul the Tunisian state after he dismissed the government and seized sweeping powers to rule by decree last July, moves opponents called a coup.
Sadeq Belaid, the legal expert who led the constitution drafting committee, had told Agence France-Presse in an interview this month that he would remove any reference to Islam from the new document in a challenge to Islamic parties.
His comments, partly referring to Saied's enemy Ennahdha, an Islamist-inspired party that has dominated Tunisian politics since 2011, sparked a heated national debate.
The first article of Tunisia's 2014 constitution defined the North African country as "a free, independent and sovereign state. Islam is its religion and Arabic is its language."
Source: iefimerida.gr
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