Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Tunisians Speak Out in Favor of Secularism

There was a positive sign yesterday in Tunisia as thousands turned out in a march "for secularism and religious tolerance."
"Our planning for the march for the defence of secularism is aimed at calling for co-existence among Tunisians of different religions and ideological and intellectual convictions," Tarek Sliti told Magharebia.

Sliti added, "We want to say to all people that Tunisia today can accommodate everyone, including secularists, Muslims, atheists, Jews and Christians."
This is not the kind of statement you hear too frequently in Muslim majority nations. They even included atheists. Naturally not everyone was on board.
a woman wearing the niqab stood at the opposite street carrying a banner denouncing secularism because "it calls for atheism". She was joined by other anti-secular protestors, who debated the issue with secular marchers.
But even with the counter-protesters and the calls to maintain Islam as the official religion, it's encouraging that a reported 15,000 people would take part in such a march in favor of secularism.

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