Promoting Peaceful Coexistence and Common Citizenship

[ 58 ] — INTERRELIGIOUS DIALOGUE FOR PEACE — Sahnun, the great scholar born in the year 360 of the Hijri era, no scholar was allowed to preach or to serve at any mosque unless he studied at Zaitouna or Kairouan universities. This illustrates that religious discourse has been, since the beginning, under the supervision and control of the government. This was intended to guard against a non-or- ganized, chaotic discourse such as the one we are currently witnessing in the Muslim world. On another note, Tunisia was one of the first countries to abolish slavery, in 1846, sixteen years before the United States. They accomplished this peacefully and without vio- lence. Soon after, a series of significant meetings took place to establish the modern basis of a civilized society that would reject violence and extremism. In order to achieve this, legal institutions and constitutional magazines and journals were established so as to preserve legal discourse. We know that those who follow Sharia should aspire to freedom. That’s why the Shawaf , was established. To conclude, I would ask why Tunisia has one of the highest percentages, in any country, of Da’esh followers and fighters. However, I would say that those are not Tunisians — they were not born and raised in Tunisia. These individu- als were raised in remote areas and then came to our country to try to occupy certain positions in it, but were unable to achieve their goals because of opposition from civil society. In conclusion, I say do not forget the words of Abraham, Moses and Jesus — that we should be united and not divided under religion.