Non belief in Tunisia


Interesting article about atheism in Tunisia, excerpt below. As best I can tell it’s not an automatic death sentence like it is in many Islamic countries. But it’s frowned upon to some degree, I guess not that different from the US in some ways:

Tunisia Live — Many Tunisian atheists admit that they cannot be open about their beliefs. “I talked to my parents about it and my father was very understanding, but my mom thought that this was just a phase,” said Y.S. “I debated the subject with my father, but I cannot tell my grandma, who is so religious and spiritual, that there is no afterlife, no heaven or hell. I don’t want to hurt her.”

“It is not that I am afraid,” she continued. “I mean I wouldn’t get stoned, but I worry about my parents. If other people hear that I am atheist and a girl who is studying abroad, they would attack my parents and hurt them emotionally by saying that they didn’t raise me well.”

Following the 2011 revolution, atheism became a salient topic in arguments between political parties in Tunisia. Those affiliated with the communist party are often labeled as atheists by their ideological opponents, Islamists. While the conflict has primarily remained one of words, the case of Ghazi Jebri and Jabeur Mejri sparked a controversy when they were convicted of blasphemy.

Comments

  1. StevoR : Free West Papua, free Tibet, let the Chagossians return! says

    @ ^ Nathair : All natiosn are imaginary constructs really, As Isaac Asimov wrote :

    “The Earth should not be cut up into hundreds of different sections, each inhabited by a self-defined segment of humanity that considers its own welfare and its own “national security” to be paramount above all other considerations. There are no nations! There is only humanity. And if we don’t come to understand that right soon, there will be no nations, because there will be no humanity.”
    – Isaac Asimov, Pages 419-421, ,‘ I Asimov : A memoir’, Bantam Books, 1995.

    Tunisia was where they first filmed Star Wars if memory serves.

    A whole other world if not quite a galaxy away. Stoning should be long ago too – yet gets carried out today.

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