Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0372/03729.txt

Text File | 1991-06-25 | 38KB | 583 lines

$Unique_ID{COW03729}
$Pretitle{289}
$Title{Tunisia
Chapter 2D.   Religious Life}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{LaVerle Berry and Robert Rinehart}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{islam
religious
islamic
muslim
god
society
government
tunisia
bourguiba
movement}
$Date{1986}
$Log{}
Country:     Tunisia
Book:        Tunisia, A Country Study
Author:      LaVerle Berry and Robert Rinehart
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date:        1986

Chapter 2D.   Religious Life

     In the mid-1980s virtually all Tunisians who professed the Muslim faith
were Sunnis adhering to the Malikite rite. The only exceptions were about
40,000 Berber-speaking Ibadi on Jerba Island, who kept austere Kharidjite
beliefs (see Islam and the Arabs, ch. 1). In recognition that Tunisia was a
Muslim country, the preamble to the Constitution opened with the invocation
"In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful" and proclaimed that
the Tunisian people were resolved "to remain faithful to the teachings of
Islam" Article 1 stated that Islam was the official religion of the republic,
and a subsequent provision required that the chief of state be a Muslim. Since
independence, however, the Tunisian government has been decidedly secularist
in its orientation, attempting to divorce Islamic practices from the country's
political life. The Constitution also guaranteed free exercise of conscience
to all Tunisians and allowed all residents freedom of worship.

     The Christian community, composed mainly of Roman Catholics among French
and Italian expatriates, numbered less than 30,000 in the mid-1980s. Before
independence, there were about 300,000 communicants residing in Tunisia, and
many churches were converted to mosques after their departure.

Tenets of Islam

     In A.D. 610 Muhammad (later recognized as the Prophet), a merchant
belonging to the Hashimite branch of the ruling Quraysh tribe in the Arabian
town of Mecca, began to preach the first of a series of revelations granted
him by God through the angel Gabriel. A fervent monotheist, Muhammad denounced
the polytheistic paganism of his fellow Meccans. Because the town's economy
was based in part on a thriving pilgrimage business to the shrine called the
Kaabah and numerous pagan religious sites located there, his vigorous and
continuing censure eventually earned him the bitter enmity of the town's
leaders. In 662 he and a group of followers were accepted into the town of
Yathrib, which came to be known as Medina (the city) because it was the center
of Muhammad's activities. The move from Mecca, or hijra, also known as the
hegira, marked the beginning of the Islamic era and of Islam as a force on the
stage of history. The Muslim calendar, based on the lunar year, thus begins in
622. In Medina, Muhammad continued to preach, eventually defeated his
detractors in battle, and consolidated both the temporal and the spiritual
leadership of all Arabia in his person before his death in 632.

     After Muhammad's death his followers compiled those of his words regarded
as coming directly from God into the Quran, the holy scriptures of Islam;
others of his sayings and teachings and precedents of his personal behavior,
recalled by those who had known him during his lifetime, became the hadith.
Together they formed the Sunna, a comprehensive guide to the spiritual,
ethical, and social life of the orthodox Sunni Muslim.

     The shahadah (testimony, creed) succinctly states the central belief of
Islam: "There is no god but God (Allah), and Muhammad is his Prophet." This
simple profession of faith is repeated on many ritual occasions, and recital
in full and unquestioning sincerity designates one a Muslim. The God preached
by Muhammad was not previously unknown to his countrymen, for Allah is Arabic
for God rather than a particular name. Rather than introducing a new deity,
Muhammad denied the existence of the many minor gods and spirits worshiped
before his ministry and declared the omnipotence of the unique Creator. God
is invisible and omnipresent; to represent him in any visual symbol is a sin.
Events in the world flow ineluctably from his will; to resist it is both
futile and sinful.

     Islam means submission (to God), and one who submits is a Muslim
Muhammad is the "seal of the prophets'" his revelation is said to complete for
all time the series of biblical revelations received by the Jews and the
Christians. God is believed to have remained one and the same throughout time,
but people had strayed from his true teachings until set aright by Muhammad.
Abraham, Moses, and Jesus (known in Arabic as Ibrahim, Musa, and Isa,
respectively) are recognized as prophets who were inspired vehicles of God's
will. Islam, however, reveres only the message as sacred, rejecting
Christianity's deification of the messenger Jesus. It accepts the concepts of
angels, the Day of Judgment, general resurrection, heaven and hell, and
eternal life of the soul.

     The duties of the Muslim form the five pillars of the faith. These are
the recitation of the shahadah, daily prayer (salat); almsgiving (zakat);
fasting (sawm); and hajj, or pilgrimage. The believer is to pray in a
prescribed manner after purification through ritual ablutions each day at
dawn, midday, midafternoon, sunset, and nightfall. Prescribed genuflections
and prostrations accompany the prayers, which the worshiper recites facing
toward Mecca. Whenever possible men pray in congregation of the mosque with
the imam, or prayer leader, and on Fridays are obliged to do so. The Friday
noon prayers provide the occasion for weekly sermons by religious leaders.
Women may also attend public worship at the mosque, where they are segregated
from the men, although most commonly those who pray do so at home. A special
functionary, the muadhdhin, intones a call to prayer to the entire community
at the appropriate hour; those out of earshot determine the proper time from
the sun.

     In the early days of Islam the authorities imposed a tax on personal
property proportionate to one's wealth; this was distributed to the mosques
and to the needy. In addition freewill gifts were made. Almsgiving, however,
although still a duty of the believer, has become a more private matter. Many
properties contributed by pious individuals to support religious and
charitable activities, or institutions, were traditionally administered as an
inalienable endowment, called habus in the Maghrib.

     The ninth month of the Muslim calendar is Ramadan, a period of
obligatory fasting in commemoration of Muhammad's receipt of god's revelation,
the Quran. Throughout the month all but the sick, the weak, pregnant women,
soldiers on duty, travelers on necessary journeys, and young children are
enjoined from eating, drinking, smoking, and sexual intercourse during
daylight hours. Those adults excused are obliged to endure an equivalent fast
at their earliest opportunity. A festive meal breaks each daily fast and
inaugurates a night of feasting and celebration. The pious well-to-do usually
do little or no work during this period, and some businesses close for all or
part of the day. Because the months of the lunar calendar revolve through the
solar year, Ramadan falls at various seasons in different years. Though a
considerable test of discipline at any time of year, a fast that falls in
summertime imposes severe hardship on those who must do physical work. Frayed
tempers and poor work performance, concomitants of the fast, were an early
cause of concern to the Bourguiba regime.

     At least once in their lifetime all Muslims should, if possible, make the
hajj to the holy city of Mecca to participate in special rites held there
during the twelfth month of the lunar calendar. The Prophet instituted this
requirement, modifying pre-Islamic custom, to emphasize sites associated with
Allah and with Abraham, founder of monotheism and father of the Arabs through
his son Ishmael (Ismail). Once in Mecca pilgrims from all over the world,
dressed in white seamless garments ca