(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - Several thousand men and women demonstrated outside the Tunisian parliament on Friday to demand the inclusion of Islamic law in the North African country's future constitution.
"The people want the application of Allah's sharia", "Our Koran is our constitution", "No constitution without sharia," and "Tunisia is neither secular nor scientific, it is an Islamic state", cried the protesters, drawn from different Islamist movements.
Some men climbed on the roof of the building and unfurled a banner that read: "The people belong to Allah."
"We are here today to peacefully demand the application of sharia in the new constitution. We will not impose anything by force on the Tunisian people, we just want that the people are convinced of the principles," said Marwan, a 24-year-old trader.
An engineer, who refused to give his name, added: "A Muslim should live under the tenets of Islamic law. The secularists would have one believe that Islam chops off the hands of thieves but... one must study Islam. The West has failed."
The protest was timed to coincide with parliamentary negotiations over a new constitution in a country long considered one of the Arab world’s most secular.
One of the organisers who handed in a petition said “more than 200 Islamic organisations are backing the move.”
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