Sheikh Farid El-Beji, president of the ‘Dar al-Hadith al-Zaytouniyah Association’, a group of Sharia scholars, is known for his moderate political stances and his fierce opposition to the Wahhabi and Salafi thought and streams. He is a prominent critic of the current Tunisian government and the policies of the Ennahda Movement. He is known by the moniker ‘Sheikh of the secularists’.
Sheikh Farid El-Beji, president of the ‘Dar al-Hadith al-Zaytouniyah Association’, a group of Sharia scholars, is known for his moderate political stances and his fierce opposition to the Wahhabi and Salafi thought and streams. He is a prominent critic of the current Tunisian government and the policies of the Ennahda Movement. He is known by the moniker ‘Sheikh of the secularists’.
Q: Your support for the General Union of Tunisian Workers’ initiative and your demand for the dissolution of the government headed by Ennahda made you several enemies. You are now accused of being the “Sheikh of secularists”. How do you respond to these accusations?
A: We adopt neither the secular thought nor the Muslim Brotherhood thought and we are not members of any party. As evidence, we were not present in the “legitimacy” gathering in the al-Kasbah Square called by the Ennahda Movement and we were not present either in the “Leave” sit-in in Bardo Square, called for by the opposition, although we received invitations from the two sides to participate in their sit-ins.
Our stances have angered some of the secularists and all of the Ennahda supporters. Those who say we are secular are the secularists, because the ruling party is not a religious party nor is it an Islamic party. It is a civil political party par excellence. All the rulers, who led Tunisia since independence, used religion, starting with Bourguiba, followed by Ben Ali, down to the present government. The opposition too has used religion. They all want to use us. To them all, we say NO thousands of times.
Q: The Salafi movement accuse you of being a secret agent for foreign countries. You have received death threats. Why do those who are considered as supporters of this stream hate you so much, even though you are a Muslim cleric?
A: The accuse me of being a secret agent for the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, although I am known for my daily attacks on Saudi Arabia because it is fuelling terrorism. We are against military coups as we have said, over and over again. We do not support the stance of Skeikh al-Azhar (ED: leader of Egypt’s highest religious authority), although we respect him, because he should be neutral. Moreover, we do not support the current sheikhdom of the al-Zaytounah because it has completely sided with the ruling party, although it should have distanced itself from political parties and played a peace and reconciliation role – not a polarization role.
To those who accuse us of secularism it is sufficient to respond by saying that the Dar al-Hadith was supportive of the literal use of the word ‘Sharia’ in the constitution because we don’t see that it contradicts the principles of a civil and democratic state at the moment. It does not contradict with the freedom of belief and the partisan independence of the state institutions. As evidence, Ali bin Abi Talib, the Commander of the Faithful, was the head of the state when he had a conflict with a Jew and Jews were a minority. The judge made a ruling which favoured the Jew and which was against the head of the state.
In fact, we are against the Wahhabi concept of Sharia, but the Zaytounah concept of Sharia is a modern concept which combines tradition and modernity. As evidence, the founder of sociology, Abdul Rahman Ibn Khaldun, was a Zaytouni thinker. The first person to codify the judiciary in human history was Abu Ishaq Ibn Abdul-Rafea, and he too was Zaytouni thinker.
When the al-Zaytounah scholars criticized statutory law, which contains thousands of laws, they only chose 10 issues. This is proof that the Tunisian judiciary is based on Sharia in its entirety, with very few exceptions. Thus, those who accuse us of secularism are themselves secularists. We are not secularists.
Q: You are known for your anti-Wahhabi statements. Do you consider that this school of thought is the official sponsor of terrorism in the Arab and Islamic countries?
A: Our rejection of the Wahhabi thought is the result of science, in-depth studies and field experience with them in the Middle East. We became confident, with no place for doubt, that they are penetrated by intelligence agencies to create destructive chaos in the Arab and Islamic countries in order to justify foreign interventions. We are not fighting certain persons, but rather responding to a particular extremist thought. It is a priority to warn against the greatest threat. We do not want the ‘Afghanization’ of Tunisia nor its ‘Somalization’ by followers of jihadi Salafism. We also do not want Tunisia to become a royal dictatorship like Saudi Arabia, under Wahhabis claiming scientific Salafism.
We also do not want a Stalinist state. We want a civil Muslim democratic state, because Tunisia never has been, and never will be, a secular state.
We differentiate between secularism and atheism, because if every secular Tunisian is an atheist, the first to be accused of atheism is the Ennahda Movement because it is a secular movement. Accordingly, we should not divide the people of Tunisia into Islamists and secular atheists. If we continue to do so, we will destroy all Tunisian society. We are all Tunisians.
Q: You were removed from the Imamate (ED: a council of religious leaders and clerics). Was your criticism of the government the reason behind your removal?
The Ministry of Religious Affairs refused to appoint me a year and a half ago, although my file fulfils all the needed conditions. The reason is because I fight the Salafists. But when I called for the resignation of the government, the Ennahda people and the Salafists united to remove me from the Imamate on Friday. We have chosen to be advocates of peace not chaos in the houses of God.
Q: Do you consider the rise of an Islamic government a divisive element among Tunisians and a threat to national unity?
A: The cause of the breakup of national unity is both right-wing and the left-wing extremism. And this applies to politicians as well as intellectuals. There are extremists in both sides, while we tend to be moderate. We say that there is enough space for all parties and we do not have any other option than dialogue, making compromises, and accepting others regardless of their doctrinal or ideological backgrounds. We have warned against this sharp bipolarity and we have said that it will lead to security breaches and chaos.
Q: But today we have reached a phase of bloodshed. Who is to be blamed for this situation, especially knowing that political assassinations are being committed under the cover of religion?
A: This has been said many times in the last year and a half. I alerted those in power and the opposition of the consequences of reaching this critical junction but politicians only listen when it is too late.
In fact, we always said that clerics should not be party members. They should keep the same distance from all parties. We also demanded that they keep this distance by not nominating themselves and by not participating in elections. But when the public affairs of the country deteriorate and when there is chaos and a danger of failure, it is the duty of religious scholars to lead the reconciliation and bring all Tunisian politicians and non-politicians together.
Our proposal for the recent crisis was a moderate one. The constituent assembly is a red line which should be respected. However, its tasks and its term should be restricted in order to preserve the sanctity and the principles of democracy.
At the same time, we demanded the resignation of the government and called for its replacement with a government of technocrats because we do not want its supervision of the elections to be contested. In order to defuse tensions, we did not demand to keep everything as it is, similar to what the government wants, and we did not demand to overthrow everything, similar to what the opposition wants.
Reconciliation requires the two sides to make compromises. Our initiative came before the initiative of the General Union of Tunisian Workers, which has adopted its content, and thus we support it. We see that the only alternative to this initiative is chaos which would cause a serious security and terrorist breach. Everybody will be a loser if this happens.
Q: How do you see the way out of the current government crisis especially with the continuation of the “Leave” sit in and the opposition insistence on overthrowing the government and the dissolution of the National Constituent Assembly?
A: There can be no solution to the economic and social crisis if there is no political and security stability. Our priorities are focused on comprehensive reconciliation and full national unity.
We said that it is important to dissolve the government and appoint a technocrat-qualified and non-partisan government to oversee the rest of the transitional phase in order to be able to cross the remaining part of this period with the least possible social and economic damage. In a way which allows us to spare the blood and the lives of the Tunisian people and put an end to terrorism.
Q: You are the president of the Dar al-Hadith Association. What are the goals of this association?
A: This association was founded in May 2011 by a group of Shariah scholars, who have studied religious science in and outside of Tunisia.
It is a cultural, scientific, educational and reform association which contributes to the success of the revolution and the transition path. We (the founders) have called people to join us and thousands of activists from all the provinces of the Republic became supportive of the association.
The association has branches in the big provinces and foreigners come to us to join our education courses. The association has been visited by many guests and personalities from inside and outside Tunisia – such as Qays Saeed, the constitutional law professo. Professors from universities in Paris, Libya and Algeria. We even had visitors from Oxford University and from other countries of the world such as Elhabib Omar from Yemen.
The association implements many media activities and holds conferences on public affairs to spread awareness and to reform and unite Tunisian people.
Q: Does the Association have a program or a plan to combat the Wahhabi ideology adopted by the Salafists, who, according to official sources, it has been demonstrated are involved in what is going on in the al-Shaanbi Mountain (ED: eight Tunisian soldiers were killed in the region in an ambush on July 29) and in the political assassinations?
A: Our influence is a moral influence on society. We are very well accepted by the Tunisian people because we reject the extremist Wahhabi thought. But the problem is with the Ministry of Religious Affairs, because it did nothing to stop those licenced or unlicensed speakers who use Tunisian platforms to incite violence and takfeer (ED: declaring a person to be a disbeliever). For this reason we insist on the formation of a technocratic government because the Ministry of Religious Affairs is accused of sponsoring terrorism.
